No white marlin qualify at Open

money awarded.

“That’s going to be hard to beat as a world record,” Motsko said.

The top prize went to the Floor Reel crew whose team member John Ols, of Laytonsville, Maryland, caught a 640.5-pound blue marlin.

It beat the record set last year by Jeremy Duffie, of Bethesda, who won $4.5 million for the Billfisher team, for his 77.5-pound white marlin.

Ols caught the blue on Friday. Two other billfish were brought to Harbour Island Marina on Friday, the only other possible billfish contenders brought to the scales the whole week, but neither met the minimum size qualifications.

Thomas Kuranoff caught a blue marlin on No Limit, but it was only 112 inches, falling short of the 114inch minimum length for blues. There is no minimum weight for blue marlin.

Skirt Chaser angler Chris Wisemiller brought a white marlin to the marina that met the minimum 70inch length, but the fish, at 67.5 pounds, failed to meet the 70-pound minimum.

“That’s (fishing) one thing that we can’t control, obviously. I mean, it was good to some people. Some boats did real well; other boats did not,” Motsko said.

“The fish that were here were all pretty much smaller fish, but who knows, a big one can show up any time,” he added.

Last year, the tournament introduced a new swordfish calcutta, but for the second year in a row, no angler entered a qualifying fish.

Despite the lack of billfish contenders, many were released over the five-day tournament.

On Monday, 378 boats fished, with anglers releasing 226 white marlin, and 18 blue marlin, according to the Open’s species count page.

Just 22 boats fished Tuesday, and only one white and one blue each were caught and released.

Wednesday had 383 boats out, resulting in 198 white and 14 blue marlin released.

Sixty boats went out Thursday. The day ended with five white marlin released and one blue.

On Friday, 357 boats fished and 127 white marlin were released, along with 14 blue marlin releases, according to the species count.

As for the rest of the billfish species, 10 sailfish and one spearfish were released throughout the tournament. One swordfish was boated but not taken to the scales since it didn’t meet tournament minimums, Motsko said.

Of Floor Reel’s $6.2 million payout, $1,886,800 came from the Level P heaviest white marlin winner-takeall added entry level calcutta. It cost

$20,000 to join and had 107 entered boats.

Rules state that if no qualifying white marlin are caught, this payout falls to the heaviest blue marlin.

The Level WM heaviest white marlin winner-take-all calcutta made up $1,548,600 of the team’s winnings, an entry level that cost $10,000 and had 175 boats entered.

Another $1,050,200 of Floor Reel’s cash award was from the Level E heaviest white marlin calcutta. There were 237 boats entered into Level E, and it had a $5,000 entry fee.

First place for tuna went to Brian Stewart, of Shady Side, Maryland, who brought a 265-pound bigeye to the scales Friday that he caught aboard Reel Tight. The crew earned $1,019,441 for the tuna.

Chris Mentlik, of Street, Maryland, caught a 247.5-pound bigeye tuna Wednesday on the boat Fishlik. He held first place until Stewart’s bigeye was weighed. Mentlik and his team won second place and $366,662 for the bigeye.

Game Over angler John Zimmerman, of Boyton Beach, Florida, took third for the 221.5-pound bigeye he caught Thursday. The Open awarded Game Over $169,929.

Rusty Shriver, of Leonardtown, Maryland, finished in fourth place with a 215-pound bigeye tuna that he caught on Ro Sham Bo Thursday, earning the group $1,753,478.

The money came from the new $50,000 AC heaviest white marlin winner-take-all calcutta, which had 37 boats entered. Since no white marlin qualified, and no angler who placed above Shriver had bought into the added entry level, he won the

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