The boat El Bendido, up from Coral Ridge, Florida, had a day on Wednesday, raising seven white marlin while fishing in the Beach Haven White Marlin Invitational, which wraps up Friday, the final tournament fishing day. Six of their white marlin were releases, but they got one in the boat that met the tournament's 68-inch size qualification. That marlin was put on the scale and weighed 54.6 pounds, giving the boat, captained by Travis Rolan, the lead for most billfish release points and heaviest white marlin.
There has also been eight blue marlin releases as of Thursday morning, so the billfish are showing up for the 57th running of this contest. In the end, 57 boats entered and the total pot with the calcutta entries is $700,115. Outside of the tournament, tuna hunters put the collar on more bluefin tuna in the general area of the Barnegat Ridge, though not directly on the ridge. Nuccio Arrigo's Opporunity out of Bayville was on the fish again on Monday, landing a 44-inch bluefin that weighed over 50 pounds on the hand scale. The small fishing party was Capt. Lou Farris, Arrigo and his dad Frank Arrigo. Farris said he went right out to the Barnehat North Ridge, but said it was void of life.
"We started trolling north and got the fish about 5 miles north of the ridge on the eastern side of the Barnegat to Ambrose shipping lane," Farris said. He ran their trolling spread through clean, blue-green, 77 ½-degree water. There was not a whole lot of bait in the area. They had two knock downs. One got away and the one they boated hit a purple and black bird chain on the long rigger. More: Maneater bull and tiger shark catches at NJ Shore beaches raise concern Capt. Nick DeGennaro took the Hi Flier out Sunday, and landed the three-fish charter limit of bluefin within 20 miles of Barnegat Inlet. The tuna were 30 to 40 pounders and caught on live squid. Inshore, the bluefish boats are working north up the coasltine out of the Manasquan and Shark River inlets and finding the fish pretty near to the beach. The action has been carrying the boats all the way up to Monmouth Beach, Sea Bright and the Highlands. Capt. Dave Riback had the Queen Mary in 30 feet of water to start on Wednesday. He found an early morning bite on small blues sizing between 2 to 5 pounds on jigs before 9 a.m. After that he moved up the coast a bit and got into bigger fish, up to 12 pounds, in front of the scenic Highlands. The boats are getting into the Spanish mackerel right with the bluefish. The speckeled fish are also coming into the range of surf fishermen. Grumpy's Tackle in Seaside Park reported a Spanish mackerel catch by Patrick Sabaniti off the local sand. The Spanish macks are hitting small lures up to about an ounce in weight. When Jersey Shore native Dan Radel is not reporting the news, you can find him in a college classroom where he is a history professor. Reach him at dradel@gannettnj.com. This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Billfish show up for White Marlin contest, Spanish mackerel on beaches