Angler catches a white marlin worth a staggering $4.5 million

At 6:20 p.m. on the final day of the five-day White Marlin Open, the boat Billfisher pulled up to the scale and angler Jeremy Duffie of Bethesda, Maryland, weighed in the winning fish that was worth a staggering $4.5 million.

Duffie’s white marlin weighed 77.5 pounds and took the lead away from Keeley Megarity, the Houston fisherman who had caught a 71.5-pound white marlin the day before. Megarity on the boat C-Student took $197,000 for second place.

The actual payout for Duffie was $4,536,926, a world-record payout for one fish, surpassing the previous record of $3.2 million from last year’s White Marlin Open.

The tournament, based in Ocean City, Maryland, drew 408 boats that vied for $8.6 million in total prize money. The fishing was slower than usual this year with only 151 caught-and-released billfish compared to the average of 800.

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The White Marlin Open is primarily a catch-and-release tournament with the biggest payouts reserved for the heaviest marlin. Tournament director Jim Motsko told Sport Fishing that the event averages a 97 percent release rate.

Bill Britt aboard Cabana weighed in a 511-pound blue marlin, the only qualifier in that division, and took home $1.2 million. But it was the Duffie catch that made the biggest headlines.

“My brother and I have been fishing out of Ocean City since we were born,” Duffie told Sport Fishing. “Winning has always eluded us, now we’ve done what we wanted to do.”