Rough Seas, Dreary Weather Conspire Against MA 500 Early

OCEAN CITY- Rough seas and cloudy, dreary weather conspired to keep the action at the Mid-Atlantic $500,000, a big regional tournament based in both Cape May, N.J. and Ocean City, fairly calm for the first three days of the event, but with the conditions expected to take a turn for the better yesterday and today, big changes on the scantily filled leader board is expected before all is said and done.

After the scales closed at Cape May and Sunset Marina in West Ocean City late Wednesday evening, there were qualifying fish on the board in each category, but the number of fish weighed at both locations as of mid-week suggested the best was yet to come. A total of 163 boats, including 36 from Ocean City are competing for the event's total purse of nearly $2 million.

As of Wednesday, several Ocean City-based boats were holding on to spots on the leader board, including the 'Fin-Ness' with the third-place blue marlin, the 'Always Late' with the second-most blue marlin release points and the 'Lethal Weapon' with the second-most white marlin release points.