Reelin’ For Research
Allen Cooke, Dave Stout, Walker Holt, Will Bullock, Quincy King, and Nathan Isner, fishing on the "Bill Collector" with Capt. Stephen Draughon and mate Wade Fickling, took first place in the second annual Reelin' For Research Tournament. A trio of wahoo weighing 133.4 lbs. they hooked south of the Swansboro Hole earned them the victory.
A triplet of wahoo weighing 133.4 lbs. earned Allen Cooke, Dave Stout, Walker Holt, Will Bullock, Quincy King, and Nathan Isner first place in the second annual Reelin’ For Research Blue Water Tournament, held May 1 out of the Morehead City waterfront.
The anglers, fishing with Capt. Stephen Draughon and mate Wade Fickling on the 52’ Jarrett Bay “Bill Collector,” were fishing the cancer research-benefitting event in honor of Jim Garrison and Jim Barber.
Fishing the day before the tournament, Draughon and Fickling found a band of pretty, 72.5 degree water in 80 fathoms to the south of Beaufort Inlet. They landed a good catch of dolphin but had zero wahoo bites.
“There was a lot of bait and it looked real good, but no wahoo,” Draughon explained. “The day of the tournament, that pretty water shoved in across the break in 50 fathoms.”
With the warm water on the break came the wahoo, and the anglers experienced quite a day of fishing between 40-60 fathoms along the break south of the Swansboro Hole.
“We went 9 for 13 on wahoo bites,” Draughon continued, “mostly on blue/white-skirted ballyhoo. It was half and half between the top baits and the deep ones.”
Two of the larger fish they weighed, including the 58 pounder that was their largest of the day, came early on in the morning.
“They were all pretty much standard issue fish after that,” Draughon reported, “all 25+ lbs.”
With just a few minutes left before lines out that afternoon, the anglers hooked their third big fish, and got it to the boat just in time to head for the scales.
Finishing second with a pair of wahoo and a blackfin tuna totaling 117.7 lbs. was the Coley Cosmetics Team of Chris Coley, Bill Veazy, Mark Anderson, William Smith, Garrison Coley, and Jody Gordon. Coley Cosmetics fished aboard the “Run Off” with Capt. Brian Harrington and were fishing in honor of Harrill Coley. In addition to bagging second place overall, the 62.6 lb. wahoo Dr. Chris Coley landed aboard the “Run-Off” captured the event’s Biggest Fish prize.
The Reelin’ For Research event is a relatively new meatfish tournament on the Morehead scene, allowing boats to weigh three of any combination of dolphin, wahoo, and tuna.
The event was started in honor of Tony Montana, who passed away from cancer four years ago, as a fundraiser for N.C. Chidren’s Promise for Cancer Research, the fundraising arm of the N.C. Children’s Hospital. Last year, the tournament’s first, attracted 16 boats and raised nearly $30,000 for Children’s Promise. The event nearly doubled in size for 2010, attracting 29 boats, and more than doubled their earnings for their benefactor in their second year, generating $65,000.
More information about the event and the cause can be found at www.reelinforresearch.org.
