When the dust settled, Ken Hager's Taylor Jean, with a home port of North Palm Beach, Florida, was king of the mountain in the blue marlin category at the high stakes The MidAtlantic tournament, fished last week out of Cape May and Ocean City, Maryland.
On Thursday, in what was a torrid pace for the big billfish, the boat's crew reeled in a 688-pound blue marlin, simultaneously knocking Rumson native Peter Chersia's boat Shark Byte off the top spot. At the helm of the Taylor Jean was Capt. Blaine Berch. The angler was Dave McKendrick.
The winning blue marlin netted the Taylor Jean a cash prize payout of $1,477,980, the biggest payout in the tournament, which doled out $6,756,020, in winnings, the highest purse ever offered in the tournament's 35-year history.
Chersia's and his crew, led by Capt. Rich Barrett, did not go home empty handed. Shark Byte's 599-pound blue marlin, caught on Day Two of the tournament, held on for second place and earned them a cash payout of $634,145.
The tournament's participants tallied 112 blue marlin catches setting a new record for blue marlin catch and releases. It was not even close. The previous benchmark, set in 2019 was 62. Of the 112 blue marlin catches, 107 were released, and five were weighed in at the scales.
It was big week for blue marlin on the East Coast as a fishing charter in Massachusetts made headlines with a catch of a 1,260 pound blue marlin, that was brought into Falmouth, Massachusetts. The fish measured over 11 feet in length and took over 3 hours to reel in by rod and reel.
That is a titan of blue marlin by all means but its short of the all-tackle record of 1,402 pounds, 2 ounces, set back on a leap year, Feb. 29, 1992. That beast was reeled in by Paulo Amorim and brought to port in Victoria, Brazil, according to IGFA records, the keeper of international game fish records.
False albacore
Capt. Cole Riback on the Queen Mary party boat found false albacore on Saturday. Riback started up the coastline fishing for blues, which were not cooperating. He then headed east, offshore, covering a lot of water, and after doing quite a bit of scouting, stumbled on area of birds diving on a fish slick. He put the boat on a drift and soon enough his fares started reeling in false albacore and bonito.
The bluefish were back in a feeding mood early on Monday morning. The Queen Mary was on fish up to 14 pounds that were on the surface off Long Branch, creating a frenzied whitewater scene. There were small bonito in the mix with the blues. All the action was on jigs.
When Jersey Shore native Dan Radel is not reporting the news, you can find him in a college classroom where he is a history professor. Reach him at dradel@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: 688-pound blue marlin nets winners $1.4M at high stakes MidAtlantic contest