Rumson boat leads MidAtlantic tournament with 599-pound blue marlin

As Wednesday closed with three days in the books at The MidAtlantic tournament, the storyline has been the blue marlin; so many blue marlin that this year's competition between 211 skilled and well outfitted sportfishing crews may break a record.

A spokesperson for the tournament, held in Cape May and Ocean City, Maryland, said they've had 49 blue marlin caught, with 46 released, so far. The tournament record, including catch and release, is 68 blue marlin, set in 2021.

The lead blue marlin as of Thursday morning, was landed on Peter Chersia's boat Shark Byte, out of Rumson. They put the collar on a 599-pounder that could be a big payday if it holds. They have to make it two more fishing days.

Last year, Mantoloking-based Deadicated rode off into the sunset with a check worth $1.1 million for its winning blue marlin in this high stakes big game contest. This year the total pot is over $6.5 million. The tournament concludes Friday.

More: fishing up the northern Monmouth County shoreline. The fleet is stopping on fish working up the line off Long Branch, Monmouth Beach, Sea Bright and Sandy Hook. Capt. Dave Riback on the Queen Mary at times was fishing on schools of smaller 2- to 4-pound bluefish but then would get on top of schools 6- to 12-pound fish. It's been all jig fishing on AVA lures with or without tails, or similar.

The fluke boats drifting the ocean are picking fish consitently in shallow water out to about 80 foot depths. Capt. Ryan Bogan on the Jamaica II said they're getting a fair amount of bites and netting keepers but he would always like to see more go into the coolers. One of his regular sharpies Michelle Baybay landed her three-fish fluke limit on Wednesday.

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