OIFC Fall Brawl 2007
At what point does winning a fishing tournament cross over into total domination of the field? Perhaps when one team can finish atop the overall leaderboard, take the top spot in the 23′ and Under Division, collect first place checks for both TWT’s, and earn the Top Junior Angler honors, as the “Double Down” team did in the Fall Brawl King Classic, held October 26-28 out of the Ocean Isle Fishing Center.
The crew, comprised of Scott Allen, his son Austin (the aforementioned Top Junior Angler), and Derek McKee, not only weighed in the 36.75 lb. king that garnered them those superlatives and over $14,000, they did it while fishing a less than ideal marine forecast from one of the smallest boats entered in the tournament, a 21′ Nauticstar bay boat powered by a 115 Suzuki Four Stroke.
“It’s quite a feeling,” Scott Allen said at the awards ceremony. The team, who weren’t even sure whether to fish the tournament due to the forecast until the last day before the event, evidently made the right decision. Although, they didn’t know it was a good call until late in the event. Up until 2:00 on Sunday, they hadn’t landed a single king.
“We started out at the Yaupon Reef and worked back this way. Then we went out to the Shallotte Ledge, and it was really sloppy out there,” Allen explained. “We had a bite-off early, and that was it.”
After catching some fresh pogies near Oak Island’s Ocean Crest Pier, the “Double Down” anglers headed for Shallotte Inlet in the hopes of finding a weighable fish. Soon after beginning to troll near the inlet’s sea buoy, they got a strike and landed a teenager king.
Finally having boated a confidence-boosting fish, they reset their spread, and got another bite around 2:30 on a pogy trolled on top behind a pink/chartreuse Blue Water Candy skirt. McKee took the rod from the holder after the bite, and the fight began.
“It was kind of an atypical fight for a big fish,” Allen said. “It ran towards the beach at first.”
As Austin Allen cleared the lines, the anglers prepared to chase their fish, but it never proved necessary.
“I pointed the boat towards him a couple times,” said Scott Allen, “but then he just turned back towards the boat, so I put it back in neutral and just let him come to us. He swam back to the boat, went back and forth under us two or three times, and then it was over.”
Allen was waiting when the king surfaced near the boat and sank the gaff as soon as it came into range. With what would turn out to be the winning fish in the boat, the anglers came back in Shallotte Inlet and made the short run to the scales.
Their fish replaced Saturday’s heaviest king atop the leaderboard, in a reversal of the “Double Down” team’s 2005 Fall Brawl experience.
“Two years ago the opposite happened. We led after Day 1, and somebody eclipsed us on Sunday to knock us down to second. Turnabout’s fair play, I guess,” Allen said with a smile.
“I’d like to thank Yee-Haw fish calls, which we caught our first fish on, and Blue Water Candy Lures,” Allen added. “This makes twice in three years that we’ve done well with his (Jody of Blue Water Candy) skirt.”
Pawley’s Island, SC’s “Reel Justice” team weighed in the 33.10 lb. second place king on Saturday. Ralph Justice, his son Andy, and Jeremiah Williams fished the event aboard the team’s 31′ Yamaha-powered Contender, and brought home a check for nearly $10,000.
The “Reel Justice” anglers targeted a wreck in 40′ around 5 miles off the beach north of Georgetown, SC, in their search for a winning fish, but they had some difficulty with bait at the beginning of the day.
“The first round was all greenbacks, and the fish didn’t take a liking to them,” Justice said. “Later in the morning, about 11:30, we found a good school of menhaden. Once we started using them, it was like lights on.”
The anglers began catching fish almost immediately after switching to pogies, and around 1:30, while anchored up near the wreck, they got a multiple strike.
“We had several fish on at once, and we didn’t realize which was the biggest,” Justice reported.
Since they had several fish on and were at anchor, the anglers fought their kings from a dead boat. Around 20 minutes after the bites, they had tired their fish and worked them back to the boat, and Andy Justice sank a gaff in the 33 lb. king that would earn the team second place.
“Landing those fish was a real team effort,” Ralph Justice said. “We probably ended up with 20-25 over the day, and we turned back a 31-pounder since we’d already kept the 33.”
The action continued for the “Reel Justice” anglers until they had to head for Ocean Isle in order to make the weigh-in. Though the winds were strong Saturday afternoon, they were out of the WNW, and the anglers were able to hug the southeast-facing coast for a reasonably comfortable ride to the scales.
“I’d just like to thank Brant McMullan,” Ralph Justice said. “These tournaments are always a lot of fun and family-oriented.”
The “GPS Store” fishing team, from Ocean Isle, took third place in the Fall Brawl with a 31.00 lb. king caught on Saturday. Scott Heffernan and Phil Hooks made up the crew for the Fall Brawl, fishing aboard the team’s 31′ Mercury-powered Contender.
Heffernan and Hooks found the third place fish while anchored up near a concentration of bait in 50′ of water off Oak Island. The king fell for a naked pogy the anglers were dangling from a kite around 11:00 Saturday morning, and it immediately tore off a substantial amount of line from Heffernan, who had picked up the rod.
“We let him run quite a while before we decided to break anchor on him,” Heffernan related. “He tore off probably three quarters of the spool before we decided we’d better go get him.”
With Hooks at the helm, the anglers ran the fish down quickly, and Hooks was able to gaff the king without much trouble once they caught up to it.
Like the “Reel Justice” crew, the “GPS Store” anglers caught around two dozen kings on Saturday, including another within a half pound of the third place fish.
The “GPS Store” crew wished to thank sponsors The GPS Store and Marine Service Center of Little River.
A 27.15 lb. king mackerel earned fourth place in the event for Ken Strickland’s “All In” fishing team, from Greensboro. Fifth went to Thomas Haselden and Aynor, SC’s “Sandlapper” crew.
Amy Morris, fishing aboard the “Sea Horse,” earned the Fall Brawl’s Top Lady Angler award with a 25.10 lb. king caught on Saturday.
The 2007 Fall Brawl attracted 155 boats despite the rough weather.
Addressing the crowd at the awards ceremony, Tournament Director Brant McMullan expressed his gratitude to the many sponsors that make the event possible, “A huge thanks goes out to you guys that fished. We had a less than ideal forecast, and this turnout goes to show the strength and dedication of the anglers that fish our events.”
