(June 19, 2015) The Ocean City Marlin Club’s 36th annual Small Boat Tournament, for vessels 34 feet long and smaller, will take place this weekend.
Registration for the competition will begin today, Friday, at 6:30 p.m. at the Marlin Club, located on Golf Course Road in West Ocean City. A captains’ meeting will follow at 8 p.m. The tournament is open to Marlin Club members and nonmembers.
Participants will fish from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., either Saturday or Sunday, June 20-21. Anglers can participate in the inshore or offshore divisions. They also have the option to compete in both.
The inshore division includes categories for flounder, sea bass, tautog, bluefish, rockfish and shark.
Offshore division categories include tuna, dolphin, shark and billfish release. There is a $500 bonus award for the heaviest flounder.
Weigh-ins will take place Saturday and Sunday from 3-6:30 p.m. at Sunset Marina in West Ocean City.
An Eastern Shore-style crab feast and awards banquet is scheduled for Sunday from 6:30-9 p.m.
The entry fee is $250 per boat to fish offshore or inshore. Five banquet tickets are included in the fee. To fish inshore one day and offshore the other, the cost is $500 and includes 10 banquet tickets. Added entry-level calcuttas are available for each division and cost $100, $200 and $300. The $200 offshore billfish added entry level is winner takes all.
For more information, call the Marlin Club at 410-213-1613 or visit www.ocmarlinclub.com.
Forty-nine boats carrying approximately 245 anglers of all ages competed in the Marlin Club’s 35th annual Small Boat Tournament last year. A total of $17,290 was paid out to tournament winners.
“A fair amount of fish were weighed … I don’t think it could have gone any better,” Bill Regan, tournament co-director, said after the 2014 event. “It was a great tournament.”
Regan said there was a good mix of participants, from young children to adults.
“Some people that fish now started fishing this tournament when they were kids,” Regan said. “Some of them have been fishing this tournament 15-20 years straight. That’s really cool.”
