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Fishin’ Fever was the big winner of last week’s 55th annual White Marlin Invitational, held by the Beach Haven Marlin and Tuna Club
Capt. Tom Daffin’s crew from Cape May came out $132,000 richer. Tournament director Dave Wittenborn said that among their prized catches were two big-eyed tuna weighing 202 and 175 pounds.
“They were out at the Wilmington Canyon, 75 miles offshore from Beach Haven,” said Wittenborn.
Rounding out the top 5 were Business, Beach Haven, $70,455; Kaarmaaa, Cape May, $66,526; Benita J, Beach Haven, $48,745; and One Shot, Forked River, $34,803.
The tournament ran from Aug. 14 to 17, and each of the 60 participating boats had to select two days to fish.
“Before, we ran the tournament three days and they had to pick two days,” he said. “Because we’re in the hurricane season there’s always a chance of rough conditions from storms. They may be well offshore, but they can churn up the ocean and create rough conditions so we thought it would be good to give the crews a chance to pick two days out of four days instead of three.”
Wittenborn said that because of likely rough conditions created by Hurricane Ernesto for the weekend, all but one boat selected Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for fishing.
“Shark Byte was the only one out there Saturday,” he said. “They caught a blue marlin and ended up winning $30,000 so it was a worthwhile day.”
But the tournament had more than fishing on the agenda. Since 2021, the club has added a street fair element called “Marlinfest,” located at the end of Dock Road. It featured vendors and live music and was held Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
“This festive atmosphere with vendors and restaurants in such a high-profile location resulted in us gaining sponsorships, helping increase the purse size and drawing more participation,” said Wittenborn. “We were able to increase the purse size to $550,000.”
