2008 Tournament Reports
2008 Wrightsville Beach Spring Challenge
Ken Broomfield, capt. of the "Fish Hooker," accepts the $3276 check for the first place wahoo and largest overall fish weighed in the Wrightsville Beach Spring Challenge. They caught the 70 lb. 'hoo north of Wrightsville Beach in 190' of water around the 300 line.
What do you get when the area’s top two spring blue water fishing tournaments combine? A bigger, better event with only half of the entry fees. Such was the case for the 2008 Wrightsville Beach Spring Challenge, an amalgamation of the WB Marina Spring Challenge and the Cape Fear Blue Water Fishing Club’s Blue Water Open held April 23-26.
The Yamaha-powered 33T Contender “Fish Hooker” took the top overall prize in the event and the top honors in the wahoo competition with a 70.0 lb. ‘hoo they caught while fishing Friday, April 25. Capt. Ken Broomfield led the Wilmington-based team along with co-Capt. Izzy Mabry, Chip Nifong, and Paul and Pat Horning. The first place wahoo check netted them $3276.
Like much of the fleet, the “Fish Hooker” anglers elected to fish Friday and Saturday of the captain’s choice event (fish two of three days), and it turned out to be a good decision.
Trolling well to the north of much of the fleet of tournament boats around 1:00 on Friday afternoon, the “Fish Hooker” anglers got a dramatic strike.
“We were around the 300 line in 190’,” Broomfield explained. “There wasn’t much of a temperature break or many weeds, but there was a little ledge there. That big fish skied on that bait, and my jaw just dropped. We saw the fish, but Izzy heard the reel go off and got to the rod before we did.”
A ballyhoo beneath a purple/black Ilander Hawaiian Eye fooled the big wahoo, and the fish wasted no time in taking off once it hit the water.
“He almost spooled us on that first run,” Mabry said. After turning the fish from its initial run, Mabry was able to work it close to the boat in around 20 minutes. Once there, although the crew had seen the fish clear the water when it struck, they were impressed with its size.
“They had him about 40’ down when I saw him, and I was amazed,” Nifong recalled. “He wasn’t that long, but that fish was just so fat.”
After Mabry worked the fish up to the boat, Pat Horning wired it, and Broomfield planted home the gaff as soon as the wahoo was in range. With what they knew was a contender for the winning fish in the box, the anglers celebrated but continued trolling in search of a larger wahoo or dolphin.
They didn’t end up with a larger fish, but managed to bring a number of 10-15 lb. dolphin and another wahoo around 40 lbs. to the scales Friday evening. While the big wahoo took the top spot on the leaderboard, most of the boats would be fishing Saturday, so the “Fish Hooker” team couldn’t celebrate victory yet.
“Saturday we went right back to the same spot,” Broomfield explained. “We fished there south of the Swansboro Hole all day.” While the area gave up six more dolphin and a wahoo to the “Fish Hooker,” none of their Saturday fish were leaderboard worthy. Fortunately for the crew, no one landed a larger fish Saturday, and their ‘hoo held onto the tournament’s top spot.
The “Fish Hooker” anglers would like to express their gratitude to sponsors Contender and Yamaha for their supporting roles in the team’s success.
Wrightsville Beach’s “Tuna Trappe” weighed in the event’s heaviest dolphin, a 40.25 lb. bull that earned them $3276. Capt. Brian “Squid” Smith was at the helm of the new 68’ B & D Boatworks custom sportfisherman, and he described fishing the tournament as something of a “shakedown cruise” for the new boat. Along with Smith for the event were boat owner John Lancaster, John Smith, Jeremy Reynolds, and Richard Ladd.
“Tuna Trappe” also found their money-winning fish while trolling on Friday. “We actually found a weather buoy floating about 70 miles offshore near the 270 line,” Smith explained. “And there were a whole lot of dolphin on it.”
The anglers caught nearly forty dolphin while following the weather buoy as it drifted north, including the 40 pounder that Lancaster reeled in.
“We were getting them on little ballyhoo, circle hooks, and Sea Witches,” Smith recalled, “but it got to the point where we would have caught them on anything we put in the water. We’d be reeling a mahi in, and four or five others would be fighting over the bait it ate.”
Aside from the big dolphin, the “Tuna Trappe” anglers had a 32-pounder on Friday, with most of the rest of their catch in the 10-15 lb. class.
Like the “Fish Hooker,” the “Tuna Trappe” fished north of most of the tournament fleet again Saturday, catching a small sailfish, a few small dolphin, and two 20-25 lb. wahoo. A 30 lb. fish was the largest dophin any boat produced on Saturday, and “Tuna Trappe” held on to the lead.
The largest tuna weighed in the tournament came from the Wrightsville Beach-based “Box Office,” a 33’ Grady White run by brothers Tim and Joe Elphick. They caught a 36.6 lb. blackfin that earned them $3276 on Friday.
After a slow start trolling around a warm water temperature break near the Same Ole, the Elphicks made the call to head southwest to the Steeples, which turned out to be an excellent decision. They also put away their trolling gear when they arrived, opting to vertical jig with some new secret lures the brothers personally designed.
Not long after beginning to jig, they hooked up with the big blackfin. The tuna was just one of a number of fish the Elphicks caught on jigs around the Steeples on Friday, including some big snowy groupers.
Saturday, they again gunned the motors for the Steeples, this time with both trolling and jigging on the brain. They had a banner day, landing grouper, a 29 lb. wahoo, and a 30 lb. dolphin, but they were unable to add anything to the leaderboard.
Second place in the wahoo, dolphin, and tuna categories was worth $1404. A 55.7 lb. wahoo earned that prize for the crew aboard the “Frick N Fishin.” The “Slow Poke” weighed in the second place tuna, a 33.6 lb. blackfin. And “Chicken Ship” earned the second place dolphin money with a 35.95 lb. fish.
The event also featured a billfish release category, which the Atlantic Beach boat “Maggie” took top honors in for a blue marlin released at 10:34 Friday morning. The “Maggie”’ crew, consisting of Capt. Randy Bryant, Butch Bryant, and Chris and Bryan Hendrix, were fishing their way from Morehead City down towards Wrightsville when they encountered some blue marlin action in 100 fathoms south of the Swansboro Hole.
The estimated 300 lb. marlin that earned them the release prize was actually the third blue they saw Friday morning. The first two shook the hook before Butch was able to reel in the third fish. Several hours later, a fourth blue tried to eat a teaser bait as they trolled in the same area.
The Wrightsville Beach Spring Challenge not only seamlessly combined the two usual spring offshore tournaments, it managed to do so on one of the first mild weather weekends of the year, providing the entered boats with light winds and calm seas for their 60+ mile runs to the fishing grounds. The event also functioned as a fundraiser for the Eckerd Youth Alternative Program at Camp E-Tik-Etu in Elizabethtown, NC, and counselors and members of the program were on hand to assist with the weigh-in and awards on Saturday.
Tournament organizer Rich Walter wished to thank all the event’s sponsors and participants for helping to make the event successful.
2008 Ocean Crest Pier Rebel King Pier KMT
Dave Cooper congratulates Frank Riego (left) on the 21 lb. king mackerel that ended up winning him over $1700 in the 2008 Rebel King Pier King Mackerel Tournament. Riego landed the king on a live bluefish after a 45 minute fight.
“He actually hit a bait on the other side of the pier and came about 10’ out of the water,” Frank Riego said of the winning fish in the 2008 Ocean Crest Pier Rebel King Pier KMT. “Then he went under the pier. I knew he would see my bait when he came out, and he did, and he got hooked.”
The power of positive thinking is a concept that is very familiar to most anglers, and Riego, of Raleigh, must be quite a thinker. Not only did the 21 lb. king mackerel take the top spot on the leaderboard in Riego’s first fishing tournament, the fish earned him cash, a check, and prizes worth a total of $1780.
After almost two days worth of slow fishing, with only large chopper bluefish (the third in a declining tier of fish that can substitute for kings in the event none are caught) on the tournament’s leaderboard, Riego was ready for a change.
“It had been a boring day,” he said of Saturday, May 3, the event’s second day. “Just a few chopper blues. I thought: No, I want to see a king. Then the weather changed, and they started biting as a school. Mine was the first to bite, and mine was the biggest.”
After the king inhaled the live bluefish Riego had pinned to a king rig off the pier’s southeast corner shortly after 5:00 PM, it took off, first heading out to sea, then cutting to west, meaning Riego had to negotiate his way around and between the lines of many of the other 55 anglers entered in the tournament.
After causing him to weave his way through the line, the fish went right back the way it had come, forcing Riego to perform the task again.
“He probably fought a good 45 minutes,” Riego recalled. “He was so green, and I had to control the drag. John Leach was coaching me, saying to keep the drag up so he stays hooked. He did, and eventually they were able to gaff him right by where I started out.”
When Riego had finally tired the fish enough for a gaff attempt, John Leach and Eric Montieth sank home the pier gaffs and brought the smoker king mackerel to the deck.
Although anglers landed several more kings over the next few hours, Riego’s held firmly onto the lead. He wasn’t in the clear yet, though, as the tournament anglers still had Sunday morning and early afternoon to put a fish on the board. Fortunately (for Riego), storms Sunday morning dirtied the water, and no kings were hooked until after the tournament’s 3:00 PM cutoff time.
The second king to bite after the weather changed Saturday afternoon ended up being the second heaviest in the tournament, as well as the first king decked in the event. Angler Dewey Small, of Conway, SC, hooked the 13 lb., 13 oz. fish that ultimately won him $684 just after Riego’s dramatic bite.
“I was actually fishing with a threadfin, a greenback, about the size of my hand, and that’s what he ate,” Small explained.
The king took a quick initial run, but Small made short work of the valuable fish. “I only fought it for maybe 10 or 15 minutes,” he said. “I got mine back to the pier fast.”
When Small had the tired fish close to the pier, Montieth again performed the gaffing duties. The 2008 Rebel King is one of over 40 pier king mackerel tournaments Small has fished, and the first time he’s landed a king during one.
Just barely surpassed by the second place fish, a 13 lb. 10 oz. king secured third place for Clayton, NC, angler Reggie Eason. The fish was Eason’s first pier king mackerel.
Like the winning fish, Eason’s bit a small bluefish late Saturday afternoon. Grabbing the rod, he fought the king for around 15 minutes, weaving in and out of the dozens of other anchor and fighting lines in the water.
This was Eason’s third time fishing the Rebel King, among other Ocean Crest Pier tournaments he’s fished, and his first time finishing in the money.
All three winners wished to express their gratitude to the pier’s entire staff and especially pier manager Dave Cooper for not only putting on a fine event that fattened their wallets, but for maintaining the only open pier left on Oak Island with an environment that is constantly praised as more like a family than a fishing pier.
Fishing for king mackerel from a pier is never a certain thing. A fairly precise mixture of weather, water, and other variables (ex. the presence of bait) has to come together in order for anglers to target these pelagic speedsters from a structure affixed to land. Obviously scheduling a tournament for such fishing is an imprecise science, since it must be done months in advance when no predictions about those variables have a chance of being accurate.
That said, Ocean Crest Pier’s Dave Cooper has a knack for scheduling tournaments that coincide with at least some king mackerel action, and he did it again with the 2008 Rebel King Pier King Mackerel Tournament after three successful king mackerel events last year.
Three more tournaments with at least a king mackerel category are scheduled for the summer and fall of 2008. Interested anglers can visit the pier’s website www.oceancrestpier.net for more details.
2008 Cape Lookout Redfish Challenge
Rob Koraly and Andrew Brannan were the top finishers in the first Cape Lookout Redfish Challenge series event weighing in a two-redfish total of 13.62 lbs. They caught their fish in the Swansboro area on Gamagatsu jigheads with Berkley Gulp smelt flukes. Photo courtesy of Dawn Brock, Coastal Press & Graphics.
Rennie Clark and Andrew Arndt, out of Wrightsville Beach, took second place with two reds that totalled 12.88 lbs. Their fish were caught within sight of Harker's Island on topwaters.
The popularity of redfish tournaments is growing rapidly, and this trend was evident at the Cape Lookout Redfish Challenge’s May 3 tournament, the first event in a series of three scheduled for 2008. Competing in a redfish tournament trail certainly just got more popular for Rob Koraly and Andrew Brannan, the winners of over $3,000 in the 31 boat field of the Redfish Challenge’s inaugural event out of Harker’s Island.
Capt. Koraly, of Sandbar Safari Charters out of Swansboro, and Capt. Brannan, of Ballistic Charters out of Morehead, are fishing the Redfish Action trail together this year for Team Hooter’s, and their success in the first event suggests that it’s a good partnership.
They were second to check out on Saturday morning from Calico Jack’s, and were first to weigh in when the scales opened at 12:00. They had traveled about an hour to get to some familiar fishing grounds in the Swansboro-area, and the school they had been pre-fishing paid off for them with a two-redfish total of 13.62 lbs.
The larger of the two reds measured 26 7/8” and weighed 7.1 lbs. The other measured right at 26” and weighed 6.52 lbs. Both of the fish were caught on a 1/16 oz. Gamakatsu jighead with a 5” Gulp smelt fluke.
“We caught probably a dozen fish,” said Koraly. “We had to release two that were 1/4 inch over slot. They were pigs, too.”
The morning went well for the team. “We fished for two hours,” said Koraly. “We got to our hole just before 8:00 and were done fishing by 9:45.” They worked only two different schools of reds on Saturday morning, and were quickly able to pull the one fish they wanted out of each school. In fact, the first cast of the day produced the smaller of the two fish they weighed in.
“It was fun slinging a 25-incher on the boat and saying ‘No, get out of here’,” added Koraly.
Team Hooter’s is a 21’ Sea Hunt Pro Bay with a 150 Yamaha 4-stroke.
Second place went to Andrew Arndt and Rennie Clark, Team R & D out of Wrightsville Beach. They brought in a two-fish total of 12.88 lbs., with both fish weighing a little over 6 lbs.
“We caught seven on topwaters to start the day,” said Clark, adding that he was casting a big Skitterwalk and Arndt was casting a small one.
Similar to Team Hooter’s, the day started well for Team R & D, with both catching a red on their first cast of the day. “We were catching fish within 30 minutes of check out,” said Clark. “Our two fish we weighed were in the boat within two hours of checkout. Everything happened in the first half hour.”
They had found the school the day before doing a little pre-fishing. On Friday they stopped at Swansboro and Morehead to fish some areas that they thought might hold some fish. They didn’t find the reds they wanted, so they checked out the Harker’s Island area late on Friday.
They had been thinking about making the run to Wrightsville Beach to fish on tournament day, but decided against it in part because they were using a boat they borrowed from a friend, a 19’ Sea Pro with a Yamaha 115 that would run about 40 mph (as opposed to the 60 mph Clark’s boat would carry them). The team was quick to thank Robby Garner for the boat loan, and they were happy with their decision to stay close. All of their fish on Saturday were caught within sight of Harker’s Island.
Lee and Chris Sykes, of Team Finn Addict out of Morehead, took the overall third spot with a two-fish total of 12.44 lbs. Their fish measured 26.5” and just at 27”. They were fishing a 20’ Yamaha-powered Pathfinder and decided to make a run to a spot they knew held some reds.
They had pre-fished the Harker’s Island area, but all they fish they found were either 12-16” or over 30”. They elected to make a run of a little more than one hour to fish a series of docks. Lee, on their location, smiled and said, “We were far to the west of here.”
At the docks, they tossed Berkley Gulp jerk shads and brought in a total of five drum and two flounder.
In fourth place was Team Fed Up, a local team based out of Harker’s Island, with an 11.58 lb. total. The NC Charter Fishing Team, of Capt. Jeff Cronk and Capt. Mike Taylor, took fifth with a two-fish total of 11.02 lbs.
The Cape Lookout Redfish Challenge is an artificial-only tournament, with teams of two weighing in their two heaviest red drum in the slot (16-27”). Anglers are encouraged to weigh in their fish alive, with a 0.5 lb. penalty for one dead fish and a 2.0 lb. penalty for two dead fish.
Tournament Director Lee Willis said, “I wanted to run it as a professional tournament and treat anglers as professional fishermen, and try to set up a professional environment.”
The tournament clearly focused on the little details, from providing each team with fish bags to carry their fish up to the docks, holding tanks to keep the fish healthy and alive during the weigh-in line, and a big platform and amplification to present the weigh in to the spectators.
The major sponsors of the series are Bay Rider Boats and Goose Creek Marine. The series enjoys support from a host of other sponsors, including EJW Outdoors and West Marine.
The next Cape Lookout Redfish Challenge tournament will be July 26, and the last of three will be September 20. All events will be held out of Calico Jack’s in Harker’s Island. Calico Jack’s has lodging, fuel, boat slips, and tackle, and they are offering special pricing for Redfish Action anglers. You call Calico Jack’s at (252) 728-3575 for more details.
For more information on the Cape Lookout Redfish Challenge trail, you can visit www.redfishaction.com or call Lee Willis at (252) 342-3074.
2008 Capt. Kyle’s Spring Inshore Classic
Capt. Willie Southard and Brandon Sauls, fishing aboard Brandon's 18' Bone Boat "Bone Crusher," with the 8.3 lb. speckled trout that took first place in the trout competition of Capt. Kyle's Spring Inshore Classic. The sow trout fell for a live shirmp fished beneath a float at the Little River Jetties.
“We’re from the other side of Charlotte, so this is just kind of like a vacation for us,” Ronnie Spangler explained just after accepting the check for the overall victory in Capt. Kyle’s Spring Inshore Classic, held May 3-4. Spangler, who fished the event with his son Josh, may have considered it a vacation, but the family team certainly didn’t fish like tourists, besting the field of the 18 mostly local inshore teams that fished the event.
The Spanglers, who hail from Lawndale, NC, brought a 3.4 lb. speckled trout and a 1.1 lb. flounder to the scales at Ocean Isle Fishing Center, earning themselves a 4.5 lb. aggregate weight that bested the field by over 1.5 lbs. The trout and flounder were also the fourth and third heaviest weighed in in their respective categories.
Like many of the teams fishing the event, the father/son duo felt their best chances of catching a money-winning speck would come while drifting live shrimp around the Little River Jetties. They spent the majority of the morning at the jetties, and were rewarded with two trout, including the 3.4 lb. fish that anchored their aggregate weight.
Deciding to leave the jetties in search of a keeper flounder, the anglers finally found one while fishing near the Sunset Beach Bridge in the mid-afternoon.
“It was right at low tide,” Ronnie Spangler recalled, “right around 2:30 when Josh got that fish.” The flatfish fell for a white curly tail grub.
Putting the flounder in the boat made the Spanglers one of only three teams to weigh in a speck and a flounder, and it handily carried them past the competition.
A monster 8.3 lb. speckled trout took first in the trout category for local angler Brandon Sauls, fishing aboard the “Bone Crusher.” Sauls fished the tournament with partner Capt. Willie Southard, and the two began their day with the opposite game plan of the overall winners, starting at the Sunset Beach Bridge, then heading for the jetties after casting for two hours without a weighable fish.
“We caught two trout at the jetties,” Sauls revealed. “Then we moved around a little bit and caught a red. We hooked another fish right behind that, and we thought it was another red, a big one, but then I saw a little flash of silver in there and I knew.”
When Sauls worked the mega-trout close enough, Southard slid a net beneath it, and the anglers had an inkling that they might have the trout category licked (this took place just one week after Sauls took first in another Ocean Isle tournament with a near-6 lb. trout).
“We were done at the jetties by 10:30,” Sauls said, “so we went to Calabash Creek to try and get a flounder. We fished for four hours, but we couldn’t find a keeper flounder.”
With only a single undersized flounder caught over the rest of the day, Sauls and Southard headed for the scales to weigh their sow trout, which topped the second place speck by over 4.5 lbs.
The event’s top flounder, a 2.0 lb. fish, was weighed in by Laurinburg, NC anglers Ken Jacobs and James Fay. Jacobs and Fay found their money-winning flounder while anchored up around some docks in Tubbs Inlet.
“We caught that one around 9:30,” Jacobs explained. A live finger mullet fished on a Carolina rig fooled the flatfish. After boating the flattie, the anglers continued fishing Tubbs Inlet, landing five more flounder with three more keepers.
“We stayed at Tubbs until 1:45, then we shot down to Sasspan Creek to look for a trout,” said Jacobs. After a fruitless search for a speck to get them in the money in the aggregate category, the anglers headed for the scales and found out they had the winning flounder.
In the aggregate weight category, local angler Clay Morphis took second with a 1.7 lb. flounder (second in the flounder competition) and a 1.15 lb. trout for a 2.85 lb. aggregate. Third place went to another local fisherman, Capt. David Hooks, for a 1.75 lb. aggregate weight made up of a 1.0 lb. flounder (fourth place flatfish) and a .75 lb. speck.
Robert Hughes had the 3.7 lb. second place speckled trout with Adam Sellers right on his heels, weighing in a 3.6 lb. speck to take third. Fifth place went to Mike Fields for a 3.15 lb. fish.
The Spring Inshore Classic’s Top Junior Angler honors went to Noah Quaintance and Alex Mercer for a 2.7 lb. speckled trout caught while fishing with Noah’s father Scott. Heather Quaintance was also aboard and reeled in the event’s Top Lady Angler award.
This tournament attracts much of the same crowd from year to year, and tournament director Capt. Kyle Hughes wished to thank everyone that fished the event for making it a success yet again.
2008 Backwater Battle
Brandon Sauls, Mark Dickson, and Mark Stacy were the overalll winners of the 1st annual Backwater Battle. They weighed in a 5.70 lb. trout and a 1.65 lb. flounder.
The overall winners in Tripp and Austin’s (both age 8) Backwater Battle were Mark Dickson, Brandon Sauls, and Mark Stacy. They were the only boat to have both species, weighing in a 5.70 lb. trout and a 1.65 lb. flounder.
The largest flounder was brought to the scales by veteran backwater angler Mickey Cochran and crew. They weighed in a 2.65 lb. flatfish. Second place in the flounder division went to Chris Dawson and family. Their flounder also brought Janelle Dawson the top lady angler prize.
The first place trout went to the Angler’s Marine Team, led by Adam Sellers, with a 5.05 lb. speck. Second place was awarded to Kyle and Nathaniel Hughes for their 2.50 lb. trout. And third place went to Scott Quaintance and family with a 2.15 lb. fish.
In the junior angler division, Noah and McKenzie Quaintance, along with Brandon and Alex Mercer, took first place. Errail McGilawee and Mitchell Bowman took third, and Hunter Kendall, Chase Elkins, and Reese Elkins came in third.
Finally, Kyle Hughes won the “Brandon’s mystery weight” prize with a 2.50 lb. trout that landed the closest to 2.45 lb. weight announced at the captains’ meeting.
The junior angler, lady angler, and mystery weight prizes were guaranteed by Profinder Charts, Power Marine Outfitters, Elite Homes, and Dr. Fredrick Williams, DDS.
David Hooks, the father of Tripp, said of the day’s fishing, “Most all the trout were caught at either Little River Jetties or Sunset Beach Bridge on live shrimp. The flounder were caught in Tubbs Inlet and Bonaparte Creek on mud minnows.”
Mark Dickson may have enjoyed the first place payout, but he was quick to add, “It was worth the price of admission just to watch those kids conduct the captains meeting and awards ceremony.”