Last week's MidAtlantic out of Canyon Club Resort Marina in Cape May and Sunset Marina in Ocean City, Md. featured a field of 151 boats competing for a purse of $3.4 million. Rather than the big money going to the white marlin winner, a tournament-record $1,110,634 went to Larry Hesse of Fort Lauderdale and his crew on the Brielle-based Goin' In Deep as they won two categories. Capt. Chris Di Stefano of Wall, who fished aboard Frank Criscola's Crisdel from Brielle Yacht Club, said most of the winning fish came from a pocket of water in 1500 fathoms between Toms and Carteret canyons where he watched Goin' In Deep boat the first qualifying blue marlin on Thursday. Capt. Walt Harmstead then said he was concerned about dehydration and began a troll toward home that crossed the path of a rare Allison tuna (a yellowfin with extended anal and pectoral fins) which eventually scaled 184 pounds to easily take first in tuna from a 126-pound bigeye on Big Dog. The concern about dehydration was well taken since their 680-pound blue barely stood up when Let It Ride weighed  a 677-pounder -- just three pounds behind that made a difference of well over $400,000 in prize money. Capt. Ken Hager put Taylor Jean from Tinton Falls into a 72-pound white marlin on the first day, and that fish had them in line for over a million dollars until the last day when Waste Knot brought in a 75-pounder to take first and a payout of $796,509 while Taylor Jean was in the big Calcuttas and settled for a nice consolation of $217,665. Other big N.J. winners included Pat Healy of New Gretna on Viking 62 with a 72-pound tuna  that tied for third and payed off $162,837 -- while Mike Murray of Brick on Caitlin received $116,929 for his 72-pounder. For additional results  visit my blog (nj.com/shore/blogs/fishing) for last Saturday. Fluke fishing in the ocean was the best of year last week before the northeast winds arrived this week to put everyone out of business just as the season is ending on Tuesday. Fishing resumed Thursday, but the huge swell had the expected result on bottom dwellers for those who fished in poor ocean conditions. The Big Mohawk from Belmar caught some keeper fluke and a few shorts, while the Fishermen from Atlantic Highlands had a couple of keepers, "a bunch of shorts" and just a few sea bass on the change of tide before wind against tide made drifting impossible. Capt. Ron Santee will fish fluke through Tuesday before switching to porgies until stripers arrive.    Raritan Bay shouldn't have been affected by the big swell, but Tank Matraxia said it was dead Thursday as his party fished from Keyport with Capt John Contello on Just Sayin' throughout the bay as he only placed an ALS tag into one 17 1/2-inch fluke while another at 14 1/2 inches was too small to tag. Hopefully, the northwest wind will lay down the big sea and allow the bottom to settle. Contestants in the Manasquan River Marlin & Tuna Club Offshore Open hope to get their days in as the contest ends on Sept. 2 after having started on Aug. 24. Leaders before the northeast winds arrived were Paddywhack in tuna with entries of 72.75 and 62.35 pounds, followed by Lightning Shack with a 60.95-pounder. Andrea's Toy has a 57.39-pound tuna to led the small boat division, plus a 5-pound dolphin. Pepper is way ahead in releases with five white marlin.   Surface fishing held up in the ocean. The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported very good Thursday fishing for little tunny, bonito, chub mackerel, and even added some sea bass on the last day of the summer season allowing two at a 12 1/2-inch minimum. Sea bass must now be released until Oct. 22 when a 15-fish bag goes into effect though the end of the year at the same size. Bruce Vitale of Toms River had a fine fluke trip last Sunday with  Capt. Ron Safar on Rock Bottom Charters out of Total Marine in Belmar. Gene Momgibbell of Toms River and Bill Juchinewich from Fair lawn  as the boat limited with fluke to 3 1/2 pounds  along with eight sea bass off Deal.  About another 50 fluke were released. Chuck Many of Annandale and I worked hard for some stripers last Friday in the Hudson River, but released a dozen up to a 29 1/2-incher plus eight blues -- but he had a lot more action on Saturday when he took his son Tyler of Hoboken out on Ty Man from Gateway Marina in Highlands along with his fellow University of Miami classmates for variety fishing which ranged from the Rattlesnake to the Hudson. Mike Reilly of Jersey City, Ben Silverman from Detroit, Kyle Holcomb of Philadelphia, and Tom Frazel from Chicago joined Ty in catching 100 fish including 15 fluke (5 keepers) up to 7 pounds, 65 sea bass, 6 sea robins, 2 bergalls, 3 blues, 2 stripers to 22 inches, 13 porgies to 13 inches, and 4 weakfish to 26 inches. The report of the 27 1/2-inch fish that Steve Mironde of Point Pleasant weighed at Castaways Tackle ran out of the print version in last Friday's column before it could be identified as a very fine 7-pound fluke from the surf.