Speculation, Debate Locally Before Bluefish Tourney Postponed

Eric Huner, the winner of , strolled up to on Friday morning to purchase his entry into this year's contest, just in case it wasn't postponed because of the imminent arrival of Hurricane Irene.

Anglers were already speculating on the chances of the tourney going off over the weekend, with most thinking it would be cancelled.

Many, like Sean Reilly who also registered for the contest on Friday, said they'd be out on the water at midnight (the official start of the tourney) if it was still on to get as much fishing in before the storm hit Long Island.

When he heard that a raindate was already scheduled, he said that they were "definitely going to postpone it."

Huner also noted that with the storm arriving many were more concerned about the safety of their boats than fishing.

"People need to make decisions about taking their boat out of the water or at the very least tying up or down their boats to protect them the best they can," he said. "They can not be fishing on Saturday and then quickly do something to protect their boat."

Another factor that may have weighed in on the contest promoters' decision was the money they take in for registration.

Caraftis said that most people waited until Thursday or Friday before the weekend tourney before they actually registered. She noted that few people if any were coming to pay their registration fee, knowing the hurricane was coming.

"Many people don't register until Wednesday to Friday," Huner agreed. "With a storm lurking, they may say 'no thanks.' Less registries, less money for WICC."

The threat of the storm was also taking out the "fun factor" of the contest.

"People want to have a decent time doing this event," Huner said.

When Candy Caraftis asked the people from WICC who brought down the official scale (Caraftis' shop if a weigh station for the tourney) about the possibilty of it being cancelled they were cagey about it saying they'd make the final decision by 4 p.m. on Friday.

She said that many potential contestants had already cancelled big orders of bait knowing they weren't going to take part either way.

Many of the commercial fishing charters were also going to be stuck with lots of bait if people didn't show up and the contest wasn't cancelled.

More importantly, if the power went out and all that bait spolied, there's be a lot of smelly trash to get rid of after the storm blew through.

Inevitably, the until the weekend of Sept. 10 and 11. Registration was also held over until 5 p.m. on Sept. 9. You can still register online here.

Reilly said he was going to fish on Saturday no matter what. That was before his boat was blocked in by , busily

Huner, who trailers his boat from East Setauket, put in at the Brookhaven Town ramp in Port Jefferson on Saturday morning. From 6 to 10:30 a.m. he said he saw "only four boats in the distance."

"The water started flat," he said. "It progressed to a light chop."

On the way home it started drizzling.

"Caught 12 blues around 6 - 13 pounds. No bass," he said. "Lost a few more big ones. Who knows maybe a bass mixed in there."

Huner and Reilly both said they'd be out there for the tournament on the raindates.

Speculation around Caraftis Fishing Station was that with the contest running two weeks later in the season the bluefish would be even bigger, which could make Huner's almost 16 pounder that won the tournament last year look average.