By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net    

After a 12-year drought, The Bahamas finally got back on the podium with a silver medal at the Offshore World Fishing Championships in Costa Rica.

The foursome “Rake and Scrape” team of Jeff Waugh, Nicolas Mosko, James Chu and Michael Sands finished with 5,400 points after catching a total of 28 sailfish over the three days of competition in the billfish “catch and release” tournament. 

Of the two boats from the United States of America team that came from the Fish for Holly Sailfish Tournament won the title with 6,100. They won by three sailfishes over The Bahamas. The Sunshine Coast Game Fishing Club Classic from Australia was third with 5,300.

A total of 35 teams, representing countries around the world, participated in the tournament. 

The Bermuda Big Game Classic and the Tropic Star Billfish Tournament from Panama had the same number of points for fourth and fifth respectively. 

Mosko, speaking on behalf of his team-mates, said they were overwhelmed by their performances, improving on a sixth-place finish from another team from The Bahamas last year. 

The Bahamas won the title in 2012 with a boat that featured Paul King. This year, after qualifying at the Lyford Cay Invitational in April when they finished in the top three, Mosko said they were hoping to duplicate the 12-year-old feat.

But they fell short. 

“We were all really excited about. We did very well. It’s unfortunate, it held on for second place, but we should have won it,” he said. “We were tied for first place with seven hours to go, but we just had a dry spell with no fish. “But we were fortunate enough at 3 pm to catch a couple of extra sail fish to boost us up in second place to solidify the runner up position. We’re extremely excited to do what we did, beating the defending champions from Brazil and one of the America boats.”

After the awards banquet, Mosko said they had. four-hour drive to the airport to catch a 5 am flight and they slept maybe 30 minutes in the van before they returned home on Friday.

“We had a lot of drinks, a lot of good laughs,” he said. “It was a great tournament. The people there treated us very nicely. All of the competitors on the other boats loved us. They want us to come back. It was a big experience for us.”

The “Rake &B Scrape” boat has already qualified for a return to Costa Rica for next year’s event. There is another qualifying tournament in two weeks in Lyford Cay where other boats can attempt to qualify.

“You can have at least three boats from your country if they qualify and they want to go,” Mosko said. “But the maximum number of boats they will take is 35, so if you do get in, you have to register right away because they cap it.”

Boats from Saudi, USA, Brazil, Italy and Costa Rica rounded off the top ten in order from sixth place.