Sneads Ferry Pinfish 2008
Producing the winning fish two years in a row, Wrightsville Beach is fast emerging as the spot to fish the annual Snead’s Ferry Lion’s Club Pinfish Tournament, held July 12 out of the Snead’s Ferry Community Building. A 0.82 lb. pinfish carried Wilmington angler Capt. Lynn Perry to the winner’s circle this year, earning him his choice of a $10,000 savings bond or $5,000 cash.
Perry operates Shearwater Charters out of Wrightsville, and he had a good idea of where to catch a pinfish large enough to beat out the 116 other anglers in the event.
“I fished from a dock at Wrightsville south of the bridge,” he explained. “I’ve seen some big ones there before.”
Fishing a small squid bait on a single hook beneath an egg sinker, Perry had plenty of action all day, but he hooked the pinfish that won him the event just before noon.
“I was just keeping the biggest one alive as I caught it,” Perry said, “and turning them back when I caught a larger one.”
The 0.82 lb. pin held the top spot in his bucket for the rest of the afternoon, and when the scales closed at 3:00 it had the number one spot on the Lion’s Club leaderboard, too.
At the awards ceremony, Perry elected to take the $5,000, a hefty sum for a pinfish.
Last year’s winner, Rachel Scott, took second place in this year’s tournament, weighing in a pin of the exact same weight, 0.78 lbs., that brought her the top prize last year. The fish earned her a choice of $500 cash or a $1000 savings bond.
Fishing with her parents, Matt and Carol Scott, aboard their 22′ Century “Wild Child,” Rachel caught her pin fishing the docks at Seapath Marina, the same place that produced her winner last year. A two-hook bottom rig baited with cut shrimp fooled the number two pin.
A 0.55 lb. pinfish earned third place and $250 cash or a $500 bond for Donald Wells.
Cameron Kellum took fourth place with a 0.52 lb. fish, earning $100 cash. He fished with his brother Rendell and parents, Becky and Capt. Ricky Kellum. Becky also took first place Lady Angler with a 0.47 lb. pinfish.
A 2.11 lb. and a 2.01 lb. speckled trout earned first and second place in the tournament’s speckled trout category for Ricky and Rendell Kellum. The Kellums caught their pinfish and trout while fishing live shrimp beneath float rigs near the Sneads Ferry Bridge.
Melanie Ng was the Pinfish Tournament’s Top Junior Angler, weighing in a 0.39 lb. pin she caught on squid at the Morehead City Waterfront while fishing with her dad, Anthony.
Topsail angler John Pletel caught the tournament’s top flounder at 2.24 lbs. He fished some structure near Sneads Ferry with live, Carolina-rigged finger mullet. Pletel was fishing with his mother Connie, who landed the third place flounder at 1.76 lbs.
Glenda Parker weighed in a 1.78 lb. flounder to take second.
The Sneads Ferry Lions Club supports a variety of charitable causes throughout the community, and proceeds raised by this annual tournament provide instrumental financial support to the organization. The event’s organizers wish to thank everyone who fished and the sponsors for making it another successful year.
