If you enjoy offshore fishing, an opportunity to participate in the White Marlin Open based out of Ocean City, MD, is a “bucket list” item. As the largest billfish tournament in the world, it attracts both serious and recreational fishermen from much of the east coast of the United States. The 42nd annual iteration took place August 3-7 with 307 boats entered and a prize pool over $3.8 million.
I was fortunate to be invited along with eight others to fish on
Free Spool, a 42 foot Topaz based out of Annapolis.
Free Spool is owned by Keith Fraser. Many fishermen know Keith as the owner of the Alltackle stores in Annapolis and Ocean City and the
alltackle.com website for fishing and boating gear. Keith assembled a team of both experts and not-so-skilled (author included) anglers to enjoy the scenery, energy, and comaraderie of this world-class event. In addition to Keith and me, our crew included Dave Smith (executive director of the Maryland Saltwater Sportfishing Association), Brice Worthington, Dale Bennet, his son Jon, Jeremy Bender, Mark Rothenhoefet, and Sean McCarthy.
The focus of the fishing and largest cash prizes are for the elusive white marlin, the smaller cousin to the blue marlin. A white marlin must be over 67 inches and over 70 pounds to qualify for weighing. The vast majority landed are smaller and released. Smaller cash prizes are also awarded for other species. Fish not released are kept for the crew or donated to the Maryland Food Bank. Lines can be in the water from 8:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m., and fishing must be within a 100-mile radius of the Ocean City inlet buoy.
Bucket list items are never free, I have come to learn. Keith convinced his crew to chip in for entry fees, bait, food, modest amounts of beer and tequila, and diesel fuel. A typical day is a three-hour run from 50-70 miles out in the morning, trolling all day, and a three-hour run back to the dock. For the buy-in contribution you also earned the right readily to take orders, and at times, to receive necessary but friendly verbal abuse (such as, “Reel faster!,” “Hold this,” “Clean up that,” “Watch out for that hook,” “Watch out for the gaff,” “What did you do that for?” and “Where is the knife?”).
If this wasn’t enough, back at the dock after more then 13 hours on the water, you also got to help clean the boat and gear and rig bait for the next day. But it’s all worth it.
What were our cash rewards? Well none for us this year, but you just wait until next year. The top prize for the largest white marlin at 94 pounds was $1,180,613. Yes, for just one fish. Being a sport with no glass ceiling, a female angler landed the winning white marlin. The tournament record of 99 pounds has stood since 1980.
The second-place white marlin at 79 pounds earned a mere $1,006,247. Other top payouts included a 551-pound blue marlin ($778,728), a 200.5-pound tuna ($399,209), a 46.5-pound mahi mahi ($25,222), and a 45-pound wahoo ($33,646). That is the drama and draw of this tournament. A winning fish can be caught by an angler on a multi-million dollar, 90-foot Viking with a professional crew that fishes 300 days per year. Or it can be caught on a more modest recreational boat manned by a group of friends who get together to fish from time to time.
Despite each angler on
Free Spool achieving a negative impact on retirement savings, we hope to do it again. We docked with some of the highest end fishing machines money can buy. These are real works of craftmanship that are beautiful just to admire. Nobody was injured (despite a TV flying off the wall on a pounding three-hour ride out one morning).
We caught dolphin, released a white marlin, and had lots of knock downs to get our adrenaline pumping. We made fresh ceviche and dolphin steaks cooked four ways. We saw lots of whales up close. We listened to good music. We saw a beautiful sunrise and sunset each day. We made some new friends. Bennett caught his first white marlin and took the obligatory jump into the oily water at port holding a white marlin catch flag. We pushed our bodies and slept well. Best of all, some of us checked one off the bucket list!
by Greg Walker