41st White Marlin Open Returns to Ocean City

The 41st annual White Marlin Open returns to Ocean City, Maryland on August 4-8. Known as the world’s largest billfish tournament, the WMO has seen a decrease in numbers of boats registered in the last few years. The tournament registration peaked in 2006 with 449 boats competing, but only 262 competed last year. Tournament Director Jim Motsko has expressed the hope of bringing the numbers up to 300 entries this year.

Part of what makes the WMO so unique is that unlike many other tournaments that focus on numbers of fish caught or aggregate weights, the WMO focuses on the overall heaviest fish. Thus, the WMO can truly be anyone’s tournament. It just takes getting that one big fish.

And there’s big money to be won. Last year’s winning fish–an 83-pound white marlin taken by Tommy Jones of Severna Park, Maryland–earned a prize of close to $1.2 million. The largest tuna last year–a 276-pounder taken by James Czaban of Vienna, Virginia–earned more than $573,00. It’s estimated that this year more than $2.4 million in prizes will be on the line.

The WMO is also a challenging tournament, as tournament rules dictate that anglers cannot use either live bait or teasers to entice fish. Anglers cannot use line of strength greater than 130-pound test. Anglers are also prohibited from using green sticks, a trolling method that was introduced in Hawaii in the early 1980s by Japanese anglers. The green stick is an elevated pole that drags a series of drop lines with baits hanging (usually squid or flying fish) behind the boat. The method has been effective for tuna fishing in both Pacific and Atlantic waters.

Carolos Bentos describes the WMO is in detail in his classic book A Crew of One: The Odyssey of a Solo Marlin Fisherman.