The White Marlin Tournament is the oldest and most prestigious of the American sea angling tournaments. This tournament is very rich in prizes, the first of which rewards the best White Marlin catch with a check of several million dollars.

A crowd of fishermen, aboard the most beautiful Sportfishing boats rush to Ocean City in August...

The USA has a series of very special sea angling competitions.

The White Marlin is the most famous, founded in 1970 on a fishing ground favored by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In these tournaments, crews enter their boats and pay an entry fee of several thousand dollars per boat, depending on the type of boat and the contests they wish to enter. Multiply that by 408 (the number of registered boats in 2022) and you get a prize pool of more than 8 M USD.

This prize pool will be used to finance the organization of this tournament, but also the bonuses paid to the boats.

And there are lots of bonuses, some of them in seven figures, and it is these bonuses that ensure the success of this kind of tournament.

The tournament offers a dozen of them, based on the fish caught (white marlin, blue marlin, tuna, swordfish...).

From four o'clock in the morning, the boats can start to reach the fishing zones of their choice within a limit of 100 NM. The fishing starts at eight o'clock in the morning. 

The fastest and most powerful boats can have an advantage here as the fishing area is free within 100 NM. The fastest boat reaches the zone while taking care of its return time, fishing stops at 4 pm. 

It is precisely to take part in this kind of competition that the American Sportfishing is designed. Each year, a fleet of Hatteras, Viking, Bertram and other Scout are part of the party and compete with each other.

In all cases, the weighing is done between 4:00 pm and 9:15 pm, after this time, the catches are not counted for the prizes.

The prizes are the object of a fierce competition. It must be said that with more than 4 million dollars for the biggest white marlin, 1.2 million for the biggest blue marlin or the biggest tuna.

The rules of catch are draconian, the fisherman must not benefit from any external help during the fight. When millions of dollars are involved, how can we be sure that the rules are respected and that the participants are honest?

By using a lie detector! Each participant accepts the idea of being subjected to such an examination in order to validate, or not, the conditions of the capture. The tests take place very frequently.

Business is business...