Swansboro Rotary Blue Water Tournament 2007
Morehead City’s “Impulse” released one blue marlin on each of two fishing days to take the top spot in the Billfish Release Division of the 27th annual Swansboro Rotary King Mackerel-Blue Water Tournament. This is the second event in the NC Governor’s Cup Billfish Conservation Series, and was held May 25-27, 2007, out of Swansboro’s Hammock’s Beach State Park, with auxiliary billfish reporting stations from Hatteras to Wrightsville Beach.
No blue marlin were weighed in over the course of the event (the tournament has a minimum weight requirement of 400 lbs. for killed marlin), so the 600 points “Impulse” earned by releasing the two blue marlin gave them the overall winning spot in the event.
“We had two good days of fishing,” Impulse Capt. Cameron Guthrie said.
The “Impulse” crew pre-fished on the Friday before the tournament and caught one blue marlin and saw two others. On Saturday, the team fishing on the 58’ Carolina Custom sportfisherman, made up of owner Donald Lane, mate Richard Wright, Robbie Sikes, and Jay Hughes, headed to the same area they fished Friday—a spot in the 800’s due east of Portsmouth Island.
It wasn’t long before the “Impulse” had a marlin in their spread and succeeded in getting it to eat a lure. After the strike, angler Robbie Sikes, who charters the “Impulse” for most billfish tournaments, took the chair and fought the fish to the boat in just 20 minutes. The blue marlin weighed an estimated 350-400 lbs.
“We fish heavy tackle, and yesterday’s fish was cooperative,” Guthrie said at Sunday night’s award ceremony, explaining the short fight.
After releasing the marlin, another blue showed up behind the “Impulse,” but it never ate a lure.
“We had another one yesterday that came up and ate the teasers, but he wouldn’t eat anything else,” Guthrie explained.
The two marlin were all the action “Impulse” saw on Sunday, but there one release earned the team 300 points and put them in second place behind the “Wet Floors,” who released a blue several hours before “Impulse.”
Two days of steady blue marlin action was plenty impetus to bring the “Impulse” back to the same area on Sunday. The spot produced again, and the boat hooked up a smaller blue marlin. Sikes was unable to fish with the crew on Sunday, so boat owner Lane fought Sunday’s marlin. This fish came to the boat even faster than Saturday’s blue.
“He was a little bit smaller fish, and it didn’t take quite as long to catch him,” Guthrie explained. The crew estimated their Sunday marlin at 200 lbs.
As the only boat to release a blue marlin on Sunday, the “Impulse” added 300 points to their score and easily took first in the billfish division. The 600 points that put “Impulse” on top earned them over $30,000 for first place, and also counted toward the team’s Governor’s Cup cumulative total.
David Stallings’ “Wet Floors” team’s 300 points held on to second place in the Billfish Release Division through Sunday, and earned the Raleigh-based crew $9,660.
The “Job Site,” from Greenville, NC, also released a blue marlin on Saturday, albeit later than the “Impulse” and “Wet Floors,” to earn 300 Governor’s Cup points and finish third in Billfish Release. The boat, owned by Bill Farrior, Jr., pocketed $5,705 for third.
Wrightsville Beach’s “Tuna Trappe,” captained by Brian Smith, caught the tournament’s largest dolphin, a solid 56.90 lb. fish that earned the team $2,283.
The “Off Season,” captained by Don White, weighed in the tournament’s biggest wahoo, a 44.84 lb. fish that also earned Don’s son Michael White first place in the Blue Water Junior Angler Division. The team pocketed $2,138, and Michael took home a Junior Angler trophy and a rod and reel combo.
Nicole Colligen, fishing with Skipper Gentry aboard the “Carolina Gentleman,” was the Blue Water Division’s top Lady Angler. Colligen caught a 40.20 lb. dolphin and won a $500 gift certificate to Golden Traits Jewelers.
Joe Caton caught a 34.5 lb. dolphin aboard the “Reel Obsession” on Sunday and took home the Blue Water Division Senior Angler prize, a stainless steel propane grill.
The North Carolina Governor’s Cup Billfishing Conservation Series is a sportfishing series operated by the NC Division of Marine Fisheries in conjunction with seven major North Carolina offshore tournaments. The series promotes conservation and protection of our marine resources, and competing boats accumulate points over the course of the year through billfish releases and by taking billfish that meet tournament minimum size requirements.
