Capt. Mike Glaesner and Dick McCaskill

The following was originally presented as a speech during the 2023 South Carolina Governor’s Cup Billfishing Series Awards Reception held on the evening of September 29, 2023 at Founder’s Hall at Charles Towne Landing.

Our final special recognition award is the Carroll A. Campbell Award, created to honor individuals and families who have been an integral part of billfish conservation in our state and who embody Mr. Campbell’s principles and passions. This award is one of our most prestigious honors, recognition of a lifetime of commitment and service to everyone in this very room, as well as every other angler who enjoys blue water fishing off our state’s coast. And it would truly take an entire lifetime to fully recognize and describe the immense contributions and achievements of this year’s recipient.

Described by Chairman Stokely Holder as such an excellent fisherman that he could find a blue marlin in a mud puddle, this career captain has a professional fishing record that has unequivocally set the standard for others. If you ask any owner, mate, or captain from South Carolina for a list of the most respected captains in the industry, he will always be etched in the top echelon.

Whether using his eyes, nose, or gut, this captain finds the fish where others wouldn’t. He comes by this astounding skill from years of experience fishing with some of South Carolina’s pioneering blue water fishermen, including his late father. Even when he was just a lanky boy with long hair in the early 1970s, other anglers recognized that he was exceptional.

Dick McCaskill, who fished with tonight’s honoree in those early years and has joined us here this evening, says “You could just tell, even then, that he was a very good fisherman.”

This captain landed his first blue marlin in 1974 at the age of 14. And he’s got the newspaper clippings to prove it. He’s a sport fishing history buff, chock-full of facts and memories from those early years, those days of little regulation and rudimentary navigation. He enjoys putting fish in the boat, but carries a conservation wisdom inherited from his great mentors and his own experiences. And while he’s been a passionate steward of the resource, he’s also been an effective teacher and role model for up-and-coming mates and captains.

McCaskill says, “If you fish with him, you better be on your toes, because if you make a mistake, he’ll let you know about it.”

While he brings a competitive and fiery intensity to each day on the water, this year’s recipient quietly reveals his tenderness. Much like his beloved father, he wields a softness, a friendliness, that has built measurable trust and respect across the industry over his 40-year career.

When Graham Eubank was asked about tonight’s recipient, he said, “Having participated in the series and having fished with him over the past 35 years, I can say that he is without question one of the top captains in the industry. One of the best to ever hold the wheel of a sportfishing boat, period.”

Ladies and gentlemen, it is our great honor and privilege to award this year’s Carroll A. Campbell award to one of South Carolina’s finest fisherman, Captain Mike Glaesner.