checked one off the bucket list

I spent the 1st week of August checking one off the bucket list and Livin My Dream. Back when I was a young lad my extended family would vacation at the ocean. And if your from Maryland you know that means a vacation at Ocean City Maryland specifically. The trek is about 2 1/2 hours (with good traffic) south east from Baltimore which was a world away when I was a youngin. My folks didn't have a lot of money like some of the family but my Uncle Jack had a travel trailer just north of the city in Pirates Cove, Fenwick Island Delaware. As a kid that trailer park was my adventure land. I Got to spend the week in a tent next to the trailer and could ride the old Schwinn anywhere in the park I wanted which usually meant to what we called the bulkhead. I would crab and fish for hours on little Assawoman bay. During those weeks spent down the ocean a favorite pass time of my father and grand father was to watch the fishing boats come in and weigh their catch in the White marlin Open. I never missed a chance to go and was amazed as a child with the massive fish these men would bring in to weigh and delight in the hoopla the crowed would make. For a 10 year old it seemed like a epic adventure to head off shore after tuna, marlin and shark. Pops would always tell me you better make a bunch of money if you wanna play that game. As the years would go by I would fish with my pops on the Angler head boat for sea bass and flounder and dream about heading further out for the larger game. It wasn't until I was 17 that I got the chance to head offshore. I had spent most my life fishing the Chesapeake and its tributaries, so when one of my uncles fishing partner fell ill I jumped at the chance to head to the deep blue. It wouldn't be Ocean City that I would head out of but Oregon Inlet NC. I took my first trip on Captain Paul Lester Osprey and was immediately addicted. I caught my first white marlin, mahi, and tuna on that trip. In the years since I had spent a small fortune chasing fish offshore but I had never until this year had a chance to fish in that tournament that I dreamt about as a kid. My old boss has his own addiction and a boat to feed it and he needed another person for his crew so I got the invite. If you never seen the White marlin Open it is a spectacle. Boats from all around the country and a few from over seas converge on the city chasing big money payouts for big fish.

Heading out to pre fish last day of heading out in the light

Our ride 51' carolina custom

Lobster boat back on the right got some nice ones before I left

sunrise day 1

prepping dredge rigs

ballyhoo lined and ready

looking down the dock

sign in day

the scales where you want to end up

some big money

nice dinghy

jigging em up

more big money

dredges on deck waiting for lines in

ready to rock

my mahi sammich

2 releases

dock after cleaning the boat

all lit up

We pre fished on Saturday and did some prospecting. Sunday was spent checking rods lines and rigging baits. You use a ton of baits in a tournament. Monday morning heading out I had nerves like my 1st big football game in high school. We left the dock at 4am and slid pass the lines of on lookers lining up the inlet. It was a rough ride out 75 miles south to fish the Norfolk canyon we got bounced and slammed most of the day with not much to show for it. Then at 2 pm in a driving rain a white marlin hit our teaser and the mate had him hooked in an instant and I got the rod in the chair for my first tournament white marlin. It was a quick fight to the leader and we were now measurering our first fish. It was a fat marlin that after several heart breaking measurements would be 1 inch short of the required 67". It would have easily made the 70 lbs minimum. That would be the only catch of day one though we raised a couple more they would not take our bait. We took an ass whoopin on the ride home in building seas and about 8 miles out of port engine troubles had us bobbing like a cork. It would be 3 hours of drifting in the ocean waiting for a tow boat and a long slow tow back in by midnight. Quite an adventure for my first day in the WMO. Tuesday was spend recovering from our ride repairing the boat prepping baits and drinking more beer than I should have. Which led to a rough start on day 2 of fishing on Wednesday. We headed south again this time in better seas but the fishing would suck for us and we put up our only skunk of the week. Thursday brought more prep and  more hanging out at the docks taking it all in though less beer than Tuesday, I'm getting a little wiser. Friday would be our final fishing day and some good numbers had been put up in the tournament we new we had to beat 86 lbs to win and with that tall order we went all in and headed 90 miles north to Spencer canyon. The ocean was as flat as a farm pond and we made good time to the fishing grounds. Lines in at 8:30am and by 9 we had our first marlin of the day on. We landed a small white that only measured 60" but we just new there would be more to come. After raising a blue and a few whites and watching 3 boats next to us hook up with small whites we headed away from the crowd and schoolie fish. Unfortunately all we would find is a small mahi that would make a good sandwich. That 86 lbs white marlin would be beaten just not by us however I was still all smiles thinking about how my pops and grand pops would be ragging us for not catch bigger fish if they were still around. Can't wait for next year need to get to them scales.