2013 Yarmouth Shark Scramble will run from August 14-17

This year, most of the participants will head out Wednesday night (Aug 15th) after the captains’ meeting and late entries Thursday (16th) by 5 pm. The vessels will start coming back over the 3 days. There will be tshirts and hats available starting Friday night (17th). On Saturday the 18th there will be an inflatable pirate ship in the parking lot for the kids around 10 am. There will also be facepainting and suckerpull, etc. The weigh-ins start at 1 pm Saturday Aug 18th. The award ceremony will start at 6 pm.

Yarmouth Shark Scramble began 15 years ago when Bob Gavel approached John Boudreau with an idea to have a shark derby. They both thought it was a good idea, having been in derbies in other ports. This gave them an advantage as to how they would like to run their derby. John and Bob are proud to be recognized as having one of the most successful and professional derbies in the Maritimes. Sponsorship had a lot to do with that. The businesses in Yarmouth step up to the plate year after year.

Yarmouth Shark Scramble is a fishing tournament where teams compete to catch the largest total weight of sharks or largest weight of a single shark. The event is used as a fundraiser for local charities, with all catch information reported to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for scientific research. Several Canadian record holders have caught sharks during the Yarmouth Shark Scramble.

Yarmouth Shark Scramble is in its 15th season, as of 2012. Each year the tournament has an average of 20 vessels and 150-200 participants. The types of sharks fished in the tournament are Blue, Mako and Thresher. The weigh-in event is hosted on the Yarmouth waterfront behind Rudders Restaurant and Brew Pub at 96 Water Street, Yarmouth, NS.

Yarmouth Shark Scramble was featured on the Food Network’s show The Wild Chef in 2010. You can click this link to watch the episode from the Food Network’s website.

Yarmouth Shark Scramble was also featured on CBC’s Land and Sea in 2011. The 1st place winner , Patrick Hicks and Captain Mike Nickerson, were fortunate enough to host the film crew aboard the James and Wilbur to document the event. You can click this link to watch the archived episode from CBC’s website.

Yarmouth Shark Scramble gained international attention in 2004 when Jamie Doucette landed one of the biggest Mako Sharks on the planet and setting a Canadian record with his proud 1082 lb catch. This shark is featured on the main page of our website. We feature content on our website from a few different years and will fill in the gaps as we go with what we can find. The website content will be updated each year going forward.

If you have never been to the Yarmouth Shark Scramble, it is well worth the trip to Yarmouth. In 2012, the Yarmouth Shark Scramble runs from August 15-18. If you need directions, see the Google Map below…