Bill Sharpe waited more than 53 hours to find out what his fish was worth. When the scales at Harbour Island Marina finally closed on Saturday night, the 80-pound white marlin he had landed on Thursday afternoon was worth $3,503,891.54.
Sharpe, of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, was fishing aboard Mister Pete, a boat based in nearby Charleston. The fish hit the scales the moment they opened at 4 p.m. on day four, and nothing over the two remaining fishing days came close to displacing it. According to WGMD's day-four report, Sharpe said the marlin was the first bite of the day.
That is the shape of the White Marlin Open. A single fish, caught in the first minutes of a six-day tournament, outearned everything else in a field of 334 boats competing for roughly $9.9 million.
The 53rd edition was the first run over six fishing days rather than five, and the expansion showed at the dock. Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan told the Baltimore Sun the tournament remains the anchor of the resort's summer.
"It is one of our legacy events and the majority of our local businesses will tell you that WMO week is typically their busiest week of the year," Meehan said.
He added that the extra day compounded the effect. "Now with the addition of Marlin Fest at the inlet and an extra day of fishing the impact has become even greater," Meehan said. "It is truly a family event with all ages gathered around the docks hoping to see that next big fish reach the scales."
Scott Lenox, writing for FishinOC, noted a first in tournament history: for all six days, there was a boat waiting at the scales when they opened at 4 p.m.
The economics of the event are stranger than the leaderboard suggests. James Hood of Charleston finished third in the white marlin division with a 70-pounder, ten pounds behind Sharpe, and took $1,818,546.84 - more than five times the $360,721.49 that second-placed Kevin Howell of Queenstown, Maryland collected for a 71.5-pound fish aboard Reel Hunter. Entry into the optional prize pools, not raw weight, decides who gets rich.
John Wardlaw of Brielle, New Jersey managed the rare double, winning both the tuna and wahoo divisions aboard Gray Fox of Mantoloking. His 179-pound bigeye was worth $1,018,653.29 and his 69.5-pound wahoo added $72,380.50.
Kelly Weber of Vero Beach took the blue marlin division aboard MaxBet with a 607.5-pounder worth $1,271,797.04 - the only blue marlin to qualify all week. Ryan Jones of Welcome, Maryland won the dolphin division with a 45-pounder aboard Today's The Day, worth $22,602.20. The swordfish division finished empty.
One boat drew more attention than its results deserved. Michael Jordan's 80-foot Catch 23 released five white marlin and a blue marlin across Wednesday and Thursday but never brought a qualifying fish in, running out of fishing days on Friday. Last year Trey "Cricket" McMillan took nearly $405,000 aboard the boat with a 71-pound white marlin. Whether Jordan himself was aboard this week was never confirmed, though Baltimore Sun reporting noted the sightings and the memes that followed.
Seventy-nine boats were still eligible on the final day, and tournament officials framed the closing session as a genuine coin-flip. "By now, they know where the fish have been caught, giving them a small edge in their luck," officials said in a Friday update. "There have been many dramatic finishes over 52 years, and the 53rd could produce another. Both the crowd and current winners will be watching the scales until the end."
In the end there was no late drama. All four leading boats held.
For the captains who chase this event, that hardly dulls it. Jon Duffie, a fixture of the Ocean City fleet, described the pull of the weigh-in to the Sun before the tournament began. "It was always my dream, growing up, to be able to captain a boat that brought a white marlin in to the scales at the White Marlin Open," Duffie said. "It's a little bit surreal. We've been very fortunate over the past years in the tournament."
