Friendly City Speckled Trout Tournament 2006
On Saturday, November 11th, Casper’s Dry Stack Marina of Swansboro hosted the 15th Annual Century Club Friendly City Trout Tournament. Gorgeous weather with very light winds greeted the 55 boats entered in the event, and the teams took advantage of the conditions to weigh in some hefty speckled trout.
Topping the field of tournament participants was the team of Ashley Melton and Charles Stevens, both from Swansboro. The heaviest three speckled trout each team brings to the scales are the only fish that count in this event, and Melton and Stevens’ three trout aggregate weight was an impressive 13.10 lbs. The three big trout earned the pair a check for $2,237.32. Stevens also captured the team an additional $594.00 for a 5.50 lb. trout, second heaviest in the TWT.
Melton and Stevens, who were fishing aboard a 21′ Yamaha-powered Sailfish bay boat, noticed a solid pattern while pre-fishing for the tournament. “We noticed Friday that the bigger fish were coming on the falling tide,” Melton said about fishing at the Cape Lookout Rock Jetty.
Armed with that knowledge, the anglers arrived at the jetty early Saturday, found a productive spot among the hundreds of boats there, and waited for the tide to change and the trout bite to get hot. They saved the 10 dozen live shrimp they’d purchased from Freeman’s Bait and Tackle for the tide change.
”We were using Gulp! Baits and minnows and catching drum while the tide came in,” said Melton, “and we knew what time the trout would bite so we waited.” When the tide finally turned, the anglers began using live shrimp both on float and bottom rigs and caught trout after trout. “By 1:30 we’d caught at least 30 trout,” Melton estimated.
At the scales, with two fish in the five pound class and another solid trout, Melton and Stevens bested the second place team by nearly one pound and took home the first place payout.
Weighing the largest trout of the tournament, a respectable 5.65 lbs., was the team of Doug Bucher, Richard Peterson, and Steve Myslinski, also from Swansboro. The fish took top honors in the TWT, which garnered the crew $990. Additionally, they pocketed $556.83 as the third boat overall in the event with an 11.00 lb. aggregate weight.
Fishing on a 21′ Yamaha-powered Hewes Redfisher, the trio decided some holes behind Topsail Island offered them the best shot at some big trout. They caught the 5.65 lb. fish at 8:15 Saturday morning and anticipated catching more in the same size class.
Unfortunately, their live shrimp were unable to tempt other trout of the same caliber, and their next biggest fish was around 2.75 lbs. Their 11.00 lb. aggregate kept the anglers in the top three however, and with the TWT money, Bucher, Peterson, and Myslinski still managed a nice payday.
Rounding out the top five spots on the leader board were: David Moore of Swansboro in second place with 12.20 lbs.; Ricky Kellum of Jacksonville in fourth place with 9.00 lbs; and Jeff Cronk of Swansboro in fifth place with 8.50 lbs.
Tara Patterson, of Cape Carteret, weighed a 2.35 lb. trout to be crowned the tournament’s top Lady Angler.
This Year’s Friendly City Trout tournament had a record 17 youth anglers fishing, and the youth competition was very close, with only 0.2 lbs. separating the top three anglers.
James Dolph, from Swansboro, won the Youth Competition with a 2.80 lb. speckled trout. Megan Russell, of Hubert, was right on Dolph’s heels, weighing a 2.75 lb. trout. Jake Gainey, also from Hubert, finished third in the Youth Angler division with a 2.60 lb. trout.
All proceeds from this tournament benefit the Swansboro Century Club, a non-profit organization benefiting the athletic programs at Swansboro Middle School and Swansboro High School. Tournament director David Pearson estimates that the Friendly City Trout Tournament alone will raise $18,000 for the schools this year.
