Oak Island Pier Tournament
Garrett Bell with the 3 lb. sheepshead he landed from Ocean Crest Pier to capture first place in Category Two of the Oak Island Open Pier Tournament.
In a repeat performance of last year’s tournament, Fayetteville, NC’s Wayne Eastman and Winston-Salem’s Garrett Bell took home the top honors in Categories One and Two, respectively, at the 2010 Oak Island Open Pier Tournament.
Category One in the Open awards prizes that are based on the heaviest spot, croaker, pompano, whiting, spadefish, or pinfish.
Eastman, yet again living up to his nickname “Lucky,” scaled a 1 lb. even whiting in order to take the category this year. He fished from Ocean Crest Pier. Youth angler Rakene Chowdhury landed an 11 oz. whiting to place second, weighing it in before fellow youth angler Brady Story’s third place 11 oz. whiting.
Category Two’s eligible fish include sheepshead, flounder, red and black drum, bluefish, gray and speckled trout, and spanish mackerel.
Garrett Bell, also fishing on Ocean Crest, weighed a 3 lb. sheepshead to top Category Two. In another tie broken by time, Bell’s father, Barry Crews, took second place with a 2 lb., 13 oz. sheep, and an identical sheepshead earned Keith Ramer third.
The event’s Junior Angler competition also featured a tie. Edward Cook weighed his 13 oz. bluefish before Joel Parnell, earning them first and second. Cagney Hodge scaled a 4 oz. pinfish to secure third.
The Oak Island Open is a town-sponsored tournament pitting the top anglers at Oak Island Pier against those at Ocean Crest Pier in three different categories.
Category Three, which awards prizes for the largest cobia, king mackerel, amberjack, tarpon, or jack crevalle, saw no qualifying fish this year, so the prize money was raffled off. Robert Capps lucked into Category Three’s top money spot for 2010.
