The wait finally ended Saturday night for captain Michael Tickle and his crew at the White Marlin Open.
Waste Knot’s 77.5-pound catch early this week finished atop the tournament’s white marlin category when the scales closed Saturday night and earned the North Carolina boat the top prize, estimated at nearly $3.7 million.
Ven Poole, a Raleigh, North Carolina resident, reeled in the white marlin — the tournament’s first white marlin catch since 2022 — at about 8:44 a.m. Tuesday. Then the waiting began as the tournament’s 317 other boats fished off the Ocean City, Maryland, coast in a quest to unseat Waste Knot.
No one did, and Waste Knot, listed from Raleigh in its tournament registration, ended a three-year streak of Ocean City boats claiming the tournament’s top prize. The tournament’s web site listed Waste Knot’s prize money at $3,699,630.67.
The 51st annual White Marlin Open — billed as “the world’s largest and richest billfish tournament” — featured more than $8.5 million in prize money, and was extended from five fishing days to six because of inclement weather from the remnants of Hurricane Debby. Boats were permitted to fish three days.
“Hurricane Debby tried to put a damper on things, but the quality of fish and the competition was outstanding this year,” tournament coordinator Andy Motsko said in a live video announcing the final results Saturday night.
Waste Knot already had fished its three fishing days by Thursday, and waited as 17 boats fished Friday and 62 hit the water Saturday.
Billfisher, based in Ocean City, finished second in the white marlin category with a 76-pounder and earned more than $1.7 million.
The blue marlin category didn’t top the money list, but three boats brought in fish tipping the scales at more than 780 pounds each.
Stone Cutter, of St. Augustine, Florida, will earn $520,000-plus as the winner with an 897.5-pounder, followed by Moore Bills (Ocean City) with an 894-pounder worth $420,000 and BoBoJo, based in Manteo, North Carolina, with a 789.5-pound blue marlin worth $112,000.
Blue Runner, of Point Pleasant, New Jersey, is in line for $1.1 milliion as the winner of the tuna category with a 220.5-pound catch. The Right Place, a boat based in Mount Pleasant, New Jersey, was the early overall tournament leader, but its 166.5-pound bigeye tuna Monday did not finish among the top three even in its category.
Catch 23, a boat owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and based in Jupiter, Florida, won the dolphin category with a 32.5-pound catch on Tuesday, with winnings of more than $64,000. Jordan is listed as an angler on the boat, according to the White Marlin Open site, but Patrick Field, of Stuart, Florida, reeled in the fish.
On Saturday, the first qualifying wahoo was brought to the scales: American Lady (Indian River, Delaware) will collect more than $68,000 for the 70-pound catch.
The tournament awards prize money for catches of white marlin, blue marlin, tuna, wahoo, dolphin and swordfish. Before this year, it had awarded more than $105 million since 1974.
Last year’s top payout — $6.23 million — went to Floor Reel, an Ocean City boat that landed a 640.5-pound blue marlin. Floor Reel’s catch established a world record for the catch of a fish, breaking the previous record of $4.45 million won in the previous year’s White Marlin Open.
