BLUFFTON MARINE RESCUE SQUADRON FISHING TOURNAMENT IS BIG HIT
Although the Bluffton MRS has had an inshore fishing tournament for many years, this year they decided to dedicate it to two of their members who passed away this year, Joe Meyer and Don Hurst. The name of the event had been changed also to the “2009 Fallen Members Fishing Tournament” featuring sea trout and red drum. The proceeds are to benefit the Bluffton Marine Rescue Squadron which is strictly a volunteer supported agency as it provides an invaluable service for the May River and Okatie River boaters.
The rules required the fishermen to only weigh in sea trout that were over 17 inches and the red drum had to be between 20 and 23 inches. A prize was also given for the red drum that had the most spots. This makes for some very strategic and accurate decision making before bringing the fish to the weighmaster, which for this tournament was me. All fish had to be caught from a boat and lagoon fishing was not allowed.
The winning sea trout of 2.1 pounds was brought in by Tom Brown on his boat “Fishindabox”. Two winning red drum of 4.8 pounds were weighed in and the top prize was shared by Robie Hester and Jimmy McIntire on “Unreel” and Pat Simoneaux on “Piroque”. The special prize for a red drum with 13 spots was taken by Dana Luchese on “Mulletover”.
Fin clippings for DNA analysis were also donated to SCDNR’s genetic analysis program by the participants. Study of the DNA will help fill in some research gaps on age, growth rates and whether the fish were native born or were stocked from the Waddell Mariculture Center. If the red drum is from the WMC, they can even determine the day it was born. This DNA collection process should be done by all of our local red drum fishing tournaments as it is the number one tool we have for keeping track of the health of our red drum stocks.
The next tournament which has made a commitment to intense DNA collection is the 17th Annual Dottie Dunbar All Women’s Fishing Tournament set for October 10th at Palmetto Bay Marina. More information on the tournament can be found on Facebook or call Stacy Wimmer at 384-2950 or swimmerinhh@aol.com.