Beach teams topped in the 11th hour

It had been a long week of fishing and waiting, anxious to find out if their top fish would hold up in the 48th annual White Marlin Open out of Ocean City, Md.

On the 444-team tournament’s first day, Mike Atkinson, fishing on the Fender Bender (both out of Virginia Beach), caught an 82.5-pound white marlin that stood to bring the team about $5 million if it held up. On the same day, Chris Perry on the Mama C – also both out of Virginia Beach – caught a 559.5-pound blue marlin that would have brought the team about $800,000.

But on the evening of Friday’s final weigh-in, both were bumped from their leading roles.

Ocean City, Md., boat Sushi came in with an 85.5-pound white caught by Maryland angler Butch Wright to send Fender Bender to second place. Sushi won $3.2 million, while Fender Bender still sailed away with $1.8 million.

Jupiter, Fla., boat Seven, with angler David Cash came to the dock with a 775-pound blue that won the team $1.1 million. Mama C’s second-place finish earn the team $240,000.

Seven also won the tuna division and another $1.2 million on a 137-pounder caught by Lawrence Morejon.

Editor’s note: The two Virginia Beach teams could not be reached as of late Friday night and it’s not a good idea for me to cut and paste tournament website pictures on my site. I’ll try to follow up in the next few days.