Tournament Report – Striper Fest
Putting together a quartet of striped bass for his anglers Kevin Bloom and Dak Millis despite some tough conditions, Capt. Jamie Rushing earned the crew the Most Fish Tagged honors at the 2015 Cape Fear River Watch Striperfest Tournament, held January 17 out of the Wilmington Convention Center.
Jim Lister with the largest fish released in the Cape Fear River Watch Striperfest. The 29″ fish bit a Yo-Zuri Deep Diver while he was fishing the NE Cape Fear River with Capt. Jeff Wolfe of Seahawk Inshore Fishing Charters.
Rushing, who operates Seagate Charters out of Wilmington, had done significant pre-fishing for the event and found some cooperative stripers the week before the tournament, but an unfavorable tide on the day of competition put him (and the rest of the tournament anglers) in something of a bind on the morning of competition.
“The week prior we’d had falling tides early in the day,” Rushing explained, “and most of my spots were producing towards the end of the fall. The 6-hour window we had to fish in the tournament was just about all rising water which made it tough.”
Despite the tide issue, Rushing put together a gameplan for the event, and the anglers stuck to it throughout the day.
“I wanted to fish more natural stuff before lunch and try some mandmade structure after lunch,” Rushing continued.
While working a shoreline that morning in the northeast Cape Fear River, the trio found their initial action of the day. Casting a chartreuse soft plastic rigged weedless, Bloom got a bite and soon put a fish in the boat for the captain to tag and release. The angler quickly added another to their tally, but the flurry of action proved brief.
They continued to work the area a bit longer, but found no more action and soon continued on with the gameplan.
“I had a certain series of places in order I wanted to hit with the tide we were working with,” Rushing reported.
Tackling spots as the water continued to rise, the anglers found no more fish until midday when Rushing decided to enact the second part of their plan.
“I had a spot I wanted to hit on the other side of the river,” the winning captain explained. “Most of the guys were on the northeast side and that’s a lot of good fishermen to have all in one area at the exact same time. It always pays to have something tucked away way upriver or on the other side so somebody’s not sitting on it already.”
After lunch, the anglers took off for the other side of the Cape Fear, and Rushing’s confidence spot failed to let them down.
With the anglers again working chartreuse soft plastic baits near a river shoreline, Millis was next to strike and ended the crew’s midday lull.
“Those latter fish were a little bit better than the morning ones,” Rushing said.
After a brief battle, Millis put a slightly larger fish than their earlier two into the boat, taking the team’s total to three fish. As Bloom had earlier in the day, Millis quickly followed it up with the crew’s fourth and final striper of the event, both fish rejoining the river with tags in their flanks.
Though conditions were tough, Rushing wasn’t too encouraged about the crew’s odds as they ended their day and headed back to tournament HQ.
“I wasn’t confident about a win,” he explained. “I figured we’d done about average, but it turns out we had just enough to do it and that was a pleasant surprise. I won it in 2010, and I’d really been wanting to win a second time since.”
Releasing the event’s largest fish was angler Jim Lister, who fished the event with Mike Nevin and guide Capt. Jeff Wolfe, of Seahawk Inshore Fishing Charters. His 29.25” fish eased past a 29” striper to earn Lister the title.
Like Rushing, Wolfe did some pre-fishing before the event and located a spot he had some faith in for the day of the competition.
“I’d found one area that had some big fish,” he explained. “There weren’t big numbers, but we caught 6-7 fish in there before the tournament with a few real big ones.”
Wolfe’s instincts about the spot were proved correct around 10:00 on the morning of the event. With the anglers casting baits along a shallow flat extending from the river shoreline, Lister got a hard strike on a shallow-diving plug.
“We felt like we had a shot at a big one there,” Wolfe explained, “and we definitely knew it was big when it bit.”
After a brief battle, Lister slid the approximately 12 lb. fish into Wolfe’s landing net. Once they had recorded the official measurement on the tournament ruler, the captain planted a tag in the big striper and sent it on its way.
The anglers worked a variety of spots hard for the rest of the fishing day, but they had to settle for the big fish prize as they were unable to connect with any more stripers. In addition to Largest Striped Bass, the 29.25” fish earned Lister the event’s Top Senior Angler honors as well.
Adam Meyer and Nathan Edwards took home the Aggregate Team prize by tagging a pair of stripers totaling 53.5” over the course of their day with Capt. Seth Vernon.
Along with a concurrent banquet and silent auction, Cape Fear Riverwatch Striperfest serves as a fundraiser for the campaign to restore the watershed’s anadromous fisheries to their former greatness.The group also holds an Education Day to inform the public about the plight of stripers and the river’s other anadromous fisheries, an event that attracted over 500 people this year.
Learn more about Cape Fear River Watch’s mission and successes at their website, www.capefearriverwatch.org.
