{"id":34132,"date":"2021-08-24T13:56:47","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T17:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=34132"},"modified":"2021-08-24T13:56:47","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T17:56:47","slug":"maryland-state-record-blue-marlin-caught-at-ocean-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2021\/08\/24\/maryland-state-record-blue-marlin-caught-at-ocean-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland State Record Blue Marlin Caught at Ocean City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida Man Recognized with 1,135-pound Catch at Tournament<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Billy Gerlach (behind sign, holding dorsal fin) stands with his record blue marlin. Photo by Craig Weedon. Maryland Department of Natural Resources<\/p><\/div>\n

A Florida angler is the new Maryland state record holder for a blue marlin, which he caught in an August 20 tournament at Ocean City.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Billy Gerlach, 41, of Jupiter, Fla. broke the state\u2019s 12-year-old standing record for the Atlantic Division, with a 1,135-pound blue marlin — <\/span>Makaira nigricans<\/em> — caught during the 30th MidAtlantic fishing tournament.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After a few hours of trolling 70 miles offshore near Washington Canyon, Gerlach said he \u201cwas praying for a bite,\u201d when he felt a hit.\u00a0 The battle to reel in the \u201cgrander\u201d blue marlin took more than three hours, using a Joe Yee Super Plunger for a lure.<\/span><\/p>\n

The blue marlin was officially certified by tournament weighmaster Francis Ingram at Sunset Marina.\u00a0 A Maryland Department of Natural Resources biologist confirmed the catch.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been waiting for that bite my whole life,\u201d Gerlach said. The blue marlin was donated to area food banks and parts of the fish were collected for scientific research.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The department maintains <\/span>state records for sport fish<\/span><\/a> in four divisions \u2013 Atlantic, Chesapeake, Nontidal, and Invasive \u2013 and awards plaques to anglers who achieve record catches. Fish caught from privately-owned, fee-fishing waters are ineligible for consideration.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anglers who think they have a potential record catch should download and fill out the <\/span>state record application<\/span><\/a> and call 443-569-1381 or 410-260-8325. The department recommends the fish be immersed in ice water to preserve its weight until it can be checked, confirmed, and certified.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida Man Recognized with 1,135-pound Catch at Tournament A Florida angler is the new Maryland state record holder for a blue marlin, which he caught in an August 20 tournament at Ocean City.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,11],"tags":[3857,2958,4314,3069],"class_list":["post-34132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-fisheries","tag-blue-marlin","tag-ocean-city","tag-sportfishing","tag-state-fishing-record"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34132"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34137,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34132\/revisions\/34137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}