Two White Marlin To Share Enhanced Prize Money

Two White Marlin To Share Enhanced Prize Money
Two White

OCEAN CITY — Two white marlin caught on back-to-back days last weekend will share portions of the recently enhanced prize for the annual milestone after a little geography issue with the first kept it from claiming the entire package.

Last Friday, the Fish Whistle out of Indian River caught the first white marlin of the year off the coast of the resort, ending a long wait for the annual milestone. As a result, the Fish Whistle claimed the Ocean City Marlin Club’s $5,000 prize for the first white marlin of the year caught by a club member.

However, because the Fish Whistle departed from its home port at Indian River, the recently enhanced $10,000 prize including $5,000 from the town and another $5,000 package put together by area businesses was still out there for some lucky angler or boat crew. That happened the very next day when angler David Taylor on the Reel Buster out of Sunset Marina landed the first white marlin of the season by a vessel fishing out of Maryland.

The white marlin was caught and released around noon last Saturday while Taylor and the Reel Buster crew were fishing in the area of the Poor Man’s Canyon. As a result, Taylor will receive the town’s $5,000 prize and the $5,000 prize package put together by a coalition of local businesses. The prize money will be awarded to Taylor at the Mayor and Council’s regular session meeting on July 3.

“What a fantastic way to kick off the start of our summer with the first white marlin catch of the season,” said Mayor Rick Meehan this week. “It’s a symbolic start to the fishing season and hopefully a sign of many more for our offshore fishermen this summer.”

After all of the drama surrounding the annual prize this spring, which resulted in the enhanced package for the first white marlin of the season, ironically two boats will share portions of the winnings. During budget deliberations in April, the Ocean City Mayor and Council briefly eliminated the town’s $5,000 prize for the first white marlin of the year after a couple of decades under the assumption it had lost its luster and no one really cared much about it anymore.

When the word got out that the town had decided to eliminate the annual $5,000 prize, the backlash from the resort’s fishing community was immediate. A coalition of various businesses called Fishermen United of Ocean City rallied to put together its own prize package for the first white marlin of the season to fill the void totaling $5,000 to go along with Marlin Club’s annual $5,000 contribution if the angler is a  club member.

A week later, after receiving a blitz of phone calls and emails from the resort’s fishing community, the Mayor and Council voted to restore the town’s annual $5,000 prize for the first white marlin of the season and moved the contribution to the tourism department’s budget. With the town’s $5,000 prize restored and the business community’s $5,000 contribution left intact, the angler who caught the first white marlin of the season now stood to win at least $10,000 and the total could swell to $15,000 if the angler was a Marlin Club member.

Because the Fish Whistle is an Ocean City Marlin Club member boat, it has earned the club’s $5,000 prize. However, because the Fish Whistle fishes out of Indian River Inlet, it is not eligible for the town’s $5,000 prize and the Fishermen United of Ocean City’s $5,000 prize package. That $10,000 will now go to Taylor and the Reel Buster.

The irony of the situation was not lost on Marlin Club President Franky Petolina, who explained the club allows boats to be members if they fish out of Indian River Inlet, just as most of the major tournaments do such as the White Marlin Open and the Mid-Atlantic Tournament, for example. Petolina said only about three or four club member boats fish out of Indian River Inlet so the odds of one of them catching the first white of the season were slim.

In fact, Petolina said when he and Scott Lenox from Fish In OC sat down with Tourism Director Donna Abbott to discuss the marketing and promotion of the first white marlin prize after the town restored the money and moved it to the tourism department, Abbott asked about the possibility of a boat out of a different port making the catch.

“I don’t think it’s ever happened before,” he said. “The odds of that happening, with the majority of our club members fishing out of Ocean City are very long.”

Petolina said the tension had been building around the fishing community for weeks as the first white marlin of the season was still out there. He said the warm water that brings the prized billfish has been 100 miles or more offshore or just out of reach for most boats. However, there was a short time last week when a warm water patch moved in to about 84 miles offshore and some boats reported seeing whites but no catch was made.

Last year, the first white marlin of the season was caught on May 27, the second earliest day ever. Historically, the first white marlin catch and release of the season has occurred most often in a window of five to seven days in mid-June. The latest date ever for the first white marlin occurred on July 20, 1940.

About The Author: Shawn Soper

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Shawn Soper has been with The Dispatch since 2000. He began as a staff writer covering various local government beats and general stories. His current positions include managing editor and sports editor. Growing up in Baltimore before moving to Ocean City full time three decades ago, Soper graduated from Loch Raven High School in 1981 and from Towson University in 1985 with degrees in mass communications with a journalism concentration and history.