The weather broke perfectly for the 26th MidAtlantic Tournament at Cape May plus Ocean City, Md. as 144 out of 151 boats ran to the canyons for the first day of the contest with a purse of $3,143,360. The eclipse of the sun didn't bother the fish, and Taylor Jean from Brielle made the most of it as Jay Monteverde boated a 72-pound white marlin to take the lead for over $2 million before Jamie Diller of Stone Harbor brought in a second place white on Canyon Lady that was exactly at the contest's 65-pound minimum. That reduced the potential for Taylor Jean to $1,196,009. Just as at the White Marlin Invitational and the White Marlin Open, there was no bigeye to dominate the tuna category -- and no eligible blue marlin. There were lots of almost identical yellowfins, with a 72-pounder on Viking 62 from New Gretna just ahead of  a 70-pounder on that boat plus another on DOA Sea. There was only one wahoo, but it was a good one that might stand up at 67 pounds on Contrail. After hardly any dolphin were caught at the previous contests, there were many brought to the scales. With no minimum, dolphin as small as 3 and 4 pounds were weighed. Yet, that category is still wide open as the biggest was only 16 pounds by Dale Creamer of Hackensack on Ditch Digger. The first day totals were 133 whites (8 boated); 8 blue marlin (two weighed, but under the 400-pound contest minimum); 20 tuna; 14 dolphin; and the one wahoo. Release leaders included Intuitions with six whites, and Krazy Salts with a blue and four whites.