I don’t know what could have happened to make this past weekends shark tournament, held at the Star Island Yacht Club, any more successful. Maybe a world record or something like that. Thursday, everyone was all nervous and jerky because the robot on the weather channel was forecasting 25 to 30 knot winds for the opening day. Well, it was wrong. The conditions were a little bumpy going out in the morning, but by afternoon, some were complaining about too little wind and a lousy drift.

There were however no complaints at the weigh-in, other than from guys who thought they had a winner, only to find out someone else had a better fish. On Saturday, when a lot of boats were bringing in fish that they rightfully thought might take a prize, the weigh-in lasted until nearly 8:00. There weren’t a lot of blue sharks, usually the most commonly caught shark, but there was an abundance of makos and threshers. I hung around the weigh-in for a while on Sunday, and of the dozen or so fish I saw weighed in, there was one blue shark, the 261 pounder taken on Capt Al Mott’s LIL OCEAN ANNIE, which was good enough for first prize in the blue shark division. The rest were all threshers and makos.

The over all winner, and first place mako, weighed 389 pounds and was taken on the TRUVILLE, followed by a 339 pound mako on the STOCK BOY and one of 315 pounds on the FEATHER EDGE. The second place blue shark was the caught on the FRANCINE, and weighed 209 pounds, with the third place fish of 207 pounds being taken on the ALWAYS LOOKING. Thresher sharks took all the prizes in the other shark portion of the contest. The CHLOE brought back the biggest at 357 pounds, closely followed by the GOOD GRIEF at 353 pounds. The CATCH 22 had third place with their 333 pound fish

The guys on AGAINST ALL ODDS would have had the overall winner with their 506 pound fish, except that it didn’t qualify because of a lack of teeth. Their giant tuna was taken on stand-up shark gear in an hour and forty minutes. I heard about another giant being taken as well, but don’t have the details on that one.

Last week, I was as inaccurate as the weather guy when I mentioned that the new shark regulations would only allow one shark per boat for the tournament.

While that is what the new regs allow, they don’t go into effect until July

1. The Montauk Marine Basins shark tournament, to be held this coming Friday and Saturday will also be held under the old rules of two per boat.