Southport Magazine

Hello everyone and welcome to the start of a beautiful spring here in Brunswick County. Everyone is certainly enjoying the warmer weather and we’re all in the mood to get out of the house and do something fun, including me!

This month I want to talk about one of the most fun and rewarding tournaments that will go on this year. It’s the Boiling Spring Lakes Small Fry Fishing Tournament that is now in its 25th year! This tournament is put on each year by the Boiling Spring Lakes Police Department and it’s for kids only. This event is a community effort that means so much to our children and parents, as well as those who support and organize it each year. The joy of this event has been a long time tradition that was started back in 1991 by the Boiling Spring Lakes Police Chief at that time, Mr. James Vaughn and his wife Phyllis. Chief Vaughn recognized that activities for the younger children were limited in the community and he wanted to bring families together with an annual event that catered specifically to young children so the annual “Small Fry Fishing Tournament” began and has been hosted by our own Police Department every year since.

This year the Tournament will be held at Spring Lake Park on Saturday April 25th from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM. There are 3 age groups for the kids that are as follows. 3-6 Years of age, 7-9 Years of age and 10-12 years of age. Trophies and Gift Cards are awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for the heaviest fish caught.

This is a free event and pre-registration is open at the Police Department during business hours as well as at the Community Center and the morning before the Tournament starts.

Volunteers are always needed to help run the event. If you are interested in helping with this very important community event, please contact Allison Scouler at (910) 363-0011. “The rewards are tremendous” says Allison. Seeing the excitement of the kids as they catch fish are just wonderful and very satisfying to everyone involved. So many businesses join together to make this event possible by way of support through donations of food, drinks, trophies, bait, music, gift cards and prizes for every kid that signs up. Each is given a hat and a gift at registration so they are very excited to get a chance to fish and to win a Trophy. The catching is almost a guarantee thanks to the support of Mr. Bay’s Aquaculture class at South Brunswick High School that provide Fish to stock the Lake the day before the event. Bass, Catfish, Hybrid Blue Gill Bream are all placed in the fishing area to help promote the catching. The Police Officers also purchase extra fish to stock the lake so it’s extra loaded with fish for the kids to catch.

Bait is provided by The Old Brunswick Store and each kid uses the same bait to make it fair. It’s ok if they don’t want to handle the red worms provided. The volunteers are there to help bait the hooks and land the big fish as they are caught. Papa John’s Pizza is donated to feed the hungry fishermen and ladies after the event so everyone gets fed, even the fish! This is a catch and release Tournament so no fish gets injured and they live to grow bigger for next year!

“This event has grown so much in recent years”, says Allison, “that we have to have the Fire Department there to help the Police Officers as well as parents. It’s just a wonderful, rewarding event for all who attend so be sure to take time to come by and enjoy the weather, the park and our wonderful kids”!

Be sure to mark your calendar and come to this event! You will have fun whether you fish or not. I’m sure you’ll see some of the most intense fishing you’ve ever seen! These kids mean business!

Many thanks to those that make this event possible, especially our BSL Police Department!

“Life is short, fish hard”
—Capt. Beaz