The good news: We fished! The bad news: The fish didn’t cooperate. That can be the nature of bigeye tuna fishing — feast or famine. Team Contender started its first day in the White Marlin Open at 6 a.m. Tuesday after laying off Monday. As we left the Harbour Island dock in Ocean City, Maryland, with our buddy boat, the Rock Doc, the day had already brightened to some degree. We were more than an hour — possibly two — behind the big sport-fish vessels. But we caught up and passed them on our way to Washington Canyon, cruising at 40 to 45 mph and getting 1 mpg. We covered the 75 miles in less than two hours — in plenty of time to prepare for lines-in at 8:30 a.m. Seas remained relatively calm all day, though clouds and light rain set in at about 9:30 a.m. and stayed. We joined a fleet of more than 30 boats and deployed ...![dsc 0005]()
