Mike Martin Memorial Pier Tournament
Anthony Manganello with the 3.23 lb. spanish mackerel that earned first place in the 6th annual Mike Martin Memorial Pier Tournament. He hooked the fish on a live finger mullet and pocketed $100.
Landing a 1.53 lb. speckled trout on the final morning of the tournament, Jacksonville, NC’s Kerry Gibson took home the $1000 bounty on the heaviest speck caught during the Mike Martin Memorial Pier Tournament, held August 14-15 at Surf City Pier.
The yearly event generally has a $500 first place trout prize, but since no specks were decked during fishing hours last year, the prize rolled over, doubling the money for the 2010 event.
Like most of the 171 anglers in the event, Gibson, who traveled to Surf City to fish the event with his father Gary and friend Doug Piccolo, had his sights on the speckled trout prize.
“It was the first time I’d gotten to fish in over 2 months because of work,” the Onslow County detective explained. “I had a cork out the whole time looking for a trout.”
After fishing all of Saturday with only a 12” spanish mackerel to show for it, Gibson finally got the bite he was looking for Sunday morning around 6:30 when a speckled trout attacked the live shrimp beneath his float.
Gibson was quickly able to reel the speck to the surface, but the drama wasn’t over.
“We didn’t realize there was a little hole in my dad’s landing net,” he said, “and that trout fell right through it.”
Running low on options, Gibson elected to handline the trout up to the pier deck, and he was relieved when he had the fish on the planks.
“Oh yeah, I was excited once I had him on the deck,” he said.
After weighing the fish in, the detective had to wait several more hours before being crowned the Mike Martin trout winner.
“That was a thousand dollar fish,” said Gibson, “so I was a little nervous, but if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be, and that’s what I kept telling people.”
The event features competitions for nine other species of fish as well.
Jeffrey Fleenor (age 12) took home the Mike Martin Tournament’s $200 first place king mackerel money for a 24 lb. king he hooked on a live bait off the end of the pier.
Each of the other categories featured a $100 first place and $50 second place prize.
Anthony Manganello landed a 3.23 lb. spanish mackerel on a live finger mullet to take home top honors in that category. Fred Sands’ 1.94 lb. spaniard was the runner-up.
A 1.03 lb. bluefish earned the victory in that division for Bryan Glassknap, and Manganello was right behind him with a .92 lb. blue.
Glassknap’s 1.26 lb. flounder topped the flatfish division, with Doug Piccolo weighing in a 1.01 lb. fish good for second.
Brian Swanson took home the first and second place sheepshead prize money with 4.95 and 3.95 lb. fish.
A whiting weighing .79 lbs. brought Rick Lafreniere the top spot for that species. Sabrina Richardson was nipping at his heels with a .78 lb. whiting.
Mother and daughter Mary Eastman and Sabrina Jenkins captured first and second in the spot category with .43 and .42 lb. fish.
A tie in the pompano category was broken by the earliest fish weighed in, and Charli Cox weighed her .25 lb. fish in just ahead of Emma Bizzell.
The Mike Martin Tournament is held every year in memory of Martin, a beloved former pier manager who passed away six years ago. The crew at the pier swiftly put together the event in his honor, and this was the tournament’s sixth year.
