The White Marlin Open: Ocean City's Big Tournament

The White Marlin Open is one of the largest billfish tournaments in the world, and its weigh-in is at Ocean City Inlet. Its founder’s first event in 1974 drew 57 boats and 150 anglers and paid $20,000. This is how it grew, drawn from the tournament’s own history and one news report.

Fifty years

Founder Jim Motsko held the first White Marlin Open in 1974. By 2022 it drew 408 boats and more than 3,500 contestants, and it had awarded over $8.6 million. At the 50th Open in August 2023, John Ols won with a 640.5-pound, 118-inch blue marlin aboard the Ocean City boat Floor Reel. The prize was $6.2 million, reported as a world record for a fish catch.

We give no 2022 top-prize figure here. Two sources disagree on it, $4.53 million and $4.45 million.

Why it is remarkable

The tournament invites anglers to donate their catches, and it describes itself as the largest supplier of protein to Maryland food pantries each year. That claim is the tournament’s own and we have not checked it.

Connection to the waterway

Boats weigh their daily catches at the inlet, the same area covered in the Ocean City inlet and piers guide. The tournament fishing itself is offshore, from boats, and is not something a pier or shore angler takes part in. The inlet is where shore anglers can watch the weigh-ins.

The inlet and the offshore fishery

The tournament’s fishing happens offshore, but its weigh-in is at the inlet, where shore anglers work year-round. According to the Ocean City tourism site, inshore anglers find flounder, trout, bluefish and black sea bass, and the Route 50 bridge pilings hold flounder, bluefish, croaker, tautog, triggerfish and striped bass. A March 2026 report said some striped bass were taken around the inlet on bucktails and soft plastics, and that tautog were taken on offshore wrecks and reefs.

The tourism site lists piers at the Route 50 Bridge, the Ocean City Fishing Pier, Inlet Park, the Third Street and Ninth Street piers and Northside Park. Third Street Pier and Northside Park are free-license areas. Fishing from the Route 50 bridge requires a bridge net, and you cannot fish from the Route 90 bridge, but you can fish under it by boat.

Rules for the beach and the rocks

The inlet rocks are slippery and the currents are strong. Public beaches are closed to fishing from the Friday of Memorial Day weekend through September 30, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Fishing must stay 50 yards from people on the beach. These details come from a tourism site, so confirm piers, hours and the bridge-net rule with the city or DNR.

What anglers can take from it

If you plan to visit during the tournament in August, expect crowds around the inlet and check parking and access ahead of time. The event is a spectator draw as much as a fishing one. More stories from Maryland waters are in the Dock Tales index.

Sources and caveats

This tale uses the White Marlin Open’s 50th anniversary post (May 3, 2023) and a CBS Sports report (August 13, 2023). We used only these two, and we did not check the winner, weight or prize against the tournament’s own results page. Confirm those before this story goes live.