East Setauket Angler Wins Greatest Bluefish Tournament

Eric Huner of East Setauket beat out over 4,000 competitors in the 2010 WICC Greatest Bluefish Tournament on Earth with a 15.94-pound catch off Old Field Point during the weekend of Aug. 28 and 29. 

While many boats trawled the deeper waters of the Long Island Sound, Huner concentrated his efforts in an area that had been producing for him recently. He had caught over 30 fish throughout the day, most of them weighing in between 10 and 13 pounds. When Huner caught both a 35-inch bluefish and a 36-inch one, he estimated that the longer fish would be in the 15- to 17-pound range and could propel him into the top five.

After landing his catch and having it weighed at Caraftis Fishing Station in Port Jefferson, Huner, who also keeps his boat at Port Jeff, said he didn't know his would be the winning fish until he received a call with the unofficial results. He said he kept expecting another call saying that someone had entered an even bigger fish, but it never came.

"I wasn't confident I would win," he said, "but I was confident in my skills."

All four top winners landed fish that weighed over 15 pounds. Second place finisher Anastasias Maxropolos from the Bronx and third place finisher Joseph Malero, who weighed in at East Coast Fishing in Little Neck, also hail from New York. Fourth place winner Susan Scovill had her fish weighed at River's End Tackle in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.

Huner's fish outweighed Maxropolo's 15.86 pound bluefish by only .08 pounds — the weight of about twelve pennies. The gap between second, third and fourth was even narrower.

Huner began fishing when he was 5 or 6 years old, and has kept with it ever since. Though he didn't expect to place first, and said he would have been glad to land in the top 10, he's glad he did. His winning catch landed him a $25,000 prize.

With a wife and three kids, one of whom is in college, he has decided to be practical with his prize.

"It's not very exciting since I don't plan to spend it all over the weekend," Huner said. "It's more of a cushion."

Though he doesn't have any immediate plans for the future, Huner said that he does eventually want to see New Zealand.