Seventy-nine boats went out this morning.

That is all that is left of a 334-boat fleet, and when the scales at Harbour Island close at 9:15 tonight, the 53rd White Marlin Open is over and roughly $9.9 million gets handed out.

Friday was a grind

Two hundred thirty-seven boats fished yesterday — the second-biggest day of the week.

Twenty-one of them came back with something to weigh.

That is the number that tells you what the last two days have actually been like out there. Nine out of ten boats spent a full day offshore, ran home, and had nothing for the scales. Not because they did not find fish — because the fish they found were not the right fish.

Fourteen tuna came across, from 50.5 pounds up to 84. Good fish, none of them anywhere near the 179-pound bigeye the Gray Fox put on the board Wednesday.

Three white marlin were boated. One qualified. Kevin Howell of Queenstown, Maryland, fishing aboard the Reel Hunter out of St. Michaels, put it on the scale and moved into second place.

Three mahi came in and one qualified at 40.5 pounds, good for second in that division. One wahoo arrived and also took second.

A lot of second places. No new leader.

What $3.6 million looks like when it moves

Here is the part people outside this sport never quite believe.

When Bill Sharpe’s 80-pound white marlin hit the scale Thursday aboard the Mister Pete and the jumbo screen flashed the number, the crowd came apart — and approximately $3.6 million in projected prize money changed hands in that instant.

The Bull Pen out of Charleston had gone into Thursday with about $5.6 million in projected winnings on James Hood’s 70-pound white marlin. When Mister Pete’s fish landed, Bull Pen dropped to second and their projection fell to $2,038,872.60.

Mister Pete now leads the white marlin division with projected winnings of $3,598,443.40.

And here is the wrinkle that makes this tournament what it is: Bull Pen is still in line for a serious payday. Every Added Entry Level is its own separate competition. A boat can lose the lead and still cash, depending on which levels it bought into before the first bait went over.

That is why boats stack forty-five entry levels. And it is why nothing is actually settled until the last fish is weighed.

Today: 79 boats and one shot each

Most of the fleet is out of days. The seventy-nine boats fishing today are spending their third and final one, and they know exactly what they need.

Eighty pounds in the white marlin division. That is the number.

Every crew out there right now that raises a white is going to have the same ninety seconds — get it to the boat, get a look at it, and decide. Almost every one of those fish is going back in the water. That is how the whole week has gone, and it is why 723 whites were released in the first four days alone.

But it only takes one. A boat sitting in nowhere at 3:29 this afternoon can back into Harbour Island at six o’clock and take three and a half million dollars off somebody.

That has happened here before. It will happen again.

The last night

The scales open at 4:00 PM for the final time and run to 9:15. Free, open to the public, Harbour Island Marina at 14th Street and the bay.

If you go to one weigh-in in your life, make it a closing night. The dock will be packed, the leaderboard is live on the big screen, and every boat that comes up that channel could be the one.

We have been here all six days.

See you on the water.