Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
Another Ocean City Shark Tournament has come and gone, and after 29 years of working the event you'd think that there wouldn't be any surprises left, but that's not the way the tournament business goes - ever! Between the weather, the fishing action, the competitors, the sponsors and the spectators, there's always something going on that keeps each tournament unique and all of us on our toes.
This year’s event brought its own share of interesting twists and turns. Of course, the 876 lb. mako caught by Jim Hughes was something no one even remotely considered would happen. Adding to the uniqueness of the state record catch was that when Jim and the crew of the "Nontypical" came to the weigh station that evening, the existing Maryland state record holder Frank Gaither was in the crowd to watch the weigh-ins. It was neat to see Frank congratulating Jim and effectively passing the torch he's proudly carried since he caught his 766 lb. mako 25 years ago.
Another surprise last week was finding out halfway through the tournament that shark regulations had changed making a few species not legal to bring back to the dock just hours after I had announced on the radio to our competitors that those species (hammerheads, spinners, blacktips) could be brought in. The confusion started when a press release suggested that these sharks could not be retained in state or federal waters until July 15th. When I first heard the news I called some folks I know at NMFS and explained that we had this tournament going on and needed to know for sure if those were still legal sharks to bring back. I was told that NMFS didn't have any regulations that would close hammerheads, spinners and blacktips from recreational harvest.
I then looked at the current shark regulations on Maryland's website and saw that they said nothing about those species being closed. So I thought "good, our competitors can keep those sharks if they happen to land a potential qualifier." Later, on a hunch, I called someone I know from DNR. After he and I did a little research and fit together some pieces of the puzzle we were both surprised to find that, in order to protect coastal sharks during the pupping season in the inshore nursery grounds, Maryland and our surrounding states has closed the season on a number of species including hammerheads, spinners and blacktips. Even though those species can be landed in federal waters (more than 3-miles out) they cannot be brought back into state waters.
All that created some unneeded excitement right smack in the middle of the Shark Tournament as I scrambled to get the word out to our teams (who were all out on the ocean) that hammerheads, spinners and blacktips could not be brought in. It was definitely not the kind of surprise you want to have during such an event. Fortunately, it all worked out as the only fish in that category that had been caught were released anyway.
It was quite a surprise that so few bluefish were taken during this year's event. Traditionally the big blues have been so abundant that shark fishermen would complain about them invading their chum slicks and tearing up their shark baits. With many thousands of dollars riding on the heaviest fish, a lot of teams spent part of their time specifically targeting bluefish, but for some reason the fish just weren't out there and most anglers never encountered a single blue in two days of fishing.
Usually by this time of the year the water temperatures on the sharking grounds are in the 70's; however, but recently they seem to be stuck around 65. These lower temps have been the culprit behind all the fog we've been having and I expect it is also the reason thresher and even blue sharks are still lingering. You can bet that we were surprised to catch a blue shark last Wednesday (6/24), because usually by mid-June they've all moved back out to the deep, and as much as I like thresher sharks, I have to admit that I wish the bulk of them would go away as well. Too many of the big females have been brought in this season, and since so many of them this time of the year are carrying pups, I just don't think it's a good idea for anglers to keep the females for any reason! I was pleasantly surprised that the one brought in during our tournament was a male.
It'll be 30 years for the Ocean City Shark Tournament next year, and I suppose that if it were any other kind of event a lot of it could end up being just another year of "same-old-same-old", but when it comes to anything in the fishing business these days, there's no such thing thanks to all the good and sometimes not-so-good surprises that are sure to come along.
Mark Sampson is an outdoor writer and Captain of the charter boat “Fish Finder”, docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center.