The White Marlin Open has been the talk of the Tackle Shop this week. 262 boats participated in this year's event. As of this writing, with one fishing day left, an 83 pound White Marlin is at the top of the leaderboard. Strangely, four individual whites weighing 77 pounds each were weighed in to fill the other top spots. No qualifying blue marlin have hit the dock. Some large tuna were weighed in as well. A 261.5 pound bigeye holds first in that category. Nice dolphin, wahoos and makos are also in the running for prize money. It will be interesting to see how things end up. In other offshore action, yellowfins continue to come from the Washington Canyon. Crews deploying baits with greensticks have racked up some impressive catches. Creative anglers using plastic squids on danglers from their outriggers also got bites. Overnight catching has been good in the Washington. Jason Massey, Matt and Wil Weidman and Drew Stuchlik spent the night there recently aboard Tighten Up. Jason said there was alot of life in the deep, with scads of squids and tinker mackerel in the lights. They hooked more than 35 tuna, some on spinning gear. The guys kept their dozen fish limit, and released the others. Most were in the 30 inch range, but they did have 4 yellowfins between 50 and 55 pounds. Bigeyes popped up from time to time in Wilmington Canyon during the week. Offshore deep dropping has been productive. Captain Chris on the Quintessa dropped in the Wilmington Tuesday for 6 big golden tiles from 20 to 35 pounds. On Wednesday, Chris went back Wednesday and brought in 15 quality gray tiles to over 15 pounds. Captains Brent and Dave fished the Wilmington Tuesday aboard Katydid to capture a yellowfin and a box full of nice blueline tilefish. Inshore bottom fishing has been pretty good. The fishin' Falgowski family joined Captain Brent for an Ocean outing on Katydid Friday, and returned with 24 keeper flounder to 5.6 pounds. Mike Schreiber fished Site 11 Friday aboard the Sea Note, and caught his personal best flounder, weighing 5.8 pounds. Captain Carey on the Grizzly hosted Joe Shaffer and family Saturday, when they put 16 flounder, triggerfish, sea bass and all the crokers they wanted in the box. Captain Les on Martha Marie had 11 keepers for his patrons while working Bay reefs Saturday. Captain Pete on Top Fin hit Ocean Reef Structure Saturday for 9 keeper flatties. Wayne Demarco drifted ner Site 11 Sunday for his limit of fluke to 5.34 pounds. A bucktail and smelt combo was the key to success. Captain Vince ran Miss Kirstin to the Brown Shoal reefs where Bill and Charlotte Hughes had their limits of both trout and flounder. Captain Brent's flukers aboard Katydid had 23 keeper flatties on Bay reef structure today. The bottomfish bonanza continues in Delaware Bay. Hardheads have been plentiful just about everywhere, but remain small for the most part. Some bigger ones can be found on heavy structure. Anchoring on reef rubble resulted in some better specimens. Captain Brian on Lil' Angler II set up on a wreck for a load of croakers to 2 pounds, porgies and triggerfish. There are spike trout, hand sized spot and kingfish mixed with croakers at most locations. Many of the kings have been respectable. Alice Harness had a 1.43 pound citation earner, Audra Babb boated a 1.17 pounder, Joe Hacay got a 1.16 pound king, and Eric Thompson landed a 1.09 pound kingfish, all on Angler headboat trips. Sam Cregar captured a 1.02 pound king on the Indian, and Jo Ann Droege decked a 1.11 pounder on the Pirate King.