Hot Tuna wins

[offshorebob]

Hot Tuna won the Beach Haven Marlin & Tuna Club's Mako Shark tournament on Saturday with a brute weighing in at 186.5. The crew for the trip consisted of the boat's regular off-shore mate of Rich Stracensky, its junior mate in training Ryan Kellogg and Barry Thomas from Allentown, PA. Capt. Bob Gerkens was unfortuate enough to be near the pole when the Mako hooked up on a whole mackerel and did its first of two spectacular back flip jumps, so had the duty handling the pole to the end of the battle. The fishing team did every thing correctly, including having to fire-up the boat for a spin when the Mako near the end of the fight made an attempt to get under the boat. Two gaffs were used one being South Chatham Tackle's Swimming hook, to hold the fish for the bang stick to the head before hauling the fish on board. There were 3 other hookups for the day, one of which resulted in a release of what appeared to be a 75 to 100 pound juvenile thresher shark.

In the picture of the crew--from left to right: Barry Thomas, Rich Stracensky, Ryan Kellogg and Capt. Bob Gerkens.


one being South Chatham Tackle's Swimming hook,[/b]