The North Carolina East Fishers of Men Firefly Weeknight Series held their first tournament of the 2025 season on the Pasquotank River Friday, October 18, 2024. The weather was sunny and mild with temperatures in the low 70’s with a stiff breeze out of the northeast at 10-20 mph which created lower than normal tidal conditions.  10 teams participated in the tournament and all teams attended the pre-tournament meeting.

The meeting was started with a prayer and our Chaplain Kenneth Wallace providing the message. Kenneth spoke about “Little Faith”. He started by reading from the Gospel of Mathew chapter 14vs. 22-31 which describes Jesus telling the disciples to get into a boat and cross over to the other side of the lake ahead of him while he sent the people away. Jesus went to the mountain to pray alone. With the boat several hundreds of yards from the shore, the winds and the waves began to make their journey difficult.  Between three and six o’clock Jesus came to them walking on water and the disciples were terrified. They thought it was a ghost and began to scream because they were afraid. Immediately Jesus told them to calm down because it was he. Peter decided that if it was Jesus, to have him walk out on the water to him. Jesus told Peter to come and he got out of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. Peter noticed the strong wind and the waves and began to sink because he was afraid. He shouted “Lord save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out and caught hold of Peter and said to him “you have so little faith! Why do you doubt?” Kenneth explained the word Oligopistos which is Greek which means little faith. He asked the members about the times when we have little faith in our lives such as when we have difficult times with our jobs, family, illnesses, finances, etc. He went on to explain that God knows our desires and needs and he will never give up on us and we should definitely not give up on him. Kenneth went on to explain that we need to trust God for the long haul and let his plan play out. He ended by explaining if we have enough faith to step out, we need to have faith to see it through. Kenneth ended in prayer praising God for giving us faith and thanking him for this ministry.  

 After reviewing the rules highlights, our fishermen set out on the River in search of the winning catch. The fishermen found the bite to be a very tough with low water conditions and the fish in that fall transition period.  There were only 18 fish weighed for a total 44.6 pounds. 18 of the fish were released back into the water for 100% release. The average number of fish per team was 1, average weight per team 4.46 pounds and the average fish weight was 2.48 pounds. When the teams came to the scale, Trent Nixon, fishing solo without his father Kirk had the winning 3 fish bag that weighed 12.65 pounds with a 6.31 pound kicker fish which was also the Big Fish for the tournament. The first place prize was $285 dollars and Big Fish paid $50.00 dollars. Second place was awarded to Chris Meads and Zachery Meads who brought five fish to the scales that weighed 9.17 pounds. They took $65.00 dollars home for their efforts. Third place was Pat Seigh fishing solo without his partner Isaiah with 2 fish that went 8.37 pounds with a 6.30 pound kicker. There were only two places paid due to the number of boats.

We would like to thank all those who helped with making this tournament a success, especially Kenneth Wallace, Gary Sawyer, and Eric Ball as well as all our fishermen. We also would like to thank all the Fishers of Men sponsors; Bass Cat, Mercury, Realtree Fishing, Power Pole, Firefly Outdoor and Marine, Abu Garcia, Berkley, Spiderwire, TH Marine and X2Power.

Place	Team	Members	# Fish	Big Fish	Gross	Penalty	Net Wt	Points
1	30981	Kirk Nixon trent nixon	3	6.31	12.65	0	12.65	200
2	30973	Chris Meads Zachery Meads	5	0	9.17	0	9.17	199
3	30954	Patrick Seigh Isaiah Seigh	2	6.3	8.37	0	8.37	198
4	32788	Jerry Murray Ron Harris	2	2.92	4.48	0	4.48	197
5	32785	Gary Sawyer Eric Ball	2	0	3.46	0	3.46	196
6	30952	Jim Dick Greg Dick	2	0	3.09	0	3.09	195
7	32587	Michael Looney Michael Abel	1	1.93	1.93	0	1.93	194
8	32787	Justin Chamblee Josh Powell	1	1.46	1.46	0	1.46	193
9	30953	Kenneth Wallace Jason Samson	0	0	0	0	0	192
10	32786	Alan Meads Gerald Murray	0	0	0	0	0	192
First Place Trent Nixon fishing solo with the winning weight 12.65 pounds which included the big fish for the tournament that weighed 6.31 pounds Second Place awarded to Chris and Zachery Meads with 9.17 pounds