Boca Grande Pass lived up to its wild and wooly reputation with a down-to-the-wire finish in Sunday's Jim Beam Tarpon Cup.

Most of the 25 teams competing in the finale of the Nextel Professional Tarpon Tournament Series hooked and fought tarpon, but the day belonged to Team McKee — four amateur anglers from New Port Richey.

On the professional side, the winners were the sharks.

In fact, sharks decided the contest when they attacked a tarpon being fought by the San Carlos Marine team, well after the 1 p.m. final bell. Capt. Andy Boyette's team was the only group with any chance of still winning the tournament, having weighed in the first and heaviest tarpon of the day — a 170-pounder — and hooking up again, 20 minutes before the end of fishing.

They needed to weigh in a 148-pounder to take the lead from Team McKee, who had scored 317 points with their limit of two tarpon weighing 162 and 155 pounds.

On the beach, teams McKee and Castrol GTX — sitting in second place with 307 pounds — were glued to Nextel walkie-talkies that kept them in touch with the action in the nearby pass.

"It was about 150 pounds," Boyette said of his San Carlos team's tarpon. "We were close to boating the fish."

Then came the shark.

"We cut the fish off before the shark could get it," Boyette said.

In doing so, the team slipped from a chance at winning the first-place prize of a $40,000 Century Bay Boat, Yamaha motor and aluminum trailer, to receiving pats on the back for good sportsmanship.

Which is not to say the sharks were exactly deprived. No statistics were kept by the tournament committee, but it seemed as though most of the tarpon hooked Sunday were at least harassed by bull shark packs and many tarpon battles ended in bloody showers of silver-dollar-size scales as the undertakers exacted their tolls.

As for Team McKee, "We're looking for a new sponsor," Mike Weeks said of the Georgia boat builder.

"They barely gave us enough to buy team shirts this year."

The team sought sponsorship from McKee Craft because they already had the boat, owned by their company, Sod Mart. The boat is used for entertaining customers.

Now Mike, Steve and Capt. Jeff Weeks, and fishing partner Jake Kielty are considering going pro, and perhaps joining some of the professional redfish tournament circuits — if they can find a company that will support them with more cash.

For now, they have to decide how to divvy up their new boat.

Mike Weeks suggested flipping a quarter, but that idea was roundly quashed.

Team Berkley Capt. Artie Price, also of New Port Richey, was among the cheering throng when the news came that Team San Carlos had lost its fish. The day before, his Castrol GTX team had sewn up the Yamaha Team of the Year award, and the 225-horsepower Yamaha 4-stroke outboard presented with the honor.

Its runner-up finish in the Tarpon Cup padded its weekend total by $3,000.

"I said it would take 300 pounds to win this thing," Price said.

"I said this morning that if we didn't have at least two 150s, we wouldn't weigh them."

Rather, they had a 159 and a 148, among nine tarpon they fought within three hours, by 11 a.m. Then they went to lunch while the rest of the fleet fished on.

Third place and $2,000 went to Team Berkley — Capt. Ray Van Horn, Brian and Greg Watts and C.A. Richardson — with two fish totaling 286 pounds.

The Cinderella award for the weekend was taken by Team Hooters. Capt. Jim Huddleston's bunch would not have received an invitation to fish in the Tarpon Cup, had it not won the makeup event — and a $25,000 boat — in the fifth PTTS qualifying tournament Saturday.

That tournament originally was run June 12, as Tropical Storm Arlene blanketed the Gulf in low barometric pressure, sucking all of the tarpon out of the pass as it passed.

TARPON CUP FINISHERS

• Team McKee 162, 155 — 317

• Team Castrol GTX 159, 148 — 307

• Team Berkley 136, 150 — 286

• Team Columbia 97, 136 — 233

• Team San Carlos Marine 170

• Team Sabalo 155

• Team Century 139

• Team Century 135

• Team TA Mahoney 128

• Carl Black GMC 125

• Team Captiva 113