Getty Image / Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post
The 2024 White Marlin Open kicked off on Monday with some massive tuna being caught but the real fireworks started on Tuesday when two blue marlin weighing over 789+ pounds hit the scales back-to-back *and* a qualifying white marlin weighing 77.5 pounds was weighed and that fish is currently looking at a $4,174,447.50 payday if it holds on.
Despite the 77.5-pound white marlin being the most valuable fish landed so far in the 2024 White Marlin Open, it was the blues that stole the show.
One fish came in at 789.5 pounds which blows away last year’s winner which was a 640-pound blue but this year it won’t be so easy as the fifth largest blue marlin in White Marlin Open history was weighed at 897.5 pounds. This marked the first time in the history of the White Marlin Open fishing tournament that two blue marlin weighing over 750 pounds were weighed on the same day.
Check out this absolute behemoth of a fish:
@white_marlin_open One of the Five LARGEST Blue Marlins seen at the scales in WMO History!🤯🐟 #whitemarlinopen2024 #whitemarlinopen #oceancitymd #oceancitymaryland #oceancity #billfishtournament
Here’s another angle of this enormous blue marlin coming to the scales:
The 897.50 pound blue marlin was caught by the ‘Stone Cutter’ vessel and it is currently looking at a payday of $547,343.35. The 789.50 pound blue marlin weighed by ‘Bobojo’ is looking at a $473,336.65 paycheck if those weights hold on.
In the tuna category, ‘Blue Runner’ weighed a 220.50 pound yellowfin tuna on Day 2 which is currently good for $1,074,447.50. But it is the 77.50 pound white marlin caught by ‘Waste Knot’ out of North Carolina that is leading the field for the highest potential payday. If it holds on, that fish will be worth $4,174,447.75.
To qualify at the White Marlin Open, white marlin must be longer than 70″ and weigh over 70 pounds. Last year, the only white marlin that made it to the scales was a fish that was longer than 70″ but only weighed 67.5 pounds so there was no qualifying white marlin and the biggest payday shifted to the blue marlin which won a whopping $6.2 million!