Added on Thursday, May 28, 2009  Fish Post

Dixie Chicken Fishing Funament 2009

With a decade of reef-building good times and fishing competition beneath its feathers, the Dixie Chicken Fishing Funament has undoubtedly become a treasured institution in the North Myrtle Beach angling community. The Chicken, which hosts scores of anglers in a good-natured, low-key fishing tournament that generates money for the enhancement of the Jim Caudle Reef and other fisherman-friendly causes, held it’s 10^th annual event May 22-24 out of Harbourgate Marina.

The event features inshore and offshore divisions, with multi-species aggregate weights determining the winners.

The only team to bring in all three eligible species for the inshore aggregate (flounder, speckled trout, and spanish mackerel) was Ocean Isle Beach, NC’s father/son/son crew of Brian, Austin (age 10), and Brandon (age 8) Aycock. Their 3.08 lb. speck (the largest trout weighed) combined with a trout and a flounder gave them a total of 6.10 lbs., over half again the aggregate weight of the second place crew.

Starting their day at the Little River jetties in search of a speckled trout, the anglers found a slow bite at first, but landed a pair of trout in a few minutes around 8:00 on Saturday morning. Live shrimp under float rigs fooled both fish. The speck that Brian reeled in proved to be the larger of the two, as it was the 3 pounder they brought to the scales.

Deciding that they had a strong contender in the speckled trout category, the Aycock trio went into the ocean around 9:00 looking for a spanish mackerel to further them into the aggregate category.

After trolling Clarkspoons uneventfully for a few hours, the anglers decided their chances of hooking a flatfish would be better than a spanish, so they returned inshore.

Setting their sights on the Shallotte River, it wasn’t long before Austin hooked the team’s flounder on a Carolina-rigged finger mullet. After he worked the 2 lb. fish to the boat and the net, the Aycocks decided it was time to complete the aggregate trio and again went spanish mackerel fishing.

This time, they hooked up reasonably quickly on a trolled Clarkspoon, and Austin reeled the team’s spanish to the boat. They quickly caught another before deciding to head back inshore and haul the three components of their winning aggregate to the scales.

At the awards ceremony, the team’s total weight and heaviest speckled trout earned them not only trophies, but a check for $3,000, not bad at all for a team with two members under the age of 11.

Earning $700 for a 4.00 lb. aggregate weight were Ricky Lefler and John Starnes, of Albemarle, NC. Little River’s Mike Jenkins took home third place in the inshore division and $350 for a 3.48 lb. aggregate.

Katie Coggeshall, from Little River, took home the inshore division’s Lady Angler honors with a 2.70 lb. speckled trout, and Skylar Rhibar was the top Junior, bringing a 3.60 lb. flounder to the scales.

Fred Davis, of Wilmington, NC, took home $2500 for winning the Flounder Frenzie, a side flounder tournament put on jointly by the North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce and the Dixie Chicken crew. A 4.40 lb. flounder handily earned him the win.

Davis fished with Hank Martinez, and the anglers keyed in on the Shallotte River early Saturday morning. It turned out to be a good decision, as they hooked three flounder in the first 45 minutes of casting to a spot that has earned Davis some money in past flounder tournaments.

“It’s a little rip off a point that’s about 7-8′ deep,” the flounder winner explained, “about half a cast off the bank. The spot’s actually gotten better over the last couple years.”

It would seem so, as the hole gave up a pair of 3 lb. class flounder before Davis hooked the winning fish around 8:30. A small pogy fished on a Carolina rig fooled the big flounder, and it came to the boat fairly easily, where Martinez was waiting with the net.

Like the Aycocks, after putting the big flounder in the boat, the anglers soon decided it was time to go searching for a spanish mackerel to get them into the aggregate competition (anglers must have two of the three species to be eligible). Unfortunately, they were unable to land one, as even a modest spanish would have put them in the running for first place aggregate.

“We were seeing the spanish jump,” Davis explained, “but we just couldn’t get them to bite.”

The offshore aggregate win and $1900 went to Mark Poff, of Calabash, NC, for a 64.00 lb. weight made up of a dolphin and a stout 50.74 lb. wahoo (that earned the top wahoo prize as well). Poff and teammates Capt. Carston Fischer, Capt. Butch Gardner, and Rob Van Blaricum headed out Saturday morning bound for the Blackjack Hole aboard a 35′ Jefferson Marlago center console.

Finding the ride toward the Blackjack to be a little too jarring in the rough seas, the crew collectively decided to turn another direction and headed for the Winyah Scarp.

Once there they found a slow pick at the dolphin, catching a pair of them in around 150′ of water before heading offshore, where the big wahoo inhaled a ballyhoo under a blue/white skirt in 360′. The fish bit around 10:30, and Fischer was up on the rod.

The battle went fairly quickly, and he soon had the 50 lb. wahoo close enough for Poff to plant a gaff in it. Circling back on the marks where they hooked the ‘hoo, the anglers quickly caught another just over 30 lbs.

Combining their big wahoo with a 13 lb. dolphin, the crew handily took home the aggregate award.

Lexington, NC’s Bill Welborn earned second in the offshore aggregate division with 48.24 lbs., and Jim Moore, of Monroe, NC, took third with 42.20 lbs.

Debbie Denny, from North Myrtle Beach, took home the offshore Lady Angler award for a 32.32 lb. dolphin, and Landon Dixon was the number one offshore Junior, weighing in an 11.08 lb. dolphin.

The Dixie Chicken’s yearly success is due in large part to the hard work of Ron and Kathy McManus, who work tirelessly from the beginning of the year until the tournament is over in late May to ensure the event continues its mission-raising money to memorialize local angler Jim Caudle by enhancing the artificial reef off Little River that’s been given his name. 

Under their guidance, the reef has gone from 40,000 to over 200,000 cubic feet in fish-attracting size in just 10 years, and the number will climb even higher when a new load of reef material is jettisoned at the site on July 8.