Vanceboro Rotary Club 25th Annual Panfish Tournament

Charles and I took a break from crappie fishing this past Saturday to see how we could do with panfish (did catch two decent crappie). Charles likes crappie fishing, but he loves blue gill more than anything. We launched from Cowpen Landing, just north of New Bern on the Neuse River. I have never fished this part of NC, so it was new turf to me. From looking at satellite pictures, we decided to go up Swift Creek and then branch off into Little Swift Creek.

The turnout was low this year, but they have had up to 70 boats in past years. The cut-off time was 3:00 and we got to the dock at 3:02, so we were disqualified. You weigh in your best 15 and we caught probably 25 or more. We only had one decent fish, so we were not going to be near the top anyway. Our goal was not to try and win, but to make new friends and check out fishing in another part of the state. We were successful and did find out where the winning fish were caught. Here are a few pictures of the event and the area we fished.

Tournament was a benefit for the scouts.

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Cash, donations and trophies being awarded.

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Section of the Little Swift that we fished. It was much deeper than I suspected--most of it around 16'-20'. We were definitely back in the swamps with losts of cypress trees and Spanish moss. I told Charles before we started that there are three things he needs to be aware of when swamp fishing: water moccasins, alligators and bears. Fortunately for us, only one of the three were seen. We had slid up into a little branch emptying into the creek and all of a sudden, we heard a big crashing in the water and a muddy streak right behind our boat. Charles got a little excited knowing a gator had just gone under the back of the boat where he was fishing. Ended up being a little disappointed in swamp fishing. Using our electronics, there was not near the amount of bait or fish in these creeks as I thought there would be. All in all, a good day on the water and a good learning experience.

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This picture does not do this tree justice, but there were some huge cypress trees like this one along the river.

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