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2010 RESULTS

The 2010 Downeast Maine Shark Tournament featured 26 teams from around
Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. As expected, there was no
shortage of ‘blue dogs’ patrolling the Gulf of Maine during the two
days of the tournament at the end of August, and many of these sharks
were caught and released. The tournament’s ‘minimum size’ for
keeping and weighing in a blue shark (fork length of 9.5 feet or
greater) keeps the number of blue sharks coming to the weigh-in pier
very low.

This year, only 6 sharks were brought in and weighed during the two day
event. Captain Jack Savasta and the crew of Team Snow Birds won the
tournament this year, with a large, 393 lb male blue shark. They took
home a little over a thousand dollars in cash, and a couple of beautiful
Shimano Tiagra conventional reels, which should serve them well in the
future, as well as a nice Trophy certifying them as the 2010 tournament
winners. Check out some of the lump fish that Dr. James Sulikowski and
his crew of biologists removed from this shark’s gut at the dock. They
must have been just consumed before they caught this shark, as they do
not appear to have been digested much. Dr. Sulikowski and his crew were
once again on the docks during all the tournament weigh-in times,
weighing and dissecting all the sharks that were brought in and
collecting various tissue samples as part of their data collection from
these fish.

Right behind Captain Jack was Team Madfin, weighing in a 379 lb male
blue shark, with Ryan Thayer on the rod. John Murphy and the boys from
Ten-Seven came in third place this year, weighing in a 371 lb male blue
dog, with John handling the rod. These guys always seem to have a fish
in the running every year since the tournament started! Ed Cloutier and
the gang on Fishy Bizness also weighed in a male blue shark at 303 lbs.
Team Seeking Fins brought in a 290 lb male blue shark around noon the
second day of the tournament, with Bob Brunell doing the muscle work on
the rod. Last, but never least, Captain Chis Cantera and the boys from
Team Mad Dog weighed in a 105 lb mako shark on the first day of the
tournament, the smallest, but tastiest, shark of the bunch. Steve Martin
was on the rod for this one. Maybe Captain Chris’s biggest surprise
of the tournament was when I caught up to him later in the evening after
the Run of the Mill Restaurant on Saturday night (where everyone likes
to go at the end of the tournament), and informed him that his
‘monster’ mako had won the Calcutta pool of over $2800.00!! Like
last year, all the guys who had caught the biggest fish chose not to get
into the Calcutta*the old adage ‘no balls, no glory’ would seem to
apply to tournament fishing as well!!

There was no shortage of interesting stories about “the ones that got
away” again this year. Two were particularly interesting. Captain
Steve Feinberg and the crew on Team Lone Shark have been fishing the
tournament since it began, and have consistently brought sharks to the
weigh-in over the years, particularly big makos and threshers. These
guys are the real deal. This year, Captain Steve and the boys released a
large blue shark on the first day of the tournament, and as it moved
back about 40 yards in the slick, he said there was a massive explosion,
and at first they thought they were seeing a whale completely breach out
of the water right in back of the boat. Capt Steve said this fish was
about 18-20 feet long and was so wide it was mesmerizing, and that
it’s head was to a point. The fish came out and arched and splashed
back down then came up right after a half turn and grabbed the big blue
shark. He said they were shocked at what they saw, and it was a once in
a lifetime event that looked like the videos you see of white sharks
attacking seals.

On a similar note, Captain Aaron Staam and the boys on the Luki Lil had
an interesting experience on the second day of the tournament. I was on
this boat during the tournament. Around 1:00 that day, drifting in about
450 feet of water, myself and another crew member saw what looked like a
depth charge go off several hundred yards behind the boat. We watched
and watched for a whale to surface, thinking that must have been what it
was. No whale surfaced anywhere. About 20 minutes after we were
pondering what that could have possibly been, our outermost rod went
off. This fish started taking line off so fast that at first we thought
it might be a tuna (unlikely, since we were using dead bait). The
pressure on the road was so strong that Aaron could not remove it from
the rod holder to start fighting the fish. We were getting very close to
being spooled as we got the boat started up and were backing down on the
fish to get some line back. As we backed down on it (the thing headed
right for the bottom, then proceeded to still move rapidly away once it
got there), we were finally able to get some line back on the reel and
take off some of the pressure so Aaron could get the rod out and put it
onto the fighting belt and strap on the kidney harness. For the next 30
minutes or so, this fish was basically immovable. Everyone on the boat
was excited, as we knew this fish was something special, and very, very
big. It was down on the bottom, and despite Aaron putting muscle into
moving him, it remained down there, unimpressed. Around 35 minutes into
the fight, Aaron felt the fish starting to move around on the bottom,
and no sooner had he said so than the fish suddenly busted off. There
was the obligatory screaming in agony followed by the prolonged,
mournful silence. Finally Aaron reeled in the line. We were using 20
foot, 275 lb test cable wind on leaders attached to the mono, with 5
feet of 220 lb test Malin fishing wire as the terminal leader. When we
got the line in, we saw that the 275 lb test wind on cable was busted
off about 5 feet down from the monofilament. So whether this thing
turned around and bit through it, or it was so long it was able to break
the cable this far up the line with its tail, we can only speculate.
Everyone on the boat, however, felt that this was the biggest shark any
of us had ever set a hook in. And hopefully it will be back out there in
2011, even bigger.

Thanks go out the Saco Water Commission and the Town of Saco, for once
again allowing us to use the Camp Ellis Pier. Also, thanks to Jerry down
on the pier for keeping things moving and running smoothly during the
weigh-ins. Thanks again to Peter Mourmouras and Saco Bay tackle for all
their help with procuring the Shimano Tiagra reels which we gave away to
the winners, and with helping to organize the Captain’s dinner at the
store, getting vehicles and people to help haul away sharks at the
weigh-ins, and providing material for the captain’s bags.

Finally, there is going to be a ‘changing of the guard’ for the
Downeast Maine Shark Tournament in 2011. I am apparently getting to old
and worn down to keep this up summer after summer; I’m ready to be put
out to pasture, and just fish the event. Therefore, I am handing over
the reins to some younger blood, and they are going to take them and run
with them. You will be hearing more about this in the very near future,
and I hope you all continue to fish the tournament and to have a good
time, because I really enjoy seeing everyone get together for this thing
every year; you really are a great bunch of guys and excellent
fishermen. And I plan to be there with you in 2011, but only as another
fishermen trying to land that $10,000 prize for a new state record
shark. I can hardly wait.