On Friday a cold front swept through and contributed to the poor fishing. The guys managed to land 7 blue sharks, but the target species (makos and threshers) eluded them. All was not lost however since there were reports that no other boats had landed a mako or thresher either on the first day.

Here are a few pics of the guys fishing on the first day:

Brian fighting a blue shark

Buddy fighting a blue shark

Blue Shark being released at the boat

A blue shark with its mouth open

DAY 2

The second day of fishing proved to be even worse than the first, with 7 foot seas cresting to 10+ft at times, the trip out was rough to say the least. Once the sun came up the seas calmed but the sharks still did not cooperate. The guys only managed to land one large blue shark. The weather was not the only thing keeper the sharks from biting however.

At one point during the day there was a huge shark with “square shaped fins” (estimated 15 feet long) swimming around the boat. As soon as it showed up the other sharks disappeared. Buddy did manage to snap a photo but it isn’t clear enough to identify the fish… Best guesses were a basking shark or a great white shark.

Here is the shot:

Basking or great white, the world may never know!

Trolling into port, the guys did manage to catch a mahi mahi…

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Besides all the throwing up, the guys said they had fun and they look forward to fishing in the tournament again next year! Hopefully I will be able to go to…

Here are the rules for the tournament, if anyone is interested in fishing it next year…

2008 Thames River Shark Tournament (TRST)
Rules and Regulations
Any breach of any of TRST rules will result in
disqualification. Decisions of TRST committee are final.
Tournament Dates: July 25t-July 27t (Fishing: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). Choose two out
of three. Fishing starts each day at 7:00 a.m. No lines or chum are to be in the water prior to
that time. Return for weigh in by 5:00 p.m.
Lay Day: A member of the boats crew must determine a lay day at the Captains Meeting by
8:00 p.m. on July 24 or by phone the morning of departure before 5:00 a.m. The phone number
to call in a lay day is 860.614.2733.
Captains Meeting: The Captains Meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday July 24th, at
Crockers Boat Yard (CBY). All forms must be completed and submitted prior to the start of the
meeting. At this meeting, participants will be informed of the tournament procedures and
receive their captain’s bags and rules. This will also be the opportunity for participants to raise
questions.
Dockage: Boats are responsible for making their own arrangements. TRST encourages that
boats arrange necessary accommodations with CBY. Slips are on a first come. first serve
basis. Boats may leave to fish from their own marinas and are not required to leave CBY.
Fishing Regulation:
1. All sharks must adhere to federal regulations to qualify for this tournament.
2. Only Mako and Thresher sharks are eligible.
3. Anglers are encouraged to hook, fight, and bring the fish to gaff unaided by another person
(excluding gaff and leader person). Handoffs will not disqualify fish.
4. This is a rod-and-reel, hook-and-line tournament. Use of hand lines, rope, nets, harpoons or
any other means of fish capture other than rod and reel are prohibited. Harpoon darts are
acceptable for landing fish in lieu of flying gaff.
5. All fish must be hooked during designated fishing hours.
Prizes:
1. Prize money checks are payable to the person indicated on entry forms.
2. All prizes are awarded to winning boats, not individual anglers.
3. Prize amount to be determined and published at the Captains Meeting.
4. Winners are responsible for paying applicable taxes. Completion of a W-9 form will be
required upon award.
5. Any prizes over $600 will be accompanied by an IRS form 1099.
Tackle Specification:
1. The Thames River Shark Tournament will not follow IGFA rules. Other rules must be
followed and are specified herein.
2. It is encouraged that anglers do not utilize gunnel rod holders after the initial hookup. This
shall not, however, be cause for disqualification.
3. The use of firearms or bang sticks is prohibited.
4. Tackle inspection may be required at the time of weigh-in.
Weigh-in:
1. All TRST boats must weigh fish in at the official weight station at CBY.
2. Boats weighing fish must be north of the Coast Guard Dock, New London,
by 5:00 p.m. each fishing day. Late arrivals will be disqualified.
3. All eligible sharks will be judged at one point per pound. The most points
wins.
4. Any and all protests must be filed in writing with the judges within one hour
after the conclusion of the weigh-in each day.
5. After the weigh master releases a fish, its disposal is at the discretion of participants.
6. If anyone wants to have a fish reweighed, it must be done while the fish is still hanging.
After it is removed from the scale, the weight stands.
7. No mutilated fish shall be eligible for competition. Mutilation shall be defined as damage
which would impair the fighting ability of the fish.
8. The weigh master reserves the right to retain any fish deemed questionable. If retention is
refused, the fish is automatically disqualified.
9. The weigh master and the committee reserve the right to cut open any fish for inspection for
weight altering. Insertion of weights, ice, water, etc is not permitted and disqualifies the
team from further competition and forfeiture of entry fees.
Boats:
1. All boats must have the ability to fish without any outside help.
2. Fish cannot be transferred between vessels.
3. Fish must be hooked, fought, and landed from the same boat.
4. Crew size and composition is at the discretion of the captain(s).
5. One qualifying shark may be weighed per boat per day.
6. There shall be no use of aircraft of any kind for spotting or baiting fish.
7. There shall be no use of outside assistance for landing or acquiring fish.
8. Boats are to respect fellow competitors at all times. Reasonable distance should be kept
from all boats fighting fish and working an active chum slick. If a boat in the process of
fishing requests another to stay clear, the non-fishing vessel must comply.
General Tournament Conduct:
1. The official clock of the tournament will be kept on GPS time EDT.
2. Official radio announcements will be made over channel 69.
3. The Thames River Shark Tournament assumes no responsibility for the conduct or safety of
any boats or entrants. All boats are responsible for making decisions regarding weather.
Participants enter the tournament at their own risk.
4. All participants and their crews, friends, and family shall be respectful of the tournament
hosts (i.e. CBY) as well as its staff and residents.
5. Any participant whose action causes the Thames River Shark Tournaments, directors,
sponsors, employees, volunteers, or participants to incur expenses shall be held responsible
and shall reimburse said persons or entities for financial damages.
6. A majority vote of captains present at the meeting on July 24 will determine if TRST is to
proceed.
7. If TRST is cancelled due to any circumstance or in the instance that no qualifying fish are
caught, prize money to be raffled.

The next night we decided to try again and finally got everyone over for some skiing action… On the boat was Me, Kate, Erik, Jeff, Buddy, Robbie, and Jack. Out of everyone Erik was the only one to get up on the skis this day… Tubing is a different story, I could not be thrown, but everyone else took some good diggers.

Here are a couple shots from the day on the water:

Erik skiing:

Here is a shot of jeffs leg after hitting the water hard!

 Once we were done abusing ourselves tubing and skiing we decided to rig up the poles and go out for some late night catfish… We tried stink bait nuggets, hotdogs, and night crawlers, but the only thing we caught was a buzz… By 11:30pm we called it a night.

I will not be making special trips up there, but may stop in if I am in the area or I’m at a Huskies game. I would much rather order my stuff from Bass Pro Shops. I wish they would build one in CT since the closest is in Foxboro MA, next to Gillette Stadium.

Once we got back home we decided to have a couple friends over to go out on the lake and go tubing, skiing, and fishing. We got out at 5pm and started tubing, Kate and my friends Jeff and Robbie got out on the tube and had some fun… I couldn’t go today since no one else had a license to drive the boat, but the summer is young and I will have plenty of time to get out on the water. Jeff tried water skiing and was successful in getting up one time but once he was up he didn’t know what to do so he just fell down before he got hurt.

After skiing we decided to hit the grass mats on the north end of the lake with some senkos. We each caught quite a few fish (all largemouth), and it didn’t really matter what color we threw or if it was wacky rigged or texas rigged. The fish have been holding tight onto the weedlines and really have not ventured into the shallows, and haven’t been congregating near docks and structure like you would expect on the hot days. I also threw a couple topwater lures and landed a couple fish.

We decided to call it a night when some idiot buzzed at 40 mph and stopped right in front of us only to fish over our lines since he saw us catching fish. This has been happening way too much this season, and something really needs to be said at our next board meeting.

Overall we had a lot of fun, and it was nice that the storms held off and gave us enough sunshine to take part in some watersports.

I got home and checked the radar and there was no rain within 500 miles so I got my stuff together and launched the boat. I got out about 10 minutes before Buddy got to my house so I started fishing around the small rocky island 50 feet off of my backyard. I had seen 2 huge balls of baitfish working the surface while I was loading up the boat so I threw a green wacky rigged senko where they were. After a few jigs I saw the bait come back up to the surface, so I put that rod down while it was still in the water and threw a small rooster tail into the school of bait hoping to catch one and find out what they were.

On the first cast I landed a large sunfish, and when I brought it into the boat it had all three treble hooks in its mouth. As I worked the hooks out, I feel my other pole tugging since I was holding it with my feet. I grabbed it with my right hand and set the hook. The sunfish then fell off of my lure with the treble hook still in its mouth. I inspected the lure and found that the loop had NOT been broken and the treble hook was sealed. I have no idea how it came off, clearly this was a “Houdini panfish”. I took the hook out and released the sunfish, then started working on the senko fish. I got it to the boat and it was a 1lb smallmouth. Definitely an interesting double!

Right as I landed that smallie, Buddy showed up and got into the boat and we headed to the other side of the lake to fish the weed beds I had been having good success on this last week. On the way we saw at least 10 more schools of baitfish working the surface. For some reason the sunfish were balled up tight and were quite active, but there were no gamefish sitting underneath them.

We fished the grass mats for a good 70 minutes with senkos, catching a few bass from 1-3lbs and buddy had two breakoffs (he is like Lenny from Of Mice and Men, when he fights his fish). I also threw a firetiger pop and chug and landed a couple nice bass, but there was no real consistent bite last night. We fished the shoreline on the way in and Buddy caught a razor-mouthed smallmouth that took a nice chomp on my thumb. It started to to get too dark to see so we packed up and called it a night.

We ordered chinese food (so much for the gym) and watched a TBS marathon of crappy movies starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. What an exciting evening …

Conditions:
Water Temp 76 degrees, calm, cloudy, dusk.