Hook A Hoo
Jim Moore and the crew of the "Island Girl," from Little River, SC, with the 44.80 lb. wahoo that earned them over $10,000 in the 2011 Hook a Hoo Rodeo. The anglers hooked the winning wahoo on a blue/white Ilander with a ballyhoo behind a planer near the Blackjack Hole.
With just a quarter-hour left before they had to head for the scales, Little River, SC’s “Island Girl” fishing team hooked and landed the 44.80 lb. wahoo that earned them first place and over $10,000 in the 2011 Martini’s Hook a Hoo Rodeo, held out of Harbourgate Marina in North Myrtle Beach.
“We’d started a little short of the 100/400,” Jim Moore, owner of the 47’ Buddy Davis explained, “and worked our way up to the Blackjack Hole.”
Moore had longtime fishing partner Bill Collins and family aboard for the event, including Melissa Carnes (daughter), Darrell Carnes, Jr. (son-in-law), Darrell Carnes, Sr., and Chase Carnes (grandson).
The crew had already had a pretty solid day, landing a half-dozen blackfin tuna, three dolphin, and two wahoo, but they lacked the big fish necessary to put themselves atop the leader board until 2:45 on the afternoon of Sunday, May 1, the event’s last fishing day.
“We’d just doubled back at the Blackjack to troll towards home when he bit,” Moore continued. “We were headed into about 200’ of water.”
Though they had plenty of ‘hoo-approved’ dark-colored lures in the spread, the team’s big fish fell for a blue/white Ilander with a ballyhoo the “Island Girl” was pulling behind a planer.
Melissa Carnes took the rod and held on while the big wahoo ran.
“He took a pretty long initial run,” Moore explained, “but we had it on an 80 bent butt with heavy drag for the planer and he wore himself out running pretty quick.”
Melissa worked the fish back to the boat around 10 minutes after the bite, conveniently fast since the team needed to head for home. And with Darrell, Jr. running the boat, Moore sank the gaff and boated the crew’s big hoo.
“We left the baits we had out while we got our mess squared away, and it was time to go around 3:00,” Moore said.
Heading back to the dock, the crew guessed their fish at around 50 lbs. They knew they had the 38 lb. fish atop the leader board for the rest of the week topped, but were unsure about the other boats that had fished the same day.
“Our friends went up and fished the Steeples,” Moore said, “and we couldn’t get them on the radio, so we didn’t know what they had.”
Their friends, the “In Deep” team, had a 40.56 lb. ‘hoo, but the “Island Girl” fish topped it by over 4 lbs. and earned the crew the first place check. In addition, their 16.62 lb. blackfin tuna topped the event’s tuna category, and Chase and Melissa Carnes took the event’s Junior and Lady Angler honors respectively.
John Marnell and the “In Deep” secured second place with their 40 pounder, and Danny Juell on the “Fish Screamer” wrapped up the top three with a 38.08 lb. wahoo.
The Hook a Hoo Rodeo is a fundraiser for the Shrine Hospital of the Carolinas, specializing in pediatric burn care, and the event managed to raise over $7,000 toward that end this year.
