Added on Thursday, August 4, 2011  Fish Post

Oriental Rotary Tarpon Tournament

Releasing three tarpon over the event’s two fishing days, Oriental’s Henry Frazier, on the “Big Dipper,” took home first place and over $6,000 in the 19^th Annual Oriental Rotary Tarpon Tournament. Frazier, who hosted the tournament at Whittaker Pointe Marina for years, is no stranger to the event.

“I’ve fished this thing for seven years,” he explained, “and this is the first year I’ve caught one in it.”

Frazier fished with Bill Miles and Ron Zielinski aboard his 25’ Sea Fox, and the trio didn’t have to wait long for action on Saturday, July 30, the event’s first fishing day.

“We had lines in at 7:00 and hooked that first fish at 7:05,” Frazier explained.

After pre-fishing the two days before the event without any fish, Frazier decided on his spot based on a hunch.

“I’d run all over out in the sound,” he said, “but I had a notion that with a lot of shrimp boats coming into the river, it would be a good place. The tarpon follow those shrimpers and eat their bycatch, and a lot came into Oriental earlier in the week.”

Going with his gut, Frazier set up on an oyster rock in 17’ of water in the lower Neuse on the first morning of the event.

“As soon as we got there and anchored,” he continued, “we had one rolling near the boat. I said it was going to be our day, and we hooked that fish.”

With Frazier manning the rod, the anglers had the tarpon boatside after a 20-minute fight and photographed it with leader in hand for an official release at 7:27.

A cut croaker fooled the fish, and the anglers stayed on the spot for the rest of the day, chumming heavily with croaker, spot, and crabs.

“We brought 50 lbs. of croaker and spot the first day,” Frazier said, “and another 30 on Sunday.”

Their early fish was the only tarpon the crew hooked Saturday, and large rays and bluefish made up the remainder of their action.

Frazier returned to the same oyster rock Sunday morning with Zielinski, as Miles couldn’t make the event’s second fishing day.

Again chumming heavily and baiting up with spot and croaker, the anglers had to wait a little longer for action on day two. They put up with ray and bluefish bites until 9:30 that morning when their second tarpon struck another croaker chunk.

Frazier again took the rod, subduing his second tarpon of the tournament in just over 30 minutes for an official release at 10:05.

After dealing with more rays and bluefish, the “Big Dipper” crew got their final tarpon bite of the event 59 minutes after their second release, yet again on croaker.

Handling the angling duties a third time, the winning captain had his hands full with this fish.

“That one went wild,” Frazier explained. “I’m using Fin-Nor 8500’s for their line capacity, and that one almost spooled me. It made some unbelievable jumps, too, easily 15’ in the air.”

Just over an hour later, the angler finally tamed the beast, pulling the silver king alongside the boat for a release shot at 12:15.

“Right after we caught that third fish,” he continued, “we got blasted. It started blowing about 20 out of the east, and I think that shut it down. It pretty much ended the tournament; nobody got a bite after that.”

Scoring two releases on Saturday, Gene Wooster took second place in the tournament. Tracy Maynard released a single fish at 8:15 Saturday morning to break a four-way tie of boats with one fish by virtue of earliest release.

David Evans, Les Robinson, and Jesse Schumacher made up the other constituents of the four-way tie, all with releases on Saturday.

The Tarpon Tournament raises funds for the Oriental Rotary Club and Pamlico County Community College’s Scholarship Programs, and has raised over $124,000 for deserving students over the lifespan of the event.