A fishing story for Wheat/"/"/"

[CameronBornAndBred]

Travis Stephenson, a senior on unc's 1993 championship team, is the current leading angler in the Big Rock marlin tournament here in Morehead City. The guy only was able to fish the first day of the tourney. Lucky bastage. His fish weighs 652.8 pounds.


A trip to the scales pushed the Double B fish to the top of the leader board after the first day of the 53rd annual Big Rock Tournament. If they remain there, the winning crew would win $524,375 in prize money.


(By the way, last year's "winning" boat was ruled ineligible due to one of the mates not having a fishing license when the marlin was caught. $20 slip of paper cost them a million bucks.)
http://www.wralsportsfan.com/unc/story/9724358/

[CameronBornAndBred]

The guy won. Nice payday for him and the rest of the boat. (But far less than last year's.)



Stephenson's crew takes home $524,375 in prize money for first place. Second place went to Blue Water and angler Jeffrey Gregg for his 580.6 pound catch. Angler Kevin Travis and his team Sushi took third with a 467.4 pound blue marlin. Second place earned $191,050 and third gets $126,700.

http://www.wralsportsfan.com/unc/story/9748272/

[OldPhiKap]

Let's see him try to catch Opilio crab!

[DevilWearsPrada]

Travis Stephenson, a senior on unc's 1993 championship team, is the current leading angler in the Big Rock marlin tournament here in Morehead City. The guy only was able to fish the first day of the tourney. Lucky bastage. His fish weighs 652.8 pounds.


(By the way, last year's "winning" boat was ruled ineligible due to one of the mates not having a fishing license when the marlin was caught. $20 slip of paper cost them a million bucks.)
http://www.wralsportsfan.com/unc/story/9724358/

Did Travis receive a trophy for catching that Big Ole' Fish? Congrats to Travis on his Catch of the Day!

I remember the story about the team not having a fishing license. Bummer!!

[Wheat/"/"/"]

Thanks for the update, today was the first chance I have had to check in on the off topic board. The captain that was responsible for the crew having a license in the Big Rock had a real bad day....

But I have a better story for you :)

You guys might be interested in something I have been doing this season, and that's starting "The World's Greatest Kids Fishing Tournament"...AKA "The Gasparilla Island Kids Classic Tarpon Tournament"....* All Release.

Year one is in the books and we had 18 teams of kids 15 and under catch 14 Tarpon in the 3 hour event. The youngest was 9 years old and we raised over $3,000 for the local Barrier Island Parks Society's Lighthouse Museum.

It was cool, we had a Bar-B Que registration party, and then the local HS ROTC do the color guard on the beach, singing of the National anthem from the lighthouse, and even a flyover of vintage WW 2 airplanes from a local flying club to kick things off.

Next year we are ramping things up since it was such a success and will be benefitting the Moffit Cancer Institute with a goal of 25 teams and handing them a check for $25,000 for their pediatric programs. "Kids fishing for kids" is the theme.

Take a look at these videos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHiYL5dJpHo&feature=player_embedded) and photos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJFmdi5D_50&feature=player_embedded) some friends did, these kids don't catch bluegill and catfish, they are catching #100 lb plus tarpon.

If you have kids that like to fish, give me a call and join us next year!

[devildeac]

Thanks for the update, today was the first chance I have had to check in on the off topic board. The captain that was responsible for the crew having a license in the Big Rock had a real bad day....

But I have a better story for you :)

You guys might be interested in something I have been doing this season, and that's starting "The World's Greatest Kids Fishing Tournament"...AKA "The Gasparilla Island Kids Classic Tarpon Tournament"....* All Release.

Year one is in the books and we had 18 teams of kids 15 and under catch 14 Tarpon in the 3 hour event. The youngest was 9 years old and we raised over $3,000 for the local Barrier Island Parks Society's Lighthouse Museum.

It was cool, we had a Bar-B Que registration party, and then the local HS ROTC do the color guard on the beach, singing of the National anthem from the lighthouse, and even a flyover of vintage WW 2 airplanes from a local flying club to kick things off.

Next year we are ramping things up since it was such a success and will be benefitting the Moffit Cancer Institute with a goal of 25 teams and handing them a check for $25,000 for their pediatric programs. "Kids fishing for kids" is the theme.

Take a look at these videos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHiYL5dJpHo&feature=player_embedded) and photos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJFmdi5D_50&feature=player_embedded) some friends did, these kids don't catch bluegill and catfish, they are catching #100 lb plus tarpon.

If you have kids that like to fish, give me a call and join us next year!

Great stuff, Wheat. We were down in Tampa for a wedding earlier this month. We should have had you take us out for an expedition. We will be in Pensacola for another wedding in March. Are you nearby?

[DevilAlumna]

Thanks for the update, today was the first chance I have had to check in on the off topic board. The captain that was responsible for the crew having a license in the Big Rock had a real bad day....

But I have a better story for you :)

You guys might be interested in something I have been doing this season, and that's starting "The World's Greatest Kids Fishing Tournament"...AKA "The Gasparilla Island Kids Classic Tarpon Tournament"....* All Release.

Year one is in the books and we had 18 teams of kids 15 and under catch 14 Tarpon in the 3 hour event. The youngest was 9 years old and we raised over $3,000 for the local Barrier Island Parks Society's Lighthouse Museum.

It was cool, we had a Bar-B Que registration party, and then the local HS ROTC do the color guard on the beach, singing of the National anthem from the lighthouse, and even a flyover of vintage WW 2 airplanes from a local flying club to kick things off.

Next year we are ramping things up since it was such a success and will be benefitting the Moffit Cancer Institute with a goal of 25 teams and handing them a check for $25,000 for their pediatric programs. "Kids fishing for kids" is the theme.

Take a look at these videos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHiYL5dJpHo&feature=player_embedded) and photos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJFmdi5D_50&feature=player_embedded) some friends did, these kids don't catch bluegill and catfish, they are catching #100 lb plus tarpon.

If you have kids that like to fish, give me a call and join us next year!

Sounds like a ton of fun, Wheat, and what a great way to put your skills and experience to use in benefit of the charity, and the kids participating!

[Indoor66]

Great stuff, Wheat. We were down in Tampa for a wedding earlier this month. We should have had you take us out for an expedition. We will be in Pensacola for another wedding in March. Are you nearby?

You can zip right down - about 550 miles and one time zone away. :cool:

[devildeac]

You can zip right down - about 550 miles and one time zone away. :cool:
We might have to look into that. We can fish with Wheat and "parse tweets" with you (:rolleyes:) while watching a Duke game (hopefully) late in the NCAA tourney next year;).

[Wheat/"/"/"]

You can zip right down - about 550 miles and one time zone away. :cool:

Tampa would have been close...only about 2 hours away. Pensacola not so close...about 8 hours away.

Tarpon season mid april through july ....may is the peak.
Snook, Redfish year round...come on down, Boca Grande is a great little island to relax and i'll even give everyone a DBR special rate :)