Posted on June 5th, 2016
It was a little bit slower fishing day today both inshore and offshore. Offshore it was little bumpy and inshore the forecast was calling for severe thunderstorms this afternoon so that kept a lot of people at the dock.
Today was the final day of the 20th Annual Mako Mania at Bahia Marina and it ended up a terrific event. There were a record number of 58 boats vying for over $100,000 worth of prize money across categories for mako shark, thresher shark and bluefish. Here’s how it all ended up.
Bluefish
There were two places for bluefish in the mako mania and second place was a 10.3 pound bluefish caught by the crew of the M Keli Jean.
The first place bluefish was caught on day 1 of the tournament by the crew of the Talk N’ Trash and weighed in at 12.2 pounds.
Thresher
Third place in the thresher category was caught by Kirk Thompson fishing on board the Teaser with Captain Rich Daiker. The 318.7 pounder was caught on Friday and was good enough to hold on to third place.
The second place thresher was also caught on Friday by Mike Moss while fishing on the Captain Ike II with Captain Dave Collins.
First place in the thresher category was caught Saturday by Jeff Green while fishing on the Stripteaser with Captain Brian Shulman. The big thresher was so big that the crew had to tow the fish all the way back to the dock and then float it to the scale by way of the Bahia Marina boat ramp. The first place thresher was 455 pounds and was good enough to win the crew of the Stripteaser first place in the category for the second year in a row.
Mako
The crew of the Reel Nauti had a pretty awesome Mako Mania this year! Bill Brown caught a 182.5 pound mako on Friday and Dakota Bittner caught a 199.2 pound mako on Saturday and both fish held on to take third and second place respectively. Captain Thad Bittner certainly knows where the big makos are.
The first place mako in the 20th Annual Mako Mania was caught on board the Jade II by angler Rich Galante. Captain Ed Kauffman put Rich on a 220.8 pound mako on Saturday and it held on through today and won the crew of the Jade II over $52,000! Congratulations to Captain Ed, Rich and crew!
The only fish to be hoisted on the Bahia Marina scale today for the mako mania was caught by Fish in OC partner boat Wrecker with Captain Jeremy Blunt. Captain Jeremy put angler Keith French on a 154.4 pound mako that was worth weighing, but ended up not hitting the board.
Outside of the tournament the fishing was a little slower for tuna out in the canyons, but there were still some to be had.
The crew of the Boss Hogg out of Sunset Marina captured six nice yellowfin tuna and 10 nice mahi on today’s trip.
Dave Black fishing on My Cin out of Sunset Marina had a good day in the canyons on the 461 bump yesterday. Scott Shepard, John Egar and Tom Johnson caught seven nice yellowfin and 12 nice gaffer mahi.
I got an email from Chris Miller fishing on the Fishizzle today with something that you don’t see everyday. Chris and his crew were one for three on mako sharks and released a big tiger shark which isn’t anything crazy….but the approximately 30′ whale shark that bumped their boat was. The whale shark is the largest known fish species in the entire ocean and is a slow moving plankton eater so he must have just been checking things out. Chris says that the big fish came up and bumped the boat several times and hung around for 15-20 minutes. There was no danger to the fish or the crew and they got some pretty cool pictures.
