US OPEN KING MACKEREL TOURNAMENT RECAP

[Robja]

Got to the beach on Wednesday night to prepare for the US Open KMT. We spent most of the day Thursday getting the lights and everything else ready on the boat.


Once everthing was in order we headed out off the beach to look for pogies. They were scattered but we managed to load up with a 100 or so at the other end of the island.

We shared our bait with a friend since he wasn't able to get any so we called it a day.

We were at the marina at 6am and headed to checkout. We waited in the river till checkout at 7am.

Since there was so much rain the week before we decided to fish west off Lockwood Folly and Shallotte inlets to get away from the fresh water coming out of the Cape Fear. Nothing at either inlet except alot of bait so we headed South about 8 mi to a hard bottom area called the 390. Saw alot of fish being caught and we managed to catch 2 large spanish and 3 Kings. Nothing of any size so we weighed in a 17.15 lb fish to try for a special weight and kept the rest.

After that we headed over to watch the fish being weighed in.

These are pics from the weigh in tent where they check the fish before throwing them in the truck.

Day 2 we headed to checkout at Caswell dock. The weather was supposed to be 3-4's in the morning then the wind was supposed to pick up and the ocean was supposed to go to 4-6.(Once again they missed it as it layed down in the afternoon. We knew the top two fish were 40.30 and 38.00 with the leader being caught in the shipping channel. We trolled most of the morning at the old position bouy and got to watch alot of fish being caught but the only thing we could manage was a couple of brown marlin that seemed to enjoy the huge mullet we had on the downrigger. We moved to the shipping channel just in time to watch a guy catch the 3rd place fish(36.05lbs). Finally we had a hit that we thought might be a nice size fish since he made several good runs. We got the lines cleared and got the fish but not the one we were looking for. When we checked it in it was a 16.0 pounder but ended up good enough to hit a special weight so we were able to recoup $125.


Decided to call it a day since it was getting close to check in time. When we dropped a crew member off at the dock we heard a round of applause which I knew couldn't be for our paltry small fish so I looked around and saw 2 guys carrying a huge fish up the ramp. I told the captain if that was a king it had to be the biggest one I had ever seen since from the back it must have been a foot across the top of the back. I couldn't see it from the side but I couldn't help but remember several years ago when someone came to the scales with a large Wahoo not knowing what it was. Surely there couldn't be someone else who did not know the difference. Well I was wrong, those guys threw the fish on the table only to have the weighmaster inform them that he couldn't weigh their fish since this was not a Wahoo tournament. Our crew member said he has never seen 2 more dejected fishermen when they found out their fish was not a King. The hoo ended up weighing between 80 and 90 lbs.

These are some of the 2nd days boats coming in to weigh.

Did see one guy at the weigh tent that got to the check in point 20 min late with a king that would have probably come in second or third.

There were 456 boats in the tournament this year which makes it one of if not the largest king tournaments in the country. First place was Mako Warrior 40.30 lbs winnings $42,771 Second M&M 38.00 lbs $20,665 and third Spread M Wide 36.05 lbs $13,110. The tournament pays thru 55 places plus a lot of special weights.

[clt_capt]

The weigh-ins were always great fun. We used to grab a cooler of beer and watch the weigh-ins - Usually betting on how many people would fall out of their boats trying to get on the dock.

Nice pics.

[Ace1st]

Way to go ROBJA.........I guess you didnt like my INTEL. By the way a thirty three was caught on the same piece of real estate Saturday morning at daybreak. Thats a 22, 45 and 33 caught in a week there. Guess Im gonna have to go down there for the RUMBLE myself. I think I'll fish my Canoe with the lectric motor too.

[Capt. Lyndon]

Ace, you talking Brant's former secret hole to the west? I know there were some good fish there on thursday.

[Robja]

Way to go ROBJA.........I guess you didnt like my INTEL. By the way a thirty three was caught on the same piece of real estate Saturday morning at daybreak. Thats a 22, 45 and 33 caught in a week there. Guess Im gonna have to go down there for the RUMBLE myself. I think I'll fish my Canoe with the lectric motor too.

Ace,

We fished from shallotte inlet down towards Bird island before we went to the 390. Your info is one of the reasons we went that far west. Lots of bait down that way but we never saw a fish caught down there till we went to the 390.

[N2theBlue]

good job guys. I took the whole week off from work then my grandmother went in the hospital on sunday before the even so i never even made it to the beach.

Lyndon you talking about where the Got Em On winner came from?

[Agitated88]

Nice reporting and pic's to boot...thanks for sharing!

[Ace1st]

Oh well, you win some you lose some.Ill be lookin out for you for the next one.

[Robja]

were fishing the fall brawl in a couple of weeks so any info would be good.

[gottaflylee]

Thanks for the update, I had not heard what the winners were. Good talking to you today...