Hilton Head 16-year-old organizes SnapperFest fishing tournament for these good causes

I have pictures of me with my dad from way back when, where the entire dock in front of us is covered with monster red snapper and grouper.

Usually fishing with Capt. Buddy Hester, no doubt the most notable pioneer of offshore fishing on Hilton Head Island, we were with a man knew how to smell fish. This was back in the 1960s and ’70s without the aid of sophisticated electronics, and every time we bottom fished together, we would load the boat with so many big red snapper it would take four of us hours to clean them all.

Though the timeframe is fuzzy, I think it was around the early ’80s that commercial fishermen entered the picture, using roller nets to catch our bottom fish. The problem was these heavy nets had rollers that crushed the fragile corals and live bottom that acted as the home and nursery for these fish.

When the fishery started to crash, the roller nets were finally banned, but it took years before we started to see fish populations recover.

Luckily for us, there isn’t as much pressure on snapper and grouper here because, unlike Florida where you only have to travel a handful of miles to find these species, around here it’s a minimum run of 30 or so miles. I believe that factor plus stricter catch limits — and finally a complete closure of the red snapper fishery, now in its fourth or fifth year — has led to an incredible rebound of red snapper of all sizes. Quite frankly, these days it is nearly impossible not to catch red snapper while bottom fishing.

With that said, this year the feds are opening the red snapper fishery for recreational anglers for four days starting July 10 through 12 and again on July 17. Cool huh?

Well here is something even cooler.

Sixteen-year-old Carlyle Cornell, who has accompanied her father Dan and me on offshore trips since she was 8 years old, decided on her own to organize a Red Snapper tournament this year. A portion of proceeds will benefit the Deep Well Project and the state Department of Natural Resources’ Harry Hampton Wildlife Fund scholarships for deserving youth trying to become future biologists, or students in other fields of environmental study.

Having fished with Carlyle for all these years, I know she is one smart cookie with a heart of gold. Not only that, she can handle boats better than most men I know, even her dad’s 60-foot Viking.

Called SnapperFest 2020, the entry fee is $400 per boat. That entry fee allows you to fish all four days if you wish with the largest red snapper paying out 35% of the total proceeds while second place pays out 15%. If you are as horrible with math as I am, with 30 boats, the winner will come away with $4,200. That’s no chump change. Plus you will have helped fulfill the dreams of some of the future stewards of South Carolina’s environment as well as Deep Well, our most noted nonprofit.

I am so proud of Carlyle for getting involved, something I wish other kids her age did more often.

The tournament will be based out of Wexford Harbour with the carcasses from caught snapper going to the Waddell Mariculture Center in Bluffton for study as to their age, sex, etc.

To get registration forms, information and other particulars, go online to www.hhisnapperfest.com or e-mail hhisnapperfest@gmail.com.

You non-fisher people may make a financial donation to this marvelous endeavor. If successful, it will surely encourage Carlyle to add community service to her entire life. You go, Carlyle. I am so proud of you!