Miss Barnegat Light

Ristori: A weighty catch in Mako Mania

Saturday certainly didn’t start well for Pete Casagrande of Wall, as part of his crew on American Mustang in Mako Mania was late in arriving. However, when Billy and Zach Fritts got there 45 minutes late, Billy said it didn’t matter because they were going to catch a 280-pound mako and win the tournament. Sure enough, when they weighed in at Clarks Landing in Point Pleasant that afternoon, their mako weighed exactly 280 pounds — and it wasn’t challenged right through the end of the contest Sunday evening.

Pete Ferraro fought the mako that ate a bluefish fillet in Chicken Canyon, and John Casagrande was also part of the crew that secured the 88-inch mako that was worth $31,773 plus the Calcutta — and also won the Jersey Coast Shark Anglers Mako Fever Tournament that was run at the same time. Casagrande said that made up for the previous weekend’s second-place finish in the winner-take-all Brett T. Bailey Mako Tournament. A beautiful mako trophy was added to their haul at Tuesday night’s awards dinner in Forte Restaurant, Point Pleasant.

Rick Popovitch took second on Tashtego with an 84-inch, 247.5-pound mako that brought the crew $15,887. Mushin was third with an 82-inch, 219-pounder worth $7,943 to Alan Lee of Hamilton, and Todd Collins of Bayville took fourth and $3,972 on Fish This with a 78-inch, 178-pound mako.

Cole Svenson of Union Beach had a 75-inch, 176-pounder on Cheap Shot for fifth and $2,383 — while Lou Charolanza of Madison entered a 175.5-pounder worth $1,589 on Hard To Catch for sixth. Just out of the money were Danny Sacca on Mongoose, and Bob Crocitto aboard Bunker Box with 172-pounders.

Capt. Pete Grimbilas of the sponsoring Greater Point Pleasant Charter Boat Association said 238 boats were entered in the 26th Mako Mania, and about 1,200 anglers fished as 22 makos exceeding the 66-inch minimum length to the fork of the tail (about 115 to 120 pounds) were weighed in, while other qualifiers may not have been brought to the scales after entrants knew what the sixth-place weight was after the first day.

Capt. Arthur Stokes of Fintastic from Clarks hosted wheelchair anglers from the Hot Wheels organization on Saturday, and they caught a 138-pound mako as well as blue sharks.

Miss Barnegat light

Remember driving early, early to get on those blues trips in the 70s and going night blue fishing on the MBL. Great place to introduce your kid to fishing.

Remember taking my daughter, about 15. She had been out with me for fluke and always liked it so we decided to go out for blues and picked a really nice day and ran down. I told her blues were bigger and much stronger than fluke and how to put the bait on and let it drift with the chum, etc. She was like, "no problem."

I was talking to the guy next to me and I hear "DAAADDDDD!!!!!" and she is holding on for dear life, her eyes twice normal size. Must have been 12-15 lbs. Great memories.

On the down side, they and we, killed an awful lot of bluefish for no good reason. I hate eating blues, love catching them. My daughter still fishes with me, she live in Florida with her family now. She likes catching reds and specks.

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