REEL LOVE

[Sea Draggin]

For those of you who know and have fished with my cousin Mike B.

See Below. Thanks Chuck.

[JMS-ILM]

i get some crap about needing to be a subscriber to read it.....im interested as i think i remember these guys fishing a smaller 28' privateer or something like that....not a mega boat.

[Sea Draggin]

i get some crap about needing to be a subscriber to read it.....im interested as i think i remember these guys fishing a smaller 28' privateer or something like that....not a mega boat.

You are right 28 privateer. Just search the site and the article is on there. Its really good.

[gaffer]

Outdoors
The big time



The story of a million-dollar tournament, a 29-pound fish and three men with a dream.

By Monica Holland

Staff writer
MOREHEAD CITY — Big boats. Big fish. Big money. Big Rock.

Named for a billfish haven of ledges 40 miles southeast of Cape Lookout, the Big Rock Blue Marlin Classic has a reputation for mighty marlins, rowdy fanfare and a lavish payday.

It didn’t disappoint this year, with a last minute weigh-in of the 501.5-pound winner, landed by angler Wes Seegers of Goldsboro aboard Chainlink, worth $768,537.

“(It was the) biggest purse, (the) most people in all levels of competition with 140, (the) most wide open tournament that I can remember that anybody could have won right up until the last minute,” said media director Bruce Paul.

“We also had the biggest number of boats offshore on the final day. Every year, the tournament grows in some way or other.”

The Reel Love boat
Among those last-day hopefuls last Saturday was the crew of Jeff Vreugdenhil’s Reel Love, based in Clinton. Heading offshore from the Triple S Marina at 5 a.m., Vreugdenhil and Mike Butler, of Winston-Salem, and Michael Cutler, of Terra Ceia, had a new game plan for tackling the big tuna off the crystal coast.

But the water hadn’t been kind to Reel Love at the Big Rock after Tropical Storm Alberto stirred up the sea. After Vreugdenhil’s wife, Laurie, hauled in a 63-pound yellowfin tuna to finish in second place in the warm-up Ladies Tournament, the captain felt confident about finding more game in that location.

But, as Butler stated, “nothing’s as cold as yesterday’s hot spot.” So after two and a half days of only dolphin and shark bites, the crew gave up on the deep water and the chance to land a billfish, heading to the shipwreck Manuela where they had eyeballed some tuna boils after pulling the lines in at competition the previous Tuesday.

“When you’re out there in the blue water, over 30 fathoms or so, you have a good chance to catch billfish just like you do tunas,” Vreugdenhil said.

“We prefer that the tunas be out there where the billfish are, but we’ve fished out there two and a half days and haven’t seen anything but sharks and dolphins.”

So, in water 160 feet deep, about 28 miles from Hatteras and 25.6 miles from the Drum Inlet, Vreugdenhil turned on the radio to hear the tournament announcer call out “lines in the water” at 8 a.m.

Drop the bait
Cutler sent aloft a Bob Lewis light-wind model fishing kite with a helium balloon attached to keep the kite flying over a weak breeze.

Butler had been busy pushing rigging needles through menhadens’ backs. Each needle had a rubber band wedged into its eye and Butler laced the needle through a circle hook on the other side of the baitfish. The hook did not penetrate the fish, but was held against the bridled bait with the rubber band.

Vreugdenhil put the kite reel in free spool once the kite and balloon were attached and the nylon-cotton square drifted on the starboard side of the vessel.

As Butler tossed out chum, he shouted, “gaffer dolphin!” It was 8:13 a.m., a single line had been set in the water and already the shiny yellow of a 3-foot mahi-mahi glided past the stern chasing chum.

Four minutes later, the kite was falling toward the water and Cutler struggled to make the long line release. When release clips are set for kite fishing on a drift, the fishing line snaps off the clip with a little pressure. But the crew had trolled the last day they’d been on the water, and tightened the clips to hold.

The captain let the electric kite reel tow in some line and Cutler reeled fast, hoping to land a prize tuna.

This one got away
By the time the release clip had given way and the fish was near the boat, Cutler had worked up a sweat pulling and reeling. He climbed around the bridge to the bow of the 28-foot Privateer as the pole doubled over to the water.

And then, a straight pole. The line went slack and Cutler’s jaw dropped. The hook wasn’t set. As soon as Cutler had caught sight of the hefty yellowfin, it slipped off the line.

Less than a half-hour into the last day of competition, the Reel Love anglers had grabbed what may have been the big tuna overall and it had slipped away. But the day was still young and the baitfish were lively in the 55-gallon tank Vreugdenhil had designed.

Top tournament
The kite fishermen were hunting yellowfin tuna. At the Big Rock Tournament, in its 48th year, anglers may enter all categories, which includes blue marlin, white marlin, sailfish, tuna, dolphin and wahoo and costs $12,000. Or they can focus on game fish (tuna, dolphin, wahoo) for $500 plus the mandatory $2,500 entry fee.

Of the hundreds of fishing tournaments held on North Carolina’s coast, the Big Rock, with a purse that has topped $1 million for the past nine years, consistently brings in a healthy field from all over the East Coast.

“The Big Rock has a fantastic field ... the best collection of billfish anglers in the world,” tournament director Crystal Watters said in a news release. “For six days, the best battle the best. That’s what makes this so exciting.”

A well-organized tourney with an angler-friendly format, the Big Rock is a yearly favorite for fishermen.

“Everything about it is easy for the angler to know what’s going on. And the fact that you have six days to fish gives you a little more leeway, particularly with a small boat,” said Vreugdenhil.

“Another key to the Big Rock is that there are so many ways that you can do well. They have daily prizes for releases. They have daily game fish prizes, first and second places on releases. It’s just a really well-rounded tournament. You don’t have to have a $2 million boat to come out here and have a good time.”

Successful underdogs
If you let size dictate, Vreugdenhil’s 28-foot boat was the underdog among 189 entries spanning 12 states. But the crew is not unfamiliar with monster catches.

This past May, a 469-pound blue marlin was hauled into Reel Love at the Hatteras Village Offshore Open, good for third place, and the crew earned more than $9,000 at last year’s Big Rock for a blue marlin caught on a circle hook and released.

The captain and his crew have amassed enough Governor’s Cup points to earn an invitation to the Challenge Cup, pitting the top six anglers in points from North Carolina against those from South Carolina.

But the Big Rock, with its record purse of $1,593,425 is still the Super Bowl of Carolina fishing competition. And the Reel Love crew was hopeful of a chance to drift into the weigh-in where hundreds gather to check out big catches and cheer on big winners, especially on the last day of the event.

“I think on a Saturday when people are off work it’s going to be festive and people come to see the big fish. They follow it online and they know when a marlin’s on the way to the scales,” said Watters.

Rally and relax
Everyone on Reel Love was lamenting the catch that could have been when a big tuna burst at the bottom of the longest line at 8:28 a.m.

At 8:40 a.m., Cutler had brought in a 27-pound ‘eater’ that relieved some of his angst over losing the first tuna. “Good. I can still reel in a fish,” he said.

In the next few hours, the crew landed a pair of good-sized tuna, a dolphin and fought to keep bait away from an unwanted hammerhead. “Mid-day doldrums,” Vreugdenhil said while the anglers kept watch on the tiring baitfish and discussed how long before they would bridle fresh bait.

‘One minute left’
The men on board Reel Love, who have fished together for more than a decade, worked as a team keeping the kite aloft, letting out line to keep the baitfish dangling at the surface of the water, gaffing and spotting.

Butler and Cutler took turns heaving long casts of a popping plug that ripped through the water to entice passive tunas. It looked as though the fishing was finished and Vreugdenhil turned on the radio to hear the announcer officially call an end to the tournament.

“1:59,” the announcer said. “One minute left.”

And before he could repeat the time, a yellowfin torpedoed onto line No. 3 and Reel Love was back in action. As long as a fish is hooked before the call of ‘lines out of the water’ at 2 p.m., it’s a legal catch.

While the anglers felt good about landing the first tunas that had been hauled into any tournament boat since Tuesday, they were hoping to get a few more pounds on the biggest catch just for insurance.

After nearly 20 minutes of work, Butler gaffed a healthy yellowfin that was obviously bigger than any of the previous catches. It was a rewarding end to a day of ups and downs, but there was still a two and a half-hour ride to port and a highly-anticipated weigh-in at the waterfront headquarters.

Time to weigh
Coming back around Cape Lookout, yachts converged in the choppy water. Anglers aboard the huge vessels who had been trolling all day for blue marlin wondered if Skirt Chaser captain Barry Daniels’ 486.5-pound blue marlin would hold up as the top fish.

The Reel Love anglers, however, were only concerned with yellowfins, and as they picked the largest fish from the cooler at weigh-in, emcee Rick Cowell said, “looks like we’ve got the first tuna of the day.”

The crew shook hands. They didn’t beat the tournament’s weekly winner of 62.2 pounds, but the 29.5-pound, last-minute catch along with a 29.1-pounder earned them daily first and second prizes that had rolled over to $4,179.17. They had also earned respect.

“Look at that boat, folks. You don’t have to have a 60-foot yacht to come up to the weigh station with a money fish,” Cowell said.

Paul said smaller boats are not as numerous as they once were at the Big Rock, but they will always have a place.

“There’s still the dream that everybody has to win the Big Rock and you do it with whatever you have,” he said.

Monica Holland can be reached at hollandm@fayettevillenc.com.

Staff photos by Cindy Burnham 1C & 7C

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what a great story by monica