Florida Man Wins $2.8 Million for 76.5-Pound White Marlin

OCEAN CITY, MD — When the final seconds of the White Marlin Open ticked down Friday night, an angler out of Florida earned more than $2 million and the rights to tell one whopper of a tale.

Phil Heasley took the biggest prize in the 43rd annual tournament’s history. Bagging a 76.5-pound white marlin, Heasley was the only one who managed to snag a white marlin big enough to meet the tournament’s qualifying standards.

Heasley’s Kallianassa, which is homeported in Naples, was one of nearly 330 boats to compete in the 43rd annual tournament.

Tournament officials said the “stars had to be aligned” for Heasley and his Kallianassa to take the big $2.8 million win. First off, he had to enter every white marlin division. Secondly, he had to bag a qualifying white marlin. Thirdly, he needed to have the only qualifying white marlin to win that much. All three feats were pulled off.

The fish that are weighed in for the tournament — 28 white marlin total were weighed in last week, in addition to others — are filleted, and most of the meat is donated to a local food bank in Maryland.

The marlin wasn’t the only whopper of a catch in the tournament either. New Jersey's Damien Romeo, Rich Kostzyu and Brian Suschke landed a 236.5-pound bigeye tuna from Romeo’s boat Hubris. The catch netted a $767,091 payout.

The White Marlin Open is billed as the world’s largest and richest billfish tournaments. Now in its 43rd year, the tournament was staged in Ocean City, Md., Aug. 8-12.

Over the course of the tournament, 329 registered boats reeled in a record 1,412 billfish, the tournament’s website explains.

To read more about big winners in this year’s tournament, check out this related story about the New Jersey trio's whopper of a catch.

Photo courtesy of the White Marlin Open