The purse last year was a record $1,854,575! A boat named Artemis, the winner took $708,400 of that.

Today the waterfront headquarters opened for registration. It will open again on Friday (June 5th) at 9am and remain open until 5pm. At 6pm on Friday there will be a Lady Angler Event at the Civic Center. Tickets are $15.

The last day for registration is Sunday (June 7th) on the waterfront from 1pm until 5pm. And at Town Creek Marina in Beaufort from 6pm until 9pm.

There will be weigh-ins Monday through Friday (June 11th-14th) at about 5pm. Saturday’s is at 4pm.

Last year 177 boats were in the tournament. They caught and released 163 billfish.

This Morehead City Blue Marlin fishing tournament has come a long way since the first one back in 1957. The total prize for this inaugural tournament was a whopping couple hundred dollars.

No one even caught a marlin in that first tournament. In fact I think the first marlin caught off the North Carolina coast wasn’t until that following September. An angler from Raleigh, Jimmy Croy landed a 143 pound blue marlin. He was fishing aboard a boat called the Mary Z captained by K.W. “Bill” Olsen.

This year’s Big Rock is set to be an outstanding event. Each year the tournament raises thousands of dollars for a variety of charities.

I’d like to wish all of the anglers in this 51st Big Rock the best of luck!

I hope to make it to the scales at least one day of the tournament and get some photos of a nice marlin or two.

I also know it’s the dead of winter, and there is not many people checking the surf very often. But we can work SOMETHING out. There are a couple ways this Atlantic Beach surf report author could earn some money doing this.

1. We could place some Google ads on your posts and you keep the revenue generated from those ads.
2. You could go around the Atlantic Beach area and sell your own ads, then add them to your posts.

Either way, you could end up pulling in some extra spending money to buy that new surfboard you’ve been eyeing at AB surf shop. If you’re interested email me: jason@crystalcoastnews.com

Surf reports for our area, if written well can generate a lot of traffic. They’re also a vital service for the area. A lot of people are continuously searching for wave reports before they even make it to Atlantic Beach for their vacation.

I only made it public yesterday, and today I received a phone call from News14 (the best news source for the Crystal Coast). There was a reporter looking for an interview regarding rentals along the Crystal Coast and the current economic conditions. Of course I was happy to oblige her, I mean that’s about the best exposure any of my websites ever had.

It totally made my day. I mean here I was thinking of ways to promote my rentals site, and low and behold some AWESOME publicity just fell right in my lap. Hopefully this story will help establish my site as a valuable tool for homeowners looking to take the rental by owner plunge.

Really there’s nothing to be afraid of, look around the Internet and you’ll see the rental by owner segment is rapidly expanding.

Is it any wonder? Given the current economic conditions owners of rental properties are looking to save wherever they can. That means rolling up their sleeves and managing their own rental reservations, rental marketing, etc. But they no longer shell out a healthy portion of rental income to a property manager. So if you’re willing to put forth a little effort, the savings could add up to thousands more in rental income.

It took 55 firefighters five hours to bring the blaze under control. Investigators say the fire looks suspicious. The SBI is now in charge of the case.

It doesn’t seem that long ago that the El Zarape in Emerald Isle caught fire. I can’t help but ask myself, “Are these guys burning their restaurants to collect insurance money or something?” I mean it strikes me as very odd that you own several restaurants and two of them catch on fire in a pretty close time span.

Anything is possible though, I guess. I imagine they have a few disgruntled employees and one of them may have done this. Either way its a bummer because when I’m in Atlantic Beach, I love to eat at El Zarape.

The one that just burned was my favorite too, because it overlooked the water and some fishing boats. I sure hope the owners are not guilty of any wrongdoing and that they re-open this restaurant in Atlantic Beach.

Today was so nice, it was hard to be at work, when all I wanted to do was knock off and go fishing. I think we hit near 70 degrees today, maybe even higher, that’s just a guess. And they’re saying mid seventies on Friday. I’m thinking about fishing the weekend since the temperatures are supposed to drop back into the fifties over theweekend.

Tomorrow look for temperatures in the sixties, then dropping to the fifties in the late afternoon to evening. There’s also a 50% risk of showers. There is currently a small craft advisory so boating may be out of the question.

But with seas anywhere from 3 to 6 feet, they’re may be some decent surf.

The rest of the week looks to provide highs of around the mid-sixties, then hit the seventies at the end of the week before dipping slighty on Saturday.

Folks in Indian Beach, and the rest of the Crystal Coast are pretty concerned. I guess I can understand the concern. If you do an Internet search for the new chief, you’ll get his homepage, as well as a few articles highlighting his alleged wrongdoings, and the investigation that followed. During the investigation Becker retired and the investigation came to a halt.

Now the commissioner Karl Garlock motions to appoint Becker as fire chief, and commissioner Betsy Lane seconds the motion. I am curious though, did these commissioners do a google search on ANY of the fire chief applicants? I mean come on who even pays or spends time on a background check without doing a free Internet search on prospective employees names? Scary stuff indeed. Who knows maybe they did due diligence and this was the best they found. Heck, they’re only paying someone $50K/year for someone to keep a whole town safe from fire.

Granted Chief Becker was never convicted of any wrongdoing, and maybe he deserves his chance. Is it possible he brings some valuable insight and experience to the table? I hope so. However, I hope the Indian Beach firefighters don’t suffer any abuse like he’s been accused of. It will be interesting to see what develops. One thing’s for sure, the Crystal Coast already has their eyes on Chief Becker, and he would be well advised to keep the proverbial “I’s dotted and T’s crossed”.

What really puzzles me, is why did the town of Clearcreek ended its investigation? So now Indian Beach fire department gets stuck with the idea our fire chief may be abusing firefighters. Thanks Clearcreek, OH.

Boiling Emerald Isle water for a minute rigorously should kill any harmful bacteria. But boiling the water in this manner does increase the concentration of any nitrates in the water. Because of this fact pregnant women and infants under the age of six months should consume water from an alternate source such as bottled water to be safe.

The Town of Emerald isle will keep us up to date on this matter and for more information call 252-354-3307

***UPDATE***

Town officials have lifted the boil advisory as of today December 12, 2008.

According to Cathy Craft, system administrator for Bogue Banks Water, the water supply had nothing wrong with it to begin with. The routine samples tested positive for the bacteria due to a sampling error.

***END UPDATE***

I went to several local companies websites to shop bargains on a week in a 3 bedroom oceanfront rental. The first place I went was to Emerald Isle Realty. i must say their website makes it very easy for a bargain hunter like myself they made finding a low priced oceanfront house a snap. They did not have the lowest price but navigating their site was quick and easy. They came in with the second lowest price of $665 for the week starting Saturday, December 13th. You do ha

I then went to Bluewater’s website. Their site was quite navigible as well. However they do not make it easy on someone who is extremely price oriented. If you’re not on a budget their site is a perfect place to find a rental. They did, however, have the lowest price 3 bedroom condo for $636 for thie week starting this Saturday.

One should ALWAYS check vrbo.com for Emerald Isle rentals as well. They have a lot of them and there’s no commision involved so you can usually get more for your money. For example I found this gem, The Pelicans Nest on there for a great price.

I went to a couple other local companies sites, but they were very hard to navigate and even harder to find any deals on. I will keep checking on them and hopefully will find some deals from them to post.

But I have good news…The parade has since been rescheduled for Saturday, December 13th at 4pm. According to the town’s website, the parade route is the same as in years past. Basically it starts at the intersection of Emerald Drive (Hwy 58) and Mangrove Dr. So if you were as bummed out as me about the rain out, be sure to come back and check out the parade. Hopefully this time the weather will go easy on us. Below is a map of the parade route. Hopefully it will help those not familiar with the area to find a good place to view the parade.

View Larger Map

Now that the beach appears to be coming back the town has already opened the ramp to pedestrian traffic and hopes to have the ramp ready for vehicles sometime next week.  Folks wishing to do some fishing in this area are urged to use the newly opened ramp vice the Doe Drive ramp.

When they started the inlet relocation project I remember a lot of skepticism surrounding the project. People said, “You can’t control Mother Nature.” And things of that nature. True, we cannot control Mother Nature or her oceans and tides, but so far I think this project is a smashing success.