Sneads Ferry Pinfish
Ella and Meredith Perry, of Wilmington, with the .76 and .90 lb. first and second place pinfish in the Sneads Ferry Lions Club Pinfish Tournament. They hooked their pinfish on cut spanish mackerel near Seapath Marina.
Catching trophy pinfish isn’t a skill most anglers would brag about, but it’s come in quite handy over the past two years for Wilmington’s Perry family. This year, Meredith Perry landed a stout 0.90 lb. pin to take the top spot in the Sneads Ferry Lion’s Club Pinfish Tournament and earn her choice of a $10,000 savings bond or $5,000 cash.
Last year, Perry’s husband, Capt. Lynn Perry, hooked the tournament victory along with a 0.82 lb. pinfish while fishing almost the same spot. The captain had to fish a charter this year, and his wife and daughter elected to take the reins and proved that the female side of the family has a talent for charming pinfish as well.
“My fish bit about noon,” Meredith Perry explained. “We were fishing from a dock near Seapath Marina.”
Docks along Mott’s Channel have produced the Pinfish Tournament’s winner for the past three years, and Meredith and Ella Perry began fishing around Seapath Marina, where Lynn’s charter boat “Shearwater” docks.
“We were in there for a little while,” Perry continued, “but they were having a barbecue, so we couldn’t be in their way after that.”
Moving to a nearby dock, Meredith and Ella began chumming with spanish mackerel carcasses to lure the big pins in.
“They were eating them up,” she said. “I’d throw a head or a tail in, and they’d start going crazy. Then we’d throw the lines in, and they’d get them. We were using the meat that was left on the carcasses for bait.”
Meredith Perry estimated that she and Ella caught over 50 pinfish over the course of the day, with four that they thought worth weighing.
“We had four big ones,” Perry said. “My big one was even bigger than Lynn’s last year.”
Not only did Meredith’s pinfish top the field at the tournament, a 0.76 lb. pinfish that Ella landed around 7:30 on the morning of the tournament earned her second place and a choice between a $1,000 savings bond and $500 cash.
Third place and $250 cash or a $500 bond went to Dee Parker for a 0.58 lb. pin.
Jeanna Clark took the Top Junior Angler honors in the tournament with a 0.43 lb. pinfish.
A pair of junior anglers took care of business in the speckled trout and flounder divisions of the tournament.
Jacksonville’s Rendell Kellum topped the Pinfish Tournament’s speckled trout competition with a 2.51 lb. speckled trout he hooked while fishing with his parents, Becky and Capt. Ricky Kellum, at some structure in the ICW near Sneads Ferry. A live shrimp fooled the winning trout early on the tournament morning. The speck earned Rendell a choice between $150 cash or a $300 savings bond.
A 2.31 lb. speckled trout earned second place for angler Donald Wells.
Jason Crews, also from Jacksonville and fishing with his parents Randy and Sandy Crews, earned the top flounder honors in the tournament with a 4.41 lb. flatfish that earned him a choice between $150 cash and a $300 bond. Crews’ big flattie fell for a piece of squid on a bottom rig near the 172 Bridge at Sneads Ferry at around 11:00 Saturday morning.
Funds raised by the Sneads Ferry Lion’s Club Pinfish Tournament go to support the variety of charitable causes and community projects undertaken by the club, and the event stands as one of the organization’s most important fundraisers over the year.
