The 2022 White Marlin Open concluded at 9:15 on Friday with a flourish with $6,000,000 changing hands in the final few hours. Though the fishing was slow for most of the 408 registered boats, a few of the teams prospered. The bigeye tuna were the tournament rock stars until Thursday when the marlin finally posted. On day four, “C- Student” out of Southside Place, TX, weighed a 71.5-pound white marlin good for first place and a temporary grasp of $2,800,000 for angler Keeley Megarity from Houston, TX. Just before Megarity’s fish was weighed, the “Cabana,” out of Fenwick Island, DE, arrive at the scales with a 511-pound blue marlin. The blue was taken by Bill Britt from Sandy Spring, MD, to take first place as the only qualifier in that division and Britt claimed a temporary hold on $960,000 for his efforts.
However, on Friday at 6:20 PM, the “Billfisher” out of Ocean City, MD pulled up at the scale flying a white marlin-boated flag. Jeremy Duffie from Bethesda, MD turned the leaderboard upside down by weighing a 77.5-pound white marlin and moving into first place. The “Billfisher” was across the board with all the added entry skill levels and will be the recipient of a world record award for catching a fish: a staggering $4,400,000. When the dust settles and the final tallies are made Duffie’s fish will be worth closer to $4,500,000 as the fish will also pick up some money from unwon categories.
We will have a summary with the final figures for all category winners on our website tomorrow. We want to thank all our anglers and staff for running a very smooth event. We also want to give special thanks to our diehard fans who help make this the most unique tournament in the world.
