Article by Capt. Franky Pettolina
Over the course of my fishing career, I have been involved with the start-up of six tournaments. Out of those six events I would deem four as successful. The other two I would politely refer to as “no longer existing” or more realistically refer to as “major flops”!!! Who even remembers the Tuna Mania Chunking Round-Up or the Ocean City Marlin Club Tuna Chunking Tournament? I know I fished them, but have no idea who won, or even how many years they lasted. I know not many. Sometimes things that seemed like a good idea just don’t pan out. After all, no matter how lucky you get when guessing the future, nobody has a crystal ball. Or if they do, they sure as heck ain’t sharing the info on social media!
One of my self proclaimed success stories is scheduled to begin the day after tomorrow (by the time you are reading this you will already know how everything played out), and right now I am pretty nervous. The target species in the Ocean City Marlin Club Memorial Day Tournament are tuna and bluefish. The tournament was originally started as a bluefish-only event. After the first few years I was overwhelmed with people asking to add tuna and mako sharks to the event as well. With such strong interest being shown, I petitioned the Marlin Club Fishing Committee for the change and it happened. Fast forward another couple of years and due to less than sensible mandates from NOAA/NMFS the decision was made to drop the mako shark category. I have been very vocal about the new mako rules on my Facebook page, so for the time being I will remain non-political here. That may change in a future column, but right now I will stay hush about them.
Anyway, as this column is being written, the sign-up for a tuna and bluefish event is about 32 hours away (for any new readers, my deadline is 11:00 AM on Thursday the week before the paper hits the streets). Until this morning we haven’t seen any tunas caught (anglers on the “Marli” put 6 in the box early Thursday morning) and the weather this weekend looks iffy. Hopefully, the tuna action will continue and thankfully, there have been good numbers of decent sized bluefish around. Will the bluefish be enough to entice enough entrants to make the tournament a success if the tuna bite doesn’t continue? Are enough people willing to gamble on the possibility of catching a tuna in what might be less than perfect conditions? I sure wish I had that crystal ball. I do have a Magic 8 Ball somewhere, or at least I used to, but I don’t think that would be much help.
Some of you may ask why I am stressing about something that is beyond my control. If enough people don’t sign up, just bag it and go on with the weekend. No big deal right? I wish it were that simple. There is a whole bunch more that goes into a tournament than just the fishing. Several months ago, things were put into motion. The first step was applying to NMFS for a tournament permit. Just in case any of you are not familiar with what NMFS is, it is the National Marine Fisheries Service. Every tournament needs a permit or NMFS will threaten to arrest and fine the organizers! I can see the hot new TV show now, “Huk is the New Black”!!! A mahi with a teardrop as my new prison tat.
With permit in hand it becomes time to promote the event. Marlin Club tournaments are promoted by brochures, print ads and the internet. This all equals time and money. Thankfully, the Club has the amazing Amanda Shick in our office. Amanda devotes countless hours to designing, acquiring and delivering our brochures. She also coordinates our print ads and all of our eblasts, hashtags, tweets, instathings and whatever else is out there. She is an ace at this stuff and we are very fortunate to have her! Love ya Mandy Sue!!!
All of this promoting has to have an end result. For the tournament entrants that means a registration party and captain’s meeting, followed by the fishing and then an Awards Banquet. It is mult-faceted. At the Club we are fortunate to have a facility to hold the events at the beginning and the end. Sunset Marina has been generous enough to host our weigh-ins for many years now so that is covered as well, but we still need volunteers to work the registration, the scales and the awards. Again, Amanda plays a big roll, and we also have the OCMC Crew (formerly known as the Auxiliary), Ed and Jack our weighmasters, Decatur Diner (our registration food sponsor), and our tireless kitchen and bar staff at the club. Our trophies are ordered well in advance. The food is ordered at the beginning of the tournament week. The volunteers have to make plans to be working the event instead of spending the weekend with their family (most of the club tournaments fall over the big summer holiday weekends too! Talk about a commitment!) And I can’t forget the folks who cover the tournaments. Someone has to take pictures and videos.
So yup, I am a little stressed. Plenty of money has already been spent. Oodles of people have pledged their time and efforts. Oh yeah, and in this tournament I have a very important charity that I want to write a fat check to at the end (www.kratzmemorialfoundation.org).
My loyal readers, you are the lucky ones. You already know the outcome. Hopefully this issue is full of fish pics and the happy winners! And if any of you are hoarding a crystal ball I will gladly pay a handsome fee to use it a few times this summer!
Capt Franky Pettolina is Co-Captain of the charter boat, “Last Call”, owner of Pettolina Marine Surveying, Inc. and multi-term President of the Ocean City Marlin Club.
