Steve “Tuna” Tornovish
It’s hard to be successful from a standing start (no, this is not a poke at our beloved Bill Belichick after his North Carolina Tar Heels took a horrendous loss to TCU on national television) but the August Blues fishing tournament certainly has done it. In only its third year, this tournament has raised over $100,000 for PPMD, Parents Project Muscular Dystrophy. This organization is dedicated to ending Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, the disease that afflicts the tournament’s namesake, August “Augie” Chotkowski. All I can say is well done, Nantucket anglers!
The first two tournaments were a blast. Yes, there were a few growing pains but a very dedicated core group managed to keep everything on the rails. The 2025 tournament promised to be the best one yet and man oh man, was it ever! This tournament went down to the last day in both the beach and boat categories. Most importantly, a record $50,000 was raised this year from a record number of participants.
How about some last day fishing drama: “Oh man… The final hours before dark were an absolute hectic terror! Just when all hope was lost, I got the fish I needed in the darkness!” Rafael Osona is no stranger to winning a big fishing tournament. He knew he had a lot of catching up to do in order to contend with tournament leader David Tribble and the 2024 Triple Strike beach champion, Tedy Bruschi. “It was an insane two hour window, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, which included a land speed record from my house to Great Point! I got sharked on a monster blue (fyi, getting sharked means that you’ve hooked a fish that a brown shark decides will be an easy meal and rips it off of your line). And then I lost a second fish because other blues chewed through my leader! Assuming no scores changed other than mine, I believe it’s a tie for first place!”
Rafael was spot on. Tedy Bruschi, the second place contender going into the final day, was working at his ESPN football job. And David Tribble, the first place leader by one half inch, just couldn’t find a bigger blue to put him over the top. Thus, when the gong rang to end this wild month-long contest, Raf and David Tribble were tied for first place with a best three fish total of 100.5 inches. Tedy finished with a score of 100. Once again, the August Blues tournament’s beach division had resulted in a photo finish!
I spoke to co-champion David Tribble as he and his buddy, Steve “Siri” Middleditch, were driving back to Florida. “We both dedicated the month of August to trying to win the August Blues tournament. We were up and on the beach early just about every day. By the end, we were just dog tired!” I met David last year on Great Point when he had just started surf fishing. David knew immediately that he had found something that he loved. “I got involved in last year’s tournament and had a great time. The best part of this whole thing was meeting people on the beach – families, other fishermen – we’d see someone with their August Blues shirt on and we’d just go say hello. It was a wonderful experience! I told Siri about it and we agreed to come up and fish it hard!”
David, Steve and Tedy had been fishing side by side on the eastern shore (undisclosed location – look at me being a secret squirrel) in early August when they encountered a run of big bluefish. They all posted big numbers but were not able to make any significant moves on the leaderboard for the rest of the tournament. Nor did anyone else until late on August 31.
I was inadvertently the one to break some good news to David and Steve as they were driving through Virginia. Steve Middleditch was happy to learn that his big bluefish of 36 inches ended up in a tie with Tedy Bruschi as the “Bru-fish” prize winner for the biggest of the tournament. Thus, Steve will be receiving an autographed #54 Bruschi New England Patriots jersey. And the Triple Strike plaque that hangs on the wall at Bill Fisher Tackle will forever show David Tribble as the winner of the 2025 tournament as his 35 inch blue was the biggest caught between him and Rafael Osona and thus the tiebreaker for the plaque.
Both David and Rafael will receive an amazing August Blues framed print created by Nantucket artist Peter Van Dingstee, who uses the Japanese style of Gyotaku. That’s the art where actual fish are used to create images on delicate rice paper. Per Pete’s website, “…Gyo translates to ‘fish’ and ‘taku means ‘stone rubbing’ in Japanese.” Peter decided that he had to change up the 2025 prints a little bit, just in case he had a repeat winner. Perhaps Peter is psychic, as the 2025 winner of the August Blues boat division, Heather Unruh, was also the 2024 champion!
“It was a last day win. Hal and I had been fishing hard but the weather had been keeping a lot of us at the dock.” Heather had to fish hard on that final day in order to leapfrog three tournament newcomers – Jonathan Foster, Dusty Ramos and Sarah Bois. Heather’s total of 108.25 just edged out Jonathan’s 107 and Dusty’s 106.75. Again, wow! Heather will now have to decide where she will hang her second Van Dingstee championship print, a nice problem to have! Congratulations, Heather!
Caroline Collatos, another August Blues newcomer, caught a 37.5 inch beast of a bluefish to win the boat division big fish award. Yes, the ladies sure represented in this tournament!
The tournament awards ceremony was held at the Miacomet Golf Club on Monday, September 1. It was an amazingly fun event. Tournament manager Rick Ramos presented the awards. The highlight of the night was the Instagram award, won by Nathan Skerritt. Nate’s winning post showed him getting tackled by Tedy Bruschi as he was casting, and then catching a blue as he got up!
The Wood family won the family contest and Alistair Wood tied with Mattevi Shubin for the longest junior bluefish at 35 inches. The awards ceremony was filled with families having a blast! Kudos to Matt Galvin, the manager at Miacomet Golf Club. Not only did he host an amazing event (you had me at barbeque ribs and chicken!) but he also won a fillet knife generously donated by Keaton Goddard of Faraway Forge for catching the smallest bluefish at 5.5 inches!
Congratulations to all involved with this wonderful tournament! And now get out of my way, people – I have to get my gear ready for the Inshore Classic Tournament, sponsored by the Nantucket Anglers Club!
Steve “Tuna” Tornovish is a Nantucket native who has spent his life fishing from the beaches of his beloved island. He loves to introduce clients to the joy of fishing with his Nantucket Island Fishing Adventures: stevetuna.com
