Tournament Recap - By Mark Sampson
The way I saw it from beneath the scales of the 29th Annual Ocean City Shark Tournament.
This year's event proved that there is no such thing as a
"usual" tournament. The first day was plagued by such nasty weather
that only five out of 54 registered boats elected to fish. Surprisingly enough,
despite the rough seas and intermittent bouts of light to heavy rain each team
that went out managed not only to come back alive but also caught a few fish!
At the scales Thursday evening we weighed a 152-pound mako and some
bluefish from the FIN-NESS, a 116-pound blue shark from the MAKO ME, and
bluefish from the
Friday's weather was much more cooperative and allowed tournament teams the opportunity to get offshore and do what they do best - CATCH FISH! First to the scales that evening was the boat SHARK TOOTH with a magnificent 236-pound mako. Seeing the size of the fish, many of us immediately assumed that it would likely hold top honors in the Mako Division. And it did (for less than an hour) until the next mako was brought in aboard the CANYON CRUSHER which pushed the numbers up to 243-pounds! At 6:20 the PRESS TIME gave that fish a run when they weighed their 223-pounder, but 243-pounds is a tough mark to beat!
But as they say "it ain't over until it's over". No sooner had the PRESS TIME pulled away from the dock than the PUMPIN' HARD rolled up to the scales and hung a beautiful 271-pound mako! And again most of us thought we were looking at what probably would be the winning fish; of course there was still one more fishing day to go.
Between makos the crowd also saw the PLAYMATE come in with their 116-pound blue shark, the MR.DUCKS weigh a 41-pound bluefin tuna, and the TRIPLE THREAT and the MACKENNA JANE II weigh in some bluefish.
As exciting as Friday was, no one could have imagined that it was just the sage-setter for the grand finale on Saturday! Anglers enjoyed beautiful weather on the last fishing day of the event and as they began to filter into the weigh station the crowd got a glimpse of what kind of luck the teams had. One of the first boats to the scales was the CAPT.IKE II with an awesome 227-pound thresher shark that took over the first place spot in the Open Division, then the TREE HUGGER weighed a 107-pound blue shark, followed by the HOO'S YOUR DADDY with a 126-pound blue. Saturday also had a number of teams clawing for the bluefish prize money and we weighed blues for the TUNA BOX, FULL LOAD, GAME OVER, and STRESS REEL-IEF.
An hour or so into the weigh-ins we got a satellite phone call from Capt. Marty Moran on the MARLIN MAGIC to confirm that it would be within tournament rules for the boat NONTYPICAL to transfer a big mako they caught into his boat for the ride home. Seemed that the fish was too big to be loaded into the boat that caught it! We gave Marty the OK to make the switch and announced to the crowd that they might be in for something very special before the show was over that night - that proved to be an understatement!
Immediately following a short,
powerful and very wet squall that blew over the dockside activities and ended
with a magnificent double-rainbow, the NONTYPICAL pulled up on one end of the
dock and the MARLIN MAGIC pulled up at the other. Even before the fish was
hoisted out of the boat the crowd went nuts! The mako was probably the largest
anyone in attendance had ever seen anywhere! To try and make a long-story-short,
Jim Hughes while fishing with his friend Capt. Terry Layton had captured
himself an 876-pound (11-1/2 foot) mako that not only would take first place in
the Mako Division but also set a new
It was a great climax to an incredible three days at the weigh-ins! At least that's the way we saw it - from under the scales!
And if you think that was something - just wait until next year !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks to all who participated, helped-out, and came to watch this years tournament.
Please go to our "Final Results" page to see the details of who-won-what in this year's event.
The scales will be open for the 30th Annual Ocean City Shark Tournament at 3:30pm on June 17, 18 & 19, 2010