Giant 876-pound mako wins tourney, takes Maryland record

(June 26, 2009) The 29th annual Ocean City Shark Tournament ended with excitement last Saturday when the mako Jim Hughes caught aboard the Nontypical tipped the Fishing Center scale at a whopping 876 pounds to break Frank Gaither's 25-year-old Maryland state record by 110 pounds.

"It was definitely a grand finale. You couldn't have scripted it any better," said tournament director Mark Sampson. "The whole drama of it was all so neat. The Nontypical has been wowing everyone this season."

The state record fish earned them $19,775 in prize money. The Nontypical also won the release division. The Pumpin' Hard placed second in the mako division with John Schmitz's (Westminster, Md.) 271- pounder. The fish was worth $12,033. Greg Garmin of Ephrata, Pa. reeled in a 243-pound mako aboard Canyon Crusher, good for third place and $7,242. The 152-pounder caught by John Lynch of Wilmington, Del., while on Fin-ness was fourth in the division and earned the angler $1,170.

"It was a tournament full of surprises," Sampson said. "There were a number of big makos … The second half of June you typically catch larger quantities of mako, but they seem to be smaller than those caught earlier in June."

Fifty-four boats competed in the tournament. More than $119,000 in prize money was paid out to tournament winners.

Fourteen sharks were brought to the scale (8 mako, 5 blue, 1 thresher). There were 136 reported released sharks (52 mako, 40 blue, 3 hammerhead, 33 sandbars or duskys, 1 thresher, 7 tiger).

Sampson said there seemed to be more spectators this year.

"We didn't weigh a lot of sharks, but it seemed like there was a lot of activity and a lot of fun at the weigh-ins," Sampson said.