the sportfishing universe on Mon-
day when hundreds of anglers and
thousands of spectators gather in
the resort for the milestone 40th
White Marlin Open.
lights of the summer season in
Ocean City, a kind of crescendo be-
fore the downward slide into mid-
August and the close of another
summer season. Thousands of fish-
ing enthusiasts will cram into host
Harbour Island marina each day
next week for a chance to see a
potential million dollar fish raised at
the scale. Over 300 boats typically
compete in the annual tournament,
recognized as one of the top billfish
tournaments in the world.
seawall at the Inlet to watch the pa-
rade of boats chugging out to the
canyons off the coast on Monday.
Much has changed since angler
Vince Soranson won the first White
Marlin Open with a 68-pounder way
back in 1974, but much has remain-
ed the same. The tournament gets
underway on Monday with the first of
five official fishing days and partici-
pating captains and teams of anglers
choose to fish three of the five days.
caught on the first day and hangs on
all week as challenger after chalenger
is brought to the scale. In other years,
the winning fish is brought to the scale
at Harbour Island at the 11th hour on
the tournament's last day.
ment with millions in prize money at
stake in several categories, includ-
ing, of course, white marlin, blue
marlin, tuna, dolphin, wahoo and
shark. Thus far, after a lukewarm
start, the offshore fishing season in
Ocean City has started to heat up in
the last few weeks as evidenced by
the remarkable big-eye tuna bite
during the Ocean City Tuna Tour-
nament two weeks ago. In the last
week or so, the number of reported
billfish release has spiked up and
wahoo have started making appear-
ances around the marinas as the
resort's sportfishing fleet has start-
ed to gear up for the tournament.
ory with just a single fish, a 72-
pound white marlin caught by local
angler Bill Woody on the "Blew Bay-
ou" the only qualifying white and
several years of big, fat whites duel-
ing it out on the leaderboard, and a
couple of grander blue marlin stun-
ning the crowd at Harbour Island,
Woody's 72-pound white marlin was
the only qualifier weighed over the
course of five-day tournament, es-
sentially turned into a three-day e-
vent because of book-end bad fish-
ing days on either end of the week.
whirlwind three days when just about
all of the 253 registered boats used
their fishing days, help up the rest of
the week and finished as the only
qualifier in the white marlin category.
When a couple of blue marlin weighed
came up just short of the 500-pound
minimum, that category also remain-
ed wide open. As a result, Woody and
the crew on the "Blew Bayou" were
awarded the first-, second- and third-
place white marlin money and the
blue marlin money, resulting in a pay-
off of over $1.4 million.
division, along with the blue marlin
division money, the tuna division
was perhaps the most active during
the 2012 WMO. On Tuesday, angler
Dave Dunton on the "Canyon Run-
ner" posted a 236-pound big-eye to
take over the top spot in the catego-
ry. Just a day later, however, angler
Norman Pulliam on the "Right Hook"
hauled in a 238-pound big-eye to
nudge past the "Canyon Runner"
into first-place. When the dust set-
tled, it was Pulliam and the "Right
Hook" taking first place with a 238-
pounder worth $324,516. Dunton
and the "Canyon Runner" crew took
second with a 236-pound big-eye
worth $253,825, and Christian Ma-
netta and the crew on the "Tra Sea
Ann" took third with a 229-pound
big-eye worth $24,758.
Ride" taking first-place with a 33-
pounder worth $20,648. While the
"Canyon Runner" got nudged into
second place in the tuna division, it
did hold on to first place in the
wahoo division with a 70.5-pounder
worth $28,756.
where a Maryland state record for a
scalloped hammerhead was weigh-
ed on Thursday. Angler Scott Cu-
sick fishing on the "Milling Around"
weighed a 266.5-pound scalloped
hammerhead on Thursday, taking
over the top spot in the tourna-
ment's shark division. The 266.5-
pound scalloped hammerhead took
the top prize in the shark division
and earned $5,150.
on Day 3. The 72-pounder earned Woody and the "Blew Bayou" crew over
$1.4 million.
City Recreation and Parks Department's men's summer softball league
last week.
partment's men's summer softball
season came to a close this week
with champions crowned in both
the Bayside and Atlantic Divi-
sions.
four games to win the champion-
ship, beating Greene Turtle, 29-
18, in the high-scoring title game.
clobbered the Greene Turtle, 17-
2, in the second round. Dumser's
then edged All American Mort-
gage, 10-9, to reach the champi-
onship game.
Greene Turtle went down to the
loser's bracket and clawed all the
way back to get a rematch with
Dumser's in the title game.
gage in the loser's bracket be-
fore falling to Dumser's again in
the Bayside Division champion-
ship game.
routed Peaky's, 17-5, in the title
game to claim the championship.
Team Bedhead beat Peaky's in
the second round, 20-19, to
reach the division title game.
Peaky's went down to the loser's
bracket and won two games to
earn a rematch in the champi-
onship, but fell to Team Bed-
head, 17-5, in the title game.