~~The North Carolina East Division of the Fishers of Men Team Series completed their fourth scheduled tournament of 2018 this past weekend on the Yoepium River. Twenty Eight teams launched from the Bethel Fishing Center in search of a winning limit of fish. The weather was hot, with high humidity and temperatures in the low 90’s. The wind was from the southwest at 10-15 mph which made for a bumpy ride for those teams that ventured out into the Albemarle Sound.
Our Friday night pre-tournament meeting was hosted by the Bethel Fire Department and the meal was catered by Captain Bob’s. The ladies from First Church of the Nazarene and Camden United Methodist Church provided some delicious deserts to finish off the great meal.  Butch Flythe delivered the message from scripture Genesis 1:26-31 and John 15:5.  He asked the question “Who are you”? Butch went on to talk about how people use their names or what they do or how famous they are to describe who they are. However without Jesus, we are nobody. Butch also stressed the importance of being a part of a church community and to and help one another and pray for one another in difficult times.
The teams launched with a beautiful sunrise Saturday morning with many boats staying close to the launch site. The waters of the Albemarle Sound produced some nice limits of fish but the bite was a bit tougher than last month. Twenty Eight teams brought 108 bass to the scales for a total weight of 286.30 pounds. 105 largemouth bass were released back into the water of the Yoepium River to be caught another day. The average number of fish per team was three, average weight per team was 10.23 pounds and the average fish weight was 2.65 pounds.
When the scales closed, John and Jennifer Kellett were at the top of the leaderboard with a nice limit of fish that weighed 22.66 pounds. They also brought in the big fish for the tournament that weighed 7.30 pounds. They won first place for the tournament, big fish and first place bonus bucks to take home $1,671 dollars for a great day of fishing. Second place went to Mike Wenthe and Stacy Light who weighed in a nice five fish limit that weighed 20.17 pounds that included a 6.07 pound kicker fish. They took a check for $572.00 for their efforts. Third place honors went to Dustin Winslow and Sanders Overman who brought their five fish limit to the scales that weighed 18.31 pounds. They took home $381.00 for their efforts. Fourth place was awarded to the team of Gary DeBrito and Derek Goodman with 17.24 pounds for their five fish limit. They received a check for $245.00 dollars for their fourth place finish. Fifth place went to Gary Morin and Tom Biagioni for their limit of fish that weighed 15.95 pounds. The received $168.00 dollars for fifth place and $142.50 for 2nd place bonus bucks. Third place bonus bucks went to Kevin Jones and Gerald Murray with a check of $95.00 dollars. The staff would like to apologize for the limited number of pictures due to the rain storm that came through during the weigh-in.
Fishers of Men would like to thank the Bethel Fire Department for hosting our meeting and our sponsors and ministry partners for their support in this event. They include First Church of the Nazarene and Camden United Methodist Church, Swampdonkey tackle, PGF Archery and Outdoors, and Bassakwards who also supports our ministry. We would also like to thank our National Sponsors;  Basscat, Power-Pole, Ray Jus, Mercury, Duckett Fishing, Stren, Pfluger, Strike King, Ray Marine, Kistler rods, Berkley, Spider Wire, Hydrowave, ORCA, Jacobs Glass, Gator Guard, Buckeye, Abu Garcia, Shakespeare, and TH Marine for their support to make this ministry a continued success.
 

Place	Team	Members	# Fish	Big Fish	Gross	Penalty	Net Wt	Points
1	16247	John Kellett Michael Kellett	5	7.3	22.66	0	22.66	200
2	22893	Michael Wenthe Stacey Light	5	6.07	20.17	0	20.17	199
3	21405	Dustin Winslow Sanders Overman	5	0	18.31	0	18.31	198
4	17573	Gary DeBrito Derek Goodman	5	0	17.24	0	17.24	197
5	17575	Gary Morin Tom Biagioni	5	0	15.95	0	15.95	196
6	21393	Kevin Jones Gerald Murray	5	0	15.62	0	15.62	195
7	11993	Darren Saunders James Duncan III	5	0	14.39	0	14.39	194
8	22914	Michael Evans Justin Chamblee	5	0	14.64	0.25	14.39	194
9	8708	Kirk Wall Charles Reed	5	0	13.78	0	13.78	192
10	21885	Heath Parker Brian Cooper	5	0	13.75	0	13.75	191
11	21443	Don Porter Todd Winslow	5	0	12.66	0.25	12.41	190
12	23033	David Parker Joshua Parker	5	0	11.79	0.25	11.54	189
13	22791	Brandon Johnson Wilson Johnson	5	0	11.12	0	11.12	188
14	22916	Scott Mummert David Buchanan	5	0	9.46	0	9.46	187
15	21428	Thomas Jones Steve Albertson	5	0	9.27	0	9.27	186
16	21427	Tommy Houlroyd Brandon Overton	5	0	8.97	0	8.97	185
17	22917	William Chappell Larry Weatherly	5	0	7.97	0	7.97	184
18	18831	David Watkins William Heighter	4	0	7.49	0	7.49	183
19	23181	Max Hartung Robert Good	3	0	7.33	0	7.33	182
20	17629	Jerry Murray Keith Jennings	3	0	6.96	0	6.96	181
21	14712	Chris Turner Quinton Chappell	3	0	6.49	0	6.49	180
22	14713	Daryl Johnson Peter Lorsong	3	0	6.15	0	6.15	179
23	18161	Richard Griswold Jr Richard Griswold III	2	0	5.8	0	5.8	178
24	22840	Gary Sawyer David Hickman	2	0	4.19	0	4.19	177
25	17449	Al Biagioni John LaRock	2	0	3.43	0	3.43	176
26	18850	Tommy Banks Bubba Banks	1	1.46	1.46	0	1.46	175
27	22843	William Jordan, III Eugene Foushee	0	0	0	0	0	174
28	21535	Hunter Halloman Rob Jones	0	0	0	0	0	174
John and Jennifer Kellett 1st Place 22.66 lbs John Kellett displays the Big Fish 7.30 lbs. Mike Wenthe and Stacy Light 2nd Place 20.17 lbs