The Tournament Committee would like to thank you our Fishermen for partisipating in our tournament and a special thanks to all our volunteers without whom this tournament would not be possible.
Enjoy a wonderful Memorial Day.
God Bless America, those who have served and those who are serving today.
"Second Catch" Wins with a 33.10 King Mackerel.
"Shake-Rattle and Troll" Takes Cobia with a 47.42 pounder
"Sea Striker" Wins Largest Blue Marlin with a 645.5 pounder
Bert and Margeret Ferebee The McLamb Team
Sea Striker Crew with 645.5 pounder
This article is written by Rich Levey. It reprinted by permission from the Tideland News.
It was good to be first at the 29th annual Swansboro Rotary King Mackerel/Bluewater Tournament.
The first king mackerel boat registered was the first to return to the Hammocks Beach weigh station Saturday, and ended up winning first place in the tournament.
The husband and wife team of Burt and Margaret Ferebee from New Bern, fishing aboard the Second Catch, won the tourney with a smoker that tipped the scales at 33 pounds, 10 ounces.
The winning fish earned the Ferebees a payday of $28,404.
“We caught him around 9:30 this morning fishing around the Papoose,” said Burt. We thought the scales opened at 12, so we fished a little more, caught a few dolphin, and headed for the scales.”
Margaret caught the tourney winner in what she described as less-than-ideal fishing conditions.
“It was nice in here, but sloppy offshore,” she said. “There were some nice sized ground swells.”
Capt. Miles Bunn from Wilson, fishing aboard the Rod Hog, finished second with a king weighing 23.58 pounds.
Wilson’s catch earned him the second place prize, a Bayrider 2060 skiff, Yamaha motor and trailer, worth $21,500.
The king mackerel division of the tournament drew a field of 123 boats, while the bluewater event attracted 43.
The big winner in the tournament was the bluewater division winner Sea Striker out of Morehead City.
Capt. Adrian Holler and crew landed a 645.5-pound blue marlin Sunday to haul in the biggest payday of the tournament, $31,063.
Event director Jim Davis was pleased with the tourney, despite the relatively low number of entries.
“We’re pleased, the tournament went very well,” he said. “The economy had an impact on the number of boats in the king mackerel division, but we were still pleased with the turnout.
“We were excited that the first two kings were caught on boats smaller than 23 feet and caught straight out of Bogue Inlet – which made it a really local tournament.”
Davis added that the bluewater numbers were right on target this year.
“We base our prize structure on a 50-boat entry, and we were real close to that number,” he said. “And the bluewater fishing was really good, we had four marlin weighed and a lot of releases.”
The Chain Link, captained by Wes and Ben Seegars from Goldsboro, earned the most release points (900) by releasing three blue marlin.
Past king mackerel tourney winner Capt. Joe Winslow from Sunset Beach said the fishing conditions were tough.
“We were fishing where a lot of other boats were, south around the Frying Pan Tower, and there was a five-foot swell with a two-foot chop,” he said. “The bite was slow which was unfortunate because it had just started to heat up.
“But the days before the tournament there was a big high pressure system that came up from the south and we had a week on east/northeast winds, which scattered the fish and slowed the bite.”
