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ailors don’t often win fishing contests. That rule was broken Sunday when Henry Frazer won the 2011 Oriental Rotary All-Release Tarpon Tournament. Henry, who has won the Etchells North American championship multiple times, finished first with 3 tarpon. He was fishing aboard his power boat “Big Dipper” with team mate Ron Zielinski. Second and third place went to Gene Wooster and Tracey Maynor.

2011 Rotary Tarpon Tournament first prize winner Henry Frazer with daughter Ella. Even after winning, he says “I’m a sailor at heart.”

Henry Frazer playing a tarpon. (Henry Frazer photo)

This year’s Oriental Rotary All-Release Tarpon Tournament was headquartered at the River Neuse Motel. The event saw 7 tarpon landed – 5 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. While this is 4 more than landed last year, it’s still low by historic standards. In the event’s 19 year history, 290 fish have been recorded caught. This year, of 36 teams entered, 4 caught fish.

Some of the scarcity might have involved the weather.

Whittaker creek at 7 a Saturday morning. By then the fishermen were long out of sight as they put their first lines of the day into the water.

Tournament chairman Charles Skinner said that while teams saw tarpon on the fishing grounds Saturday and especially Sunday, an approaching low may have curbed their appetite. While the fishing was fair on Saturday, it changed for the worse overnight. He says, “Sunday afternoon, before the low came in, the wind shifted from south and soutwest to north. That made the water choppy at the mouth of the Neuse.” It also made the tarpon disinclined to take a bait. Only 2 were caught that day.

Winner Henry Frazer fared better. He landed both Sunday’s tarpon.

While Henry won’t tell exactly where he fished, he said he he found success not far from where he sails. “I fished in the river not far from where I anchored out in my sailboat.” For Henry, the win has been a long time coming. He says, “I’ve been in this tournament 7 times and never caught a tarpon.” This time, he got lucky. He hooked a tarpon on his first cast. The tournament started Saturday at 7 a. “I hooked up at 7:05 and had the fish tagged and released by 7:21 a.”

Second prize went to team Wooster for the 2 tarpon they caught Saturday. Pictured are Mathew Deaton, Amber Wooster and Gene Wooster

Third place – for the tarpon his team caught Saturday aboard his boat “Pamlico Promise” – went to Tracey Maynor.

2011 Oriental Tarpon Tournament Results

Main Tournament
1) Henry Frazer – 3 tarpon $4230
2) Gene Wooster – 2 tarpon $2538
3) Tracey Maynor – 1 tarpon $1692

Championship Tournament within the Tournament
1) Henry Frazer $1575
2) Tracey Maynor $945
3) David Evans $315

Sportsman Tournament within the Tournament
(open to boats on on which no team member has caught a tarpon in a previous Oriental Tarpon Tournament)

1) Henry Frazer $600
2) David Evans $375
3) Les Robinson $225
4) Jesse Schumucker $150

Tarpon Tournament Pancake Award
Wade Gaskin

Thank you for the … pancakes. Wade Gaskin accepting the Pancake Award for the catching the most skate during the tournament – 32. Wade is no stranger to the prize. He won the award last year with 42. Of this year’s plaque he joked, “I already have 2 of these at home – and I don’t want any more.”

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In past tarpon tournaments, fishing teams having been accompanied by observers. Each boat carried a non-fishing volunteer that tallied how many tarpon that vessel caught. This year, citing difficulty in rounding up enough volunteers to go out on the boats, Rotary organizers took a new approach. Teams would record their own catches with a system of colored wrist bands and time-stamped digital photos.

Friday, each team was issued a series of colored wrist bands. Prior to each day’s fishing, the color wrist band for that day’s fishing was announced. During the tournament, when crews caught a tarpon, they were to take a photo that included fish, fisherman and that day’s colored band. “Caught” was defined in tournament rules as when the fishing leader is touched by a registered tournament participant.

The wrist band would offer physical evidence of the day the fish was caught. The time stamped photograph would document the crew, fish, date – and that the fish was caught during tournament hours.

Color coded: Alex Young and Angela Caswell show off their orange armbands at Saturday’s barbecue cookout. They were fishing with Alex’s dad – and other friends and family – on “Kid Crew”. Fishing teams wore a red band Sunday.

All those tarpon photos made for some impressive, if non-conventional, images of fish next to boats. Some photos, like those of David Evans’ team with a tarpon they caught Saturday, were on display at the judges’ booth. Others photos never made it to print, appearing only on cell phones or cameras.

The David Evans team with a tarpon. The wrist band competitors wore to verify their catch is visible inches from the tarpon’s mouth. It is orange to designate the fish was caught on Saturday. The photo’s time stamp indicates the fish was caught July 30 at 3:56:12p. (David Evans photo)

A photo Henry Frazer presented to tournament officials as proof of his catch. It is one of the 3 tarpon Henry captured and photographed during the tournament.

Skate face: the underside of a cownose ray, or skate as it’s called by many, caught by Captain Timmy Rice. (Timmy Rice photo)

While the photos served primarily as documentation, crews also had a chance to enter them in a Rotary-sponsored photo contest. Winners would share $225 in prize monies and have a chance of their pictures appearing in future tournament publications.

Another change in this year’s tournament was visible on the score board. In addition to team names and number of tarpon and skate caught, a new category was tracked – rumor.

Rumor

In years past, organizers had to wait for on board observers to verify each crew’s catch. Because officials often didn’t speak with observers until the end of each day’s fishing, the official results didn’t appear on the score board until day’s end. But fishing tales don’t wait. In the age of cell phones and email, news of a tarpon swallowing a cut bait often reached shore faster than the fish was reeled in.

This year, Rotary organizers capitalized on this fishing tournament phenomenon.

“Fishermen can now call or email in their catches while they’re fishing” said tournament volunteer Hugh Midyette. When officials received these calls, they posted them in the Rumor column. Which, at that point, is still just that – a rumor.

But it must still be verified. Before a rumor can be declared official, a time-stamped photo of the fish in question – clearly showing the fisherman and day-specific wrist band – must be presented to tournament officials.

The first rumor came quickly. Saturday morning, fishing officially began at 7a. Within minutes, scorekeepers received a call that Henry Frazer had caught a fish. Then the gossip eased. Only 4 fish were caught the rest of the day. Sunday saw little on the Rumor front. Only 2 fish made the column – both caught by Henry.

The Tarpon Tournament is one of the Oriental Rotary Club’s main fund raisers, with a share of entry monies, concessions and meal sales going toward youth education. Other events include the Annual Rotary Boat show and chair and tent rentals. In 2011, the Oriental Rotary club awarded $30,000 in scholarships to graduating Pamlico County High School seniors and Pamlico Community College students. Scholarship recipients included Kaylah Blout, Kayla Hale, Caroline Welles, Narissa Taylor and Meredith Holton.

Waiting for 422 plates of Moore’s barbecue: the line at Friday’s cookout. High temperatures, even late in the day, meant more plates than normal were taken away to be enjoyed in air conditioned homes instead of under the Rotary tent.

Rotary Scholarship winner Meredith Holton helping Sunday at the concession stand. After Pamlico Community College, she plans to major in biology at Eastern Carolina University.

Full Circle playing before Sunday’s award ceremony.

The faces of Full Circle – Keri Delisle and Chris Daniels

The final Sunday score. In years past, when volunteer observers were sent out on every boat, most squares on this board would have contained a number by the tournament’s close. This year, teams called in the catch. Many competitors who didn’t catch a tarpon never reported back to officials. They simply went home after they finished fishing Sunday. This made for an empty score board.

Breaking down: Rotary members stowing the tables, chairs and tents until next year’s event.

Posted Tuesday August 2, 2011 by Bernie Harberts