Despite a large drop in the number of boats fishing the White Marlin Open, the first day of the tournament was one of the busiest in its 35-year history. More than 40 fish hit the scales at Harbour Island, and a number of them could maintain the lead for the whole week.

The most exciting fish of the day was an 81 pound white marlin brought in on the Fish Whistle. The marlin was caught by Tom Hinkle and is worth approximately $1.3 million currently. (How's this for strange: Hinkle was my middle school homeroom teacher and baseball coach.)

Last year's winning white weighed in at 82 pounds, while 2006's winning fish was 78.5 pounds. Hinkle's fish is highly likely to stay on top of the leaderboard, but it's completely unpredictable. Bill Scott on the "CGI Finance" and John Conrad on "Da Sea" are tied for second place with 71.5 pound whites. They each stand to earn $165,000.

A number of boats didn't enter "across the board" this year, which means that they only paid their entry fee and for certain added entry levels called calcuttas. Many of these captains were targeting tuna, which can be caught closer and can give the boat a better shot of making the money. Shawn Cook onboard the "Ocean Dan-sar" leads the tuna division and is set to earn $169,000.

No sharks are on the leaderboard yet, but there is a 33.5 pound dolphin that leads that division.

The first and last days of the Open are the busiest days. Friday is known as "moving day" as the entire board often gets shuffled with desperate last-minute fish. If you didn't check out Harbour Island Marina on Monday, try to make it on Wednesday or Friday. Boats are only allowed to pick three out of the five days of the tournament to fish, and most go for the first, middle and last days. The winds should be light all week, and the seas should be calm.

The weigh-ins are from 4-9 p.m. at 14th Street every day this week. Look for the huge throngs of people stretching to catch a glimpse of that million dollar fish climbing the scales. The marina also has tents set up with people selling t-shirts and other merchandise. Of course, there is a pretty sweet marina bar as well. Tables fill up quickly, so get there extremely early.