OCEAN CITY- Sandwiched between the high dollar, high profile White Marlin Open and the Mid-Atlantic Tournament, which gets underway on Monday, the resort area’s lady anglers get their turn in the spotlight this week with the return of the Poor Girl’s Open for the 23rd year.
The Poor Girl’s Open, which typically falls on the weekend after the White Marlin Open, was founded in 1994 by the late Captain Steve Harman and his wife Pam to provide a ladies-only fishing event with the proceeds donated to a local charity. In recent years, the American Cancer Society has been the recipient of choice in conjunction with other “pink ribbon” events held in and around the resort all year long.
In the last few years, the Poor Girl’s Open has raised well over $100,000 for the American Cancer Society’s breast cancer research and awareness programs. In addition to the fishing, the event includes silent auctions, 50-50 raffles, T-shirt sales and other events, all at tournament headquarters at Bahia Marina in Ocean City.
Despite its charitable overtones, the tournament is all about the fishing and the dozens of boats and hundreds of competitors take it very seriously. The tournament is a catch-and-release event with points awarded for billfish releases. There are also added entry levels for tuna and dolphin with potential winning fish weighed each day of the tournament at host Bahia Marina. Teams of lady anglers must choose to fish one of the three officials fishing days, yesterday, Friday and Saturday.
Last year, 136 boats participated in the Poor Girl’s Open, up from 96 in 2014. Similarly, 634 lady anglers competed in the tournament last year, which represented a significant increase from the 436 participants in 2014. A total of $174,250 in prize money was doled out to the winners in several categories.
When the dust settled, it was the crew on the “Reel Joy” taking first place in the Billfish Release Division with nine white marlin releases worth $89,425 in prize money. The crew on the “Billfisher” took second in the release division with eight white marlin releases and earned $23,655. The “Reel Toy” crew took third in the division with eight white marlin releases and earned $15,770. In the Tuna Division, it was angler Nora Warren on the “Maverick” taking first with a 139.8-pounder worth $15,810.
