Ed Sewell Memorial Trout Tournament 2008
Diana and Billy Parkin accept the first place plaques and checks in the 5th annual Ed Sewell Memorial Speckled Trout Tournament. The Parkins weighed in five trout totalling 15.98 lbs. that they landed on live shrimp in Queen
Bringing in a five-trout stringer weighing 15.98 lbs. to the scales at Hammock’s Beach State Park, Billy and Diana Parkin took home first place in the 5th annual Ed Sewell Speckled Trout Tournament, held November 1. Fishing aboard a customized Casper Skiff/flats boat, the Parkins didn’t have to go far from their Swansboro home or tournament HQ to find the winning fish.
“We fished Queen’s Creek and stayed there all day,” Billy Parkin said. Taking off work the Thursday and Friday before the event to pre-fish, Parkin caught some decent trout in Queen’s Creek on Thursday, then fished the White Oak River on Friday, but found nothing worth returning to during the tournament. However, the White Oak trip was good for something, as Billy cast-netted the live shrimp the anglers used for bait in the creek.
On Saturday morning, the Parkins headed for Billy’s chosen spot, a series of deep holes far up Queen’s Creek. “I had a feeling we’d do pretty good in there if we didn’t get beat to our hole. Those fish are usually there after the first cold front, and there was so much bait in the water,” Billy said. “I’d never actually been back there on as low a tide as we had Saturday. My little boat was throwing up a mud rooster tail trying to get back in there, so we were able to get back there before anybody in these bigger boats.”
After setting up on a spot in 4-5′ of water between some much deeper holes, the anglers didn’t have to wait long for action.
“We had our first fish in the boat inside of 20 minutes,” Billy recalled. The action stayed steady throughout the morning, and the couple caught fish until early afternoon, culling through a number to come up with the five they weighed. Live shrimp pinned to float rigs produced all of their fish during the tournament.
“We only fished shrimp,” Parkin said. “I caught some on soft plastics on Thursday, but they get picky sometimes and only want a shrimp.”
Narrowly finishing in second place, David Moore and Mike Phillips posted five trout weighing 15.65 lbs.
The anglers targeted the Browns Inlet area, and they found some action, but not spectacular fishing.
“We moved around and fished a lot of holes right near the inlet,” Moore said.
Like the winning specks, live shrimp fished beneath floats fooled all the second place fish.
It was 13.51 lbs. of speckled trout that earned third place in the tournament for Robert Goodman and Don “Grumpy” Midgett.
The third place anglers, also from Swansboro, found their fish in Queen’s Creek as well, fishing within sight of the winners for much of the day. They fished a series of holes ranging 10-20′ deep, and all their fish fell for live shrimp as well, though they cast Gulp baits and MirrOlures without success.
Fishing in a crowd of around 10 boats, Goodman reported catching fish steadily for the entire morning, though the surrounding fleet didn’t seem to be fairing as well. “They caught a couple here and there,” he said, “but not like we were catching them.”
Weighing in a 13.11 lb. five-trout aggregate, the Pimlico/Dozier team took fourth place in the event. Gainey/Benedict took fifth with 12.86 lbs.
A 2.04 lb. speck cemented the Top Junior Angler title in the tournament for Jacob Bucher. Terry Downs weighed in a 3.01 lb. fish that earned her the Lady Angler Crown.
The event also awards a prize for the largest lizardfish, and Todd Bunn weighed in a huge 1.45 lb. lizard to lock that competition up.
The Ed Sewell Memorial Speckled Trout Tournament was created five years ago by the Sewell family to serve as a memorial to Ed’s passion for trout fishing. Tournament Director Chris Sewell wished to express his gratitude to all the participating anglers, the Crystal Coast Fishing Association, and Hammocks Beach State Park for making it another successful year.
