Topsail Angler

The Surf City Ocean Pier held the 4th annual Mike Martin Memorial Fishing Tournament this past weekend. By any measure it was a huge success. The turnout was the largest yet; the weather was perfect and the fish even showed up!  Fish were caught in eight of the nine categories with only King Mackerel being shutout. There were a lot of door prizes this year and lots of smiles! 

Of course the big news is that a speckled trout was caught ending the drought from the last tournament. The winner, Tony Lane, received this year's grand prize of $500 plus the $500 prize carried over from last year when no specks were caught in the tournament. In fact the first speck of this tournament was caught less than 30 minutes from the beginning on Saturday. However a slightly larger fish caught by Lane on Sunday morning eclipsed that fish. Following are the complete results:

Children's Division
First: Tim Jenkins 6.39 lb. Puppy Drum
Second: Gavin Jones 1.57 lb. Spade
Third: Garrett Burgess 1.54 lb. Spanish

$1000 Speckled trout Tony Lane

Flounder
$100 Gene Rivenbark 2.65 lb.
$50 Brian Glasnapp 2.59 lb.

Spot
$100 Virginia Speaks .40 lbs.
$50 Shelly Phillips .36 lbs.

Spanish
$100 Augie Hernandez 2.24 lbs.
$50 Russ Becker 1.63 lbs.

Sheepshead
$100 J.M. Dupree .51 lb. (released to grow up)

V.Mullet
$100 Doug Keicher 1.55 lb.
$50 James Tyndall .80 lbs.

Blue
$100 Todd Andrews 1.23 lbs.
$50 Michael Bryant 1.18 lbs.

Pompano
$100 Alex Beasley 1.40 lbs.
$50 Virginia Speaks 1.35 lbs.

The largest fish caught on a Gotcha Plug was a flounder that weighed 2.26 lbs. caught by Tanner Jones. He won a rod and reel combo (valued at $240) donated by Sea Striker
The largest fish caught on a Clark Caster was also a flounder this one weighed .98 lbs. caught by Candice Burke. She won a gift bag full of Clark Casters, spoons and shinners a value of $100 donated by James E. Clark, LLC a division of Sea Striker.

Mike Becker is an area angler who publishes a fishing blog on-line at topsailangler.com