By Nichole Osinski
“I’ve always wanted to be in the Big Rock,” Pelagic Hunter II Captain John Cruise III says thinking back on the many years he’s attended the tournament.
And in 2020, Cruise took his first step toward that goal by signing up for the Lady Angler Tournament. His wife would be competing, but fate, and foul weather, had other plans and it looked as if the Pelagic Hunter II wouldn’t be sharing the seas with other boats during those two days.
With the storms following the tournaments north, the East Coast teams geared up for the 2021 Cape Fear Blue Marlin Tournament. A total of 26 boats headed offshore on June 2 in search of whiteys, blues and dolphin. Due to foul weather preventing fishing on the second day, the teams were out in full force on the third and final day.
Team J&B, a 55′ Wanchese out of Oriental, North Carolina captained by Alan Murray, won first place with a nice doubleheader followed by Horse with captain and owner Les Edwards. 18 Reeler won first place with their dolphin and Jimmy Vass won the Eddy Haneman Sportsmanship Award. A job well done to all the teams.
1998 – Instigator (861 lb)
If you’re looking for world-class blue marlin fishing along the East Coast, you need to be in Hatteras, North Carolina May 11 – 15, 2021 for the Hatteras Village Offshore, an InTheBite Captain of the Year sanctioned event. Hatteras Village offers a laidback atmosphere for the opening tournament in the NC Billfish Series, where year after year quality blue marlin are brought to the dock. In addition to the great fishing, we have amazing food lined up for you three out of the five nights, leaving you a couple of free evenings to enjoy all that Hatteras has to offer.
Photo courtesy NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources Marine Fisheries
North Carolina anglers take note—starting January 1, 2020, anyone recreationally fishing off the state’s Atlantic coast will now be required to use circle hooks when fishing for striped bass with natural bait.
Capt. Emory Dillon with a young Chip Shafer and a blue marlin caught off the Early Bird in Hatteras.
By Jim Blount
In 2013 the offshore fishing community lost a true pioneer of the industry when Captain Emory D. Dillon passed away in Frisco, North Carolina at the age of 87. Captain Emory fished the offshore waters of North Carolina and Florida for over four decades on his boat, the Early Bird, until his retirement in the 1990s. His reputation as a successful charter captain stood out among all his fellow captains, anglers and mates. Emory’s dry sense of humor and likable personality combined with a natural instinct to perform as a charter boat captain earned him tremendous respect for those who spent time around him, especially his mates.
By Capt. Jen Copeland
“Forever grateful.”
Aged just seventeen, Newt Cagle left his South Carolina home of Sullivan’s Island. On Captain John Mumford’s Hattitude, he was en route to all the usual new mate, cut-your-teeth destinations. The standard travel circuit seems to continually spit out the good new mates, and swallow up the bad: Florida, Mexico, Bahamas, Dominican Republic and St. Thomas. If you can survive the nighttime antics of this billfish boot camp, you’re usually good. If not, you’re on the first plane home – to grow up.
