Martini’s Hook-A-Hoo Rodeo
Steve Dooley and Chris Sasser, Lee Downs, and Brett Lancaster–the “Size Does Matter” crew–with a trio of wahoo including the 59.1 lb. fish that earned them first place in the Martini’s Fall Hook-a-Hoo Rodeo. Their wahoo bit skirted ballyhoo near the Scallop Beds off Bogue Inlet.
Scaling a 59.10 lb. wahoo earned La Grange, NC’s Steve Dooley and the “Size Does Matter” crew first place in the 2013 Martini’s Fall Hook-a-Hoo Rodeo, held October 12-27 out of several NC and SC ports. With a new two-week long schedule and five weigh-in sites, teams were able to wait for decent weather and fish out of a variety of ports in this year’s event.
Dooley and teammates Chris Sasser, Lee Downs, and Brett Lancaster elected to fish out of Bogue Inlet on Friday, November 18, and had a game plan in mind despite not pre-fishing for the event.
“We just talked to some people,” Sasser explained, “and we know the wahoo tend to be a bit down to the south that time of year.”
Pointing the 32’ Century center console for the Scallop Beds after they cleared Bogue Inlet, the “Size Does Matter” crew set out a spread of skirted ballyhoo around 7:15 that Friday morning.
Their initial troll around the area produced no action, so the anglers headed down the break to look for a hungry fish.
As they were trolling in 130’ of water around 9:15 that morning, the crew finally got their first bite, on an Ilander-skirted ballyhoo trolled deep behind a planer. Sasser was first to the rod, and the team realized quickly they had a substantial fish.
“We had the drag set around 40 lbs.,” he explained, “and he was taking it on out, so we knew he was pretty good size.”
After the fish’s initial run, Sasser was able to make fairly short work of it with the heavy planer rod.
“It wasn’t that big a fight with him,” he continued, “since we had him on a 130. I just cranked him on in pretty easy.”
Apparently the fish saved some energy for the endgame, as it put on a burst of power after Downs sank home the gaff.
“Lee gaffed that fish and almost went overboard,” Sasser explained. “The fish tried to take off, and if Brett didn’t grab him he would’ve been gone.”
Downs soon regained control of the wild wahoo and put the fish on deck, and the anglers redeployed their spread.
The near-60 lb. fish ended up being the best they could muster, but the crew added a pair of smaller wahoo and a pair of dolphin before deciding to head for the scales.
After weighing their fish, the crew had to wait for more than a week to find out if it would hold the top spot on the leaderboard.
“We’d been looking at the scoreboard and we knew we’d be in the money for that day,” Sasser reported, “but we didn’t know if it would hold up till the end, and there were eight more days to fish. That’s a long time.”
Earning second place with a 51.76 lb. wahoo were Capt. Danny Juel and the “Judd Kuhn” fishing team. Steven Hunter aboard the “Bounty Hunter” rounded out the top three with a 44.16 lb. ‘hoo.
The Hook-a-Hoo Rodeo serves as a fundraiser for the Carolina Shriners’ Hospitals, whose primary mission is providing no-cost care to childhood burn victims. More information about the event and a full leaderboard are available at www.hookahoo.com.
