Not a single dogfish was caught during the first five hours of the 11th annual Johnnie Mercer’s Pier Dogfish Tournament Jan. 30, but the moment the sun set, fishermen started reeling in the small sharks, catching and releasing 54 during the tournament’s final hours.
Dave Hannah from Wilmington finished first in the catch-and-release tournament with a 10-pound, 13-ounce dogfish; Bill Davis from Wilmington took second with a 9.13-pound dogfish; and Albert Marino from Hope Mills was third with a 9-pound dogfish. The event drew 127 anglers from as far away as Ohio.
Relatively mild air temperatures and clear skies drew near-record numbers of fishermen, but made their quarry more elusive. Dogfish tend to bite when skies are overcast and air temperature is colder, tournament director Al Baird explained.
But he was confident that if one dogfish was reeled in, others would follow. Dogfish earned their name because they travel in packs, he said.
“If one is around, then there are a lot around. It’s not like it’s a rogue fish,” he explained.
Dogfish group together by age and gender, said UNCW student Tiffany Yang, who attended the tournament in hopes the fishermen would donate some of their catch to her dogfish research.
She and other UNCW students are comparing the local dogfish population to populations further north, because understanding their migratory patterns could help maintain fishing quotas along the East Coast.
“The main purpose of the project is a conservation effort,” she said.
While no dogfish were caught during the daylight hours, several blowfish were reeled in, their bodies puffed up as a defense mechanism.
“We’re getting these blow toads because the water is warmer,” Baird said.
Despite the lack of fish caught during the day, the atmosphere on the pier was upbeat as old friends reunited. The locals fish together during the warmer months, but don’t typically see each other during the winter, Baird said. That’s why they started the dogfish tournament.
“It turns into a family reunion here,” he said. “But new people show up every year, so it’s a nice mix.”
Eric Kielmeyer traveled from Ohio to take part in the tournament, as he has done for the past eight years. Reeling dogfish out of the ocean is different than fishing back home, he said, catching freshwater species like bass and perch in Lake Erie.
“The pole is the same, but you get it up out of the water and you’ve got 15 feet you’ve got to hoist it up,” he said, adding that the fishermen use nets to help lift the dogfish.
But catching dogfish isn’t why Kielmeyer makes the trip.
“I’ve met so many nice people down here,” he said. “That’s the reason why I keep coming back.”
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