Memorial Fishing Tournament

The $10,000 winner of a world championship fishing tournament says he’s only a rookie. The competition happens in Gulfport every year. News 25’s Gina Tomlinson was there.
The monster was caught in the waters right near Gulfport Harbor. Winner of the Spraberry-Schankin Speckled Trout World Championship Ashton Bond says he’s only been trout fishing for a month now, but Sunday afternoon the trout on the end of the Gulfport man’s pole reeled in a $10,000 prize. “Words can’t describe it. It’s incredible. This is the first time I fished a speckled trout tournament and I love it.”
People from all over the Coast came to the fishing tournament at the Harbor Pavilion in Gulfport. There was a ton of food, horseback rides, live music and of course a look at the competition. The best trout took home the grand prize, but fishermen didn’t get to have all the fun. Christie Senton hooked the first place prize for her flounder. “It’s great. I wish there was more females out there that wanted to fish the tournament because it’s a great competition and you can do exactly what the guys are doing out here.”
To determine the winner of the competition, the weigh master picks up the fish, flops him up on the scale and the heaviest fish wins. John Rea with the 2016 World Speckled Trout Championship said, “Speckled trout is the biggest. It’s kind of a trout tournament but then we have three other categories, trout, red fish, flounder and cobia.”
All the proceeds made are being donated to charities, universities, non-profits and the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory. Bond says he’s splitting his prize money with his uncle who taught him all he knows about catching fish. “Everybody here has been fishing hard and it was a tough weekend but we pulled it out at the very end.”