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The Stealth Fighter Team caps off a super year with a 7th place finish at nationals.

I want to thank Benson Ybanez who has been a great addition to the team and I look forward to fishing on the new Open Wide 25' Contender next year. We were also joined by Joey Whitesell. Joey fished with Jay Russell this year on The Big Time fishing team. They qualified but Jay couldn't make the trip. Joey was a great help. He just started king fishing and has the right mindset to be very competitive. Thanks for the great team work guys!

If you've spent time reading our journal this year then you know we can't place in a tournament without some level of drama or problems. This tournament was no exception. We made a full week of it by heading to Ft. Pierce on Saturday with the hopes of pinning up bait and locating fish before the crowd arrived. We managed to find bait but fishing would have to wait. Sunday and Monday were dedicated to catching bait. Both days were blue bird Florida days so we figured we should find plenty of bait. Without any problems we were able to jig up 50+ blue runners, a bunch of greenies, butter fish, and small fish with two small horns that are painful if they break skin. Kirk Whorf on Reel Time can attest to this. Tuesday arrived and we were glad we pinned up bait. A cold front moved through for the next couple of days and the seas built up to 9'+ swells. Two days on the dock can wear on your patience when you came to fish. This storm also made it tough to find bait for the teams that just arrived. The water turned dirty and the bait moved offshore.

Thursday was still a rough day so we went back to hunting bait to freshen up the pen. We start at the power plant hoping to find mullets. We found the mullets and put a few in the live well until we caught the cast net in the prop. The area was shallow and the hand line found the prop. I backed off the throttle but its too late. Thanks to Joey for jumping in to untangle the mess. This was a frustrating event but turned out to be a blessing. We then make our way down to St. Lucie inlet to try to find fish. About 2 miles out the inlet the prop starts to sound funny like it was about to spin a hub. We make the trip back toward home and decide to stop by a local marina to see if they can check it out. Luckily I get a call from Craig on The Never Ready team. They are driving back from St. Lucie and meet us at the marina. Steve test ran the boat and sure enough the prop is about to let go. Steve helps change the prop and then Shayne offers to drive our prop to a local propeller shop to replace the hub. Turns out the local shop can't do it so the boys drive my prop back down to St. Lucie and wait for a couple of hours while they fix the hub. So two blessings in the same day. First the cast net helped spin the prop which could have knocked us out of competition if it were the next day. Then The Never Ready boys came through for us again. Once again we owe these guys a big thanks. I really wish they could have caught a fish to place them in the tournament. You can't find a better bunch of guys on the water. Good luck to you next season. Remember I still owe you guys a big dinner.

Friday starts with blowing a fuse on a live well pump so we lost most of a tank of bait before realizing the problem. Frustrated but we make the call to head south. There were several reports of fish up north but we decide to go south because of the clearer water. This call paid off. Greg Samuel on The King Pin also gave us a good report that fish may be at a set of wrecks just out of St. Lucie inlet. We pull up to the spot and see a 36 Contender hooked up. We didn't know it then but this fish turned out to be 35 lbs when we go to the leader board that night. We managed to catch a few cudas and then something that burns down the reel. The hooks pulled so we'll never know. Late in the day we manage to find a 20 pound fish and decide to head to scales. This was the only other fish caught at this spot but it's enough to put us in 8th place day one. Later we find out the bite was hotter farther south near the loran ledges.

Saturday we start early and are second in line at the bridge to get a head start on the go fast boats. We decided to avoid the crowd and go back to our spot in hopes there is a morning bite. These fish have moved so we make a few calls and hear fish are still down south. We decide to stick around a little longer then Bob Woithe on The Reel Won calls and says that we should come that way since we need a fish. There was a short bit in the morning but it seemed to get better later in the day. We make the 10 mile run and find a fleet of boats that looked like 30 Minute Rock during the Hardee's tournament. We work around the pack and see a few hooked up. Later in the day it seemed that everyone was migrating to an area north of the tower. The fish start to eat and everyone is hooking up but lines are being cut. We have no hits for a couple of hours and then a reel starts to scream for about 300 yards. We are in a pack of boats and the fish heads off toward about 5 boats. One downrigger later and the fish is gone. The radio starts to heat up and everyone is complaining about fish being cut off. We change to our aggressive game plan because it's getting late and we need a fish. Next time we'll get on the fish faster. About 12:00 another line hits and Joey does an excellent job of running on the fish. Ben cleared the lines and stuck a gaff in record time. This fish is the exact same measurements as yesterday (42" x 17"). We need bigger so we keep fishing. However time runs out and we need to head home. The bite is hot and this is the time I want twins so I can fish longer. Maybe next year.

This fish manages to move us to 7th place. We wanted higher but we are very pleased since we never fished Ft. Pierce.

Congrats to all the NC teams that placed: Reel Time, Sea Rat, Reel Screamer, Carolina Adventure, Just Natural, Hit-N-Run, Ms. Mercy, Second Catch, Second Chanze, Team Kencraft and Attitude Adjuster. The NC teams made a great showing in unfamiliar waters.

Finally I have to thank my wife Julie for allowing me to fish the many tournaments that we fish. I know I push the patience meter but she is wonderful and is now carrying our first child. A new junior angler is on the way!

We would also like to thank all of our sponsor for the support they gave us this year. Contender and Yamaha have given us a great boat and motor; Power Marine Outfitters keeps everything running and gets us back on the water in record time; C-Map provides us with chips for our GPS', and Sitex gave us great support with new equipment. A special thanks also goes out to Magic Tilt for coming to our motel this week and changing out a bad seal in a trailer hub. Their support this year has been great and we appreciate what they do for the team. Southern Auto Parts provides us with oil and auto parts to keep the truck and boat running; thanks mom and dad!

Well adversity strikes again and no lottery winner. The divisional championship had come down to a one day tournament. We need at least a 30 pound fish to take the division away from The Never Ready team.

I decided to go down a couple days early to confirm some of the rumors I had heard. I teamed up with Kendall Suh "The Fishing Physician" to prefish Friday. Kendall fished a few tourneys with us last year but had a baby at the end of last season and has been in diaper changing mode this year. I shouldn't say much because I'll be in the same mode after March. It was good to fish with him again. Bait was the biggest concern so we focused on penning up enough bait for the tourney. We find it off of Bald Head Island but have to use our large net to catch the elusive few baits we could find. The net gilled several baits and we are concerned if they will live overnight. I guess I'll have to reserve this net for the turbo pogy off Hatteras. We pen up that bait and head back to catch more to fish the day. After a few throws we load up and head out.

Kendall heard the sea buoy and Lighthouse Rocks held the hot bite during the week so we start at the buoy. We fish about an hour and have no strikes. The rest of the reports during the day tell the same story. We move off to Lighthouse and find more bait than I've ever seen over one rock. We begin to hook up with several fish and a few doubles mixed in. The bite turns off over lunch but fires back up in the afternoon. The only problem is the class of fish is less than 20 pounds.

Day 1 - We pick up our bait early but find that half didn't make it through the night. So we head out before light to hopefully get some fresh pogies. No luck so we take what we have and head out just before fishing time. Our gut tells us there are bigger fish at Lighthouse so that's the plan. However, we decide to give the sea buoy a quick stop to hopefully catch the hog at early bite. No bites so back to Lighthouse. Today is about the same story as day one with plenty of hookups but no size. Our bait last until about 10:30 so we head up the river following a radio lead. We only manage 4 large spots and 1 blue fish. We see a boat load up next to us but we have no luck. This boat offers to give us their extra bait but decline because we're in the tournament. Others in the area didn't seem to mind getting their bait. This boat pulls the old "throw your bait in the water at the same time another boat throws a cast net on it". This is probably legal but I'm sure the congregation rules were broken today. I was amazed they did this with several other boats around. I guess tournaments will have to write in every possible option to breaking the rules to protect everyone else from the "gray area" interpretation of the rules. Personally I'd have a hard time carrying a tournament winner to the scales after using this bait. I'm sure others have their own opinion and I'll hear it.

Back to fishing...our patience is short so we decide to move out to the ocean to find bait. No luck again so we head back out to Lighthouse with 5 baits and a half dozen pogies that are swimming upside down. We find out the bite continued while we searched for bait and now its died down. Adversity again or just bad luck? We drag those spots for hours with no luck. We then decide to move off a couple of miles to finish the day. No luck again. We decide to take our little 16 pound fish to the scales because there seemed to be very few fish weighed and figured most wouldn't. To our surprise, a large part of the fleet caught low twenties fish and left us only to laugh in the face of adversity. This time adversity won.

Next, I'll be fishing the Division 9 Hatteras Teaches Lair tournament with Kirk Whorf on The Reel Time. Ben will be fishing Division 9 with Stanman.

Day one was spent in the River Channel at the last sea buoy with another 200 plus boats. Did I say that I hate fishing in a pack!!!! It suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks!!!!!!! Thus my personal thoughts on this issue are defined. Set the usual spread and were rewarded with a double hook up of teenagers. Boated one and lost the other. Set the spread again and boated another teen. Boats all around us were boating fish!!!!! All I could think of was a lottery drawing and hoping I would win the power ball. I hoped for a bigger fish but the day ended uneventfully with a 18.65 lber on the board. It still doesn't beat our drop fish of 23.30 lbs. There's always day two.

Jay grabbed the long line and fought a berzerk bonito. I grabbed the downrigger and started fighting the second fish which I thought would be another bonito. Instead it ran under the boat and started acting like a king. Jay cut off the bonito and I continued to play the mystery fish that eventually turned into an 18lb king. Finally, we found them!!! We continued to troll around the buoy and around the other boats fighting more low teenagers and the occasional albacore which Jay would cuss at for tangling our spreads. The other boats in the pack were doing the same and word had spread to the other fishermen about the good bite. The bite was good but no big fish. The Sorry Boy Team was near us and stated on the radio that they had two mid twenties fish in the bag already which made us uneasy since the day was wearing on and we still did not have a decent fish. Fish on.

We finally got the Division 1 skunk off the boat. We managed to find a 26.1 king with got us 29th overall, 8th place Saturday and 6th overall 23' & Under. We missed an additional $2,000 by .9 pounds. Ben noticed the fish had just spawned and her belly was sunken in. Those eggs were probably worth $2 grand.

Day 1 - Bait was a small problem day one. The north wind kept the bait down and scattered. We did manage to get about 2 dozen by 8:15. So we decided to buy a couple more fresh dozen from the bait barge. We headed to the east side and tried to stay away from the various parking lots. Our initial plan was to head 20+ miles offshore but the seas wouldn't allow it especially since we burned time catching bait. We decided to stay closer in but away from the pack. Our first stop was a number inshore of East Rock. The water was good but not much bait. Nothing was feeding here and the radio talk showed the bite was off everywhere. Boredom drove us to look for another option. We chose the East Rock and finished out the day with no strikes.

Day 2 - We burnt up the phone trying to find updates from day one. There was a small bite off Ocracoke but not enough to make us move north. Plus the kings aren't suppose to be there until a few more weeks. Ben and I don't have a fish on the scales after 4 1/2 division 1 tournaments. One day left so what the heck...lets go north.

We decided to follow a few other teams up north. Bait was plentiful at Harker's but we only manage to get a dozen. We take the chance of finding more bait in the sound so we head to checkout. We were able to find plenty of bait in the sound and are able to load up with a few throws. We head off to Ocracoke and hope the small bite from Day 1 gets better. Special thanks goes to Mitch Yates on The Sea Rat for helping us navigate the pound nets in Core Sound. The first couple hours were dead except for a strike on a short line but missed the hooks. Immediately the long line screams and we're off to the races. Our excitement was short lived after the fish comes out of the water. It was a small white marlin in less than 40' of water. What's a white doing this far inshore and in such shallow water? I broke him off but he made 4 more leaps to give us a great show. We later have a fish hit the short starboard bait around 12:00. Ben yells it's a small Spanish. I usually fight the fish, so I let him get it to the boat. That small Spanish ended up being a 26 pound king. For once I was glad Ben was wrong. We have learned a valuable lesson this year and it's get the fish to the boat before you determine what it is or its size. We head to the scales at 2:00 which gives up plenty of buffer time. Everyone thought we could wait another hour but they forget we are the only single engine boat that made the trip.

Finally we get the Division 1 skunk off the boat and we don't have to hang our head all year for not weighing a fish in our home waters.

Congrats go out to Mutt and team for a great win. This is a family team and they have paid their dues.

We continue our good streak in Division 2. The only problem is the boys on the "Never Ready" keep doing the same. Congratulations to Shayne, Craig, and Steve for another second place finish. This puts them a few pounds ahead of us in the division and is turning this into a good race for the 23' and under title. We're entering the big fish time of the year, and have 2 tournaments remaining, so I'll bet it will take 95+ pounds to win the 23 and under. That's strong fishing.

Day 1 - We started the day searching for bait. The Menhaden boats cleaned out the hot hole the day before so it was tough to find a pogy. However, there were plenty of mullets on the beach and we loaded up. I wanted menhaden and the guys on the Never Ready called us over to Bald Head to find acres of Menhaden. It's nice to have good competition but it's even better when your closest challengers help out. Thanks Shayne. You guys are a class act.

We have plenty of bait and go in search of the smoker. We know the fish are holding farther off shore but we decide to first check a few numbers about 10-20 miles. There were plenty of dinks and sharks but not the fish we need. Then we decide to head to the Jungle because there has to be a nice fish at the Jungle...wrong. We finished the day there and 3 other boats we know had the same luck.

Day 2 - Today we start at Bald Head but the bait is now scattered and stays deep on the north wind. It takes over an hour but we fill the live wells and head out. The wind switched to the North over night, and the water is slick, so today we decide to go deep. We head out to what Ben is now calling The Stealth Fighter Rock which is about 40 miles out and has produced good fish. We bounce around to a few different numbers and get into a nicer class of fish. We finally manage to pull out a 23.3. However that 23 came with a price. While setting up the spread, I reached back to turn on the pogy dripper and slipped. My hand slips into the rear scupper and I sprain a finger. Then we have the 23 and another smaller fish on a double hook up. Ben fights the larger fish and has to gaff it himself. He did a great job of landing the fish but the fish tries to jump off the gaff and his teeth catch his leg. Ben says he never felt it but the king bit through a set of rubber coated bibs and put a 3 inch gash in his calf. We were glad to have a first aid kit on board. We manage to use most everything in the kit to rap up his leg. We got the bleeding stopped and I was ready to go home but the "highly experienced dentist" knew better. Fish On he said. If you don't have a good medical kit on board then get one. You never know when you'll need it...especially 40 miles offshore. We fish for another hour or so but couldn't find a bigger fish so we head to the scales.

As we approach the scales we see the Never Ready team leaving the weigh in. To our surprise they weigh a 33+ pound king. These guys are hot.

We did manage to win one of the daily special weight prices and won a grand total of $800 for 14th place and the special prize.

There was no check out so we met down at Skips slip around 4:30 am and started loading the boat. Bait was already in the pen and ready for action. I've never been out so early before a KMT and I commented to Jay that I was a little nervous about running the slough in the dark. He just grinned and said don't worry about it. We weren't alone running out. Some of the best King mackerel fishermen were here. John "The Judge" Lewis was behind us. Eddie and Michelle Cameron were in front of us guiding the way. It wasn't the best ride out to Jay's Rock but the 28 foot Privateer helped smooth the 6 footers out. I believe we were the third boat to the Rock and were ready to fish at the designated fishing time. Lines in the water and the wait for a smoker started. It was tough fishing and the ocean was sloppy. We didn't have to wait long for a strike because on our third pass over the number we had a double hook up on the long shot gun and the medium double pogy. Joey reached for the shotgun while Jay reached for the double pogy. Joeys took off to the stern and popped off after a scorching 30 plus second run. Jay's fish ran into the NE wind. Good sign. I've always heard big fish run into the wind or offshore. Jay worked the fish to the boat and Joey took over the driving duties while I prepared the gaff. The fish finally started the classic kingfish wallow and was within sight but not within gaffing distance. I contemplated pulling the 12 foot gaff out but Jay managed to work the fish close enough for me to hit her right behind the dorsal fin cleanly. I swung her aboard and could tell it had some weight to it. A few high fives and the fish was deposited in the bag. We all estimated the fish in the mid to high thirties and decided to keep fishing through the morning bite. We set the spread and started fishing again. While trolling I got curious about the fish and asked Jay if he had a tape measure. The fish was dead already so I got a quick measurement. It was 52 inches long and 23.5 inches in Girth. Fat Sow!!!!! I told Jay the measurement and he knew what I was thinking. He's seen his share of 40 and 50 lb fish to know this was close. We fished for another hour after that and caught one more teenager and a shark. The seas weren't getting any better and Topsail was a long ways off down the waterway. We packed it up by 10:30 and were gone. After an uneventful boat ride down the ICW we were second in line before opening. The Miss Emily boat was ahead of us an had some big grins on their faces. Not a good sign. We asked to see their fish but declined and said to wait till the scales open. It turns out their fish was almost 53 lbs!!!!!! Our fish pulled it down to a respectable 40.6 lbs but no where close to that beast. I haven't seen kings that big since the nationls in Biloxi. MS. I was a little disappointed at first for another second place finish but cheered up the second day after hearing our payout was over 24,000.00. That's over three times the money we made in this tournament in 1998. I learned alot of different fishing techniques from Capt. Jay Russell and hope to fish a few more tournaments with him.

Another good weekend for The Stealth Fighter. We covered many miles this weekend to find a nice fish and ended up with a 26.75 king. This fish won 10th overall in the tournament and 1st in 23' and under. Too bad there wasn't much money in this tournament. This will also should put us in 1st place in Division 2 with 57.4 lbs.

Day 1 - Both Ben and I both worked hard this week to find out where the fish were biting. All sources lead to dead ends or deep water. It seems the southwest wind that blew all week drove the fish back offshore because the water was dirty on the beach. Several people still chose to fish the typical locations close to the beach but didn't seem to produce much.

This is one of the few tournaments where we came up with a game plan and stuck to it. Several sources told us the fish were deeper so our game plan was to start about 15 miles off the beach and work offshore. We did find dinks and teenagers about 15 miles out but we needed more weight than that. We then moved onto 6 different numbers before finding our fish about 40 miles off the beach. The great thing was we had the place to ourselves for the entire time we were there. After a few minutes of trolling our long line began to scream. Then the short outrigger does the same. We have two fish on and are trying to decide which one is bigger. We think its the first and plan to put more attention on that line. About that time he throws the hooks and we're left to fight the little brother. The fish still weighed almost 27 lbs and that's heavier than we guessed. Lines go back out in hopes of finding the mama but no luck. We head back to the scales a little early and get ready for Day 2.

Day 2 - We planned to go back to our spot today but the weather changed our mind. In hindsight I think both of us wished we had taken the time and gone back to our spot. We chose to stop at the Shark Hole to see if any larger fish moved in closer overnight. We found several dinks and once again discovered why it's called the Shark Hole. We are hog hunting today so we head to the hog pen otherwise known as the Jungle. We find bait and some small teenagers but no really big fish. We fish until the last possible moment without hooking into a big fish.

Congratulations go out to Dean Spatholt on The Fish Meister for winning 1st with a 40; Shayne Hollar, Craig and Steve on Never Ready with a 35, and (Mr. I can't catch anything but these 30's) Randall Edens on Reel Greedy. Randall was a top 5 at the Jolly Mon, won 1st and 23' Contender at last weeks Sneads Ferry tournament, and now a 3rd at Shallotte. He is hot to say the least.

Next tournament will be South Brunswick and maybe Topsail if we can get a kitchen pass.

The Division 1 bug continues to bite us. We haven't been able to find a fish in our home waters. This is getting really frustrating and testing our patience. Diversity can sometimes be your friend so we are hoping that The Hardee's tournament will turn things around for us.

We actually decided to put in some extra time for Sneads Ferry to locate fish. We pre-fished Friday hoping to find a good class of fish. The river channel has been producing some nice fish so we decided to head to the east side to see what we could find. Stops at 1700, Mid-Town rock and East Rock lead to just sharks. No kings to be found and the radio chatter seemed to be the same for others.

Day 1 - Knowing the east side had slowed down, we decided to fish the river channel. The weather also made this an easy choice. When are we ever going to get a decent weather weekend. If we could only have tournaments on Wednesday's....The middle of the week always seems to be nicer than the weekend. The fleet was at the river channel with us and everyone seemed to be having the same luck. The Kencraft team managed to get a nice fish early in the morning and then it seemed the bite turned off. Many of us headed to the docks and everyone was scratching their heads about where to fish day 2.

Day 2 - The river channel seemed to be the best bite so many choose to go back. We tossed a coin and decided to fish around Swansboro and New River. Actually we got up at 4:00 Sunday and found plenty of rain and thunder boomers. The weather channel showed a band of storms coming through and they said it would be raining all day. We were so frustrated that we thought about cutting our losses and staying home. Being an aggregate tournament made the decision easier. Back to bed and woke again about 7:00 to find plenty of sunshine and variable winds. You would think the weather report would be accurate for at least 3 hours, but I guess not. Ben and I are diehards that hate to give up so we decided to put in at Swansboro and fish close to home away from the fleet. We started with some local numbers around Bogue to only find sharks and no bait. We then head farther south to try out some ledges around Bear Island. Once again only sharks and no bait. We had heard of some fish recently caught at Christmas Rocks so we headed offshore. We managed to find plenty of bait on the rock and only 2 other boats. Things were looking up. Ben put out the spread and a couple of more sharks. The bait is here so we decide to stay put. We managed to land a 3 pound Spanish that made a nice run. We rigged the Spanish and put him back out on top. We get a strike on that line and the initial run was nice but no second run. It turned out to be a cocky 4 lb shark that apparently hadn't eaten in a week. It's still amazing that a fish will attack something of equal size. We finally manage to land a 12lb king close to the end of the day but no money fish.

Next tournament is Shallotte in Division 2. We need a big fish to hold our 2nd place standing.

What a wonderful weekend for the Teresa Gale II fishing team. I wish Randy could have fished with us but he was committed to family duties. The first day of the tournament we trailer up to Morehead and put in at the wildlife ramp and headed straight to McGinnis Point. Loaded up with turbos in one throw and were out the inlet by six and fishing at the East Rock by seven thirty. Hooked up with sharks immediately and proceeded to feed 14 pogies to the brown bastards for the next 45 minutes. I got frustrated so I proceeded to Run and Gun fish the whole East Side. Next stop was the Midtown Rock and adjacent 1700 Rock which produced another 12 sharks. Next Stop was the P-Buoy ledge and 10 more sharks and dwindling bait. Moved again to the 30 Min Rock and Jay's Rock thus producing more of the cartilaginous monsters. Time was running out and bait was looking weak. Heard Bert Ferebee on the Second Catch talking about some teenagers turning back at the East Rock so we shot over there for a last minute try with our last 3 pogies. Got to the number and Mitch Yates on the Sea Rat said he was marking good bait on the screen when all of a sudden the long shotgun line started singing. Put the feisty 12.85 lber in the box then the medium naked went off with a little more authority and Steve Gerber promptly muscled the 16.25 lber in the boat. Good sign. Only problem was time was dwindling but bait was down to one red nosed, used twice, half dead pogy. Put him out and he died. End of our day. Ran to Emerald Isle and weighed in. I learned several things today. First, never give up. Second, if its a full moon then most likely the bite will be late. Third, always weigh your fish.

The second day of the tournament was hog hunting. We ran from my slip at Dudley's Marina at first light and headed straight to McGinnis Point. Loaded the well again with five dozen baits this time because I was paranoid about the shark bite. Headed out of Morehead and shot straight to the Triple Nickel number that Dr. Hutchens had given me last year that he said always produces a thirty for him this time of year. Got there two find loads of suspended bait on the screen around 60 feet down. Set the spread and proceeded to catch three sharks. Not a good sign. Getting discouraged I told Steve to try again before we went further south. Set the spread and trolled over the bait pod one more time. Finally I see the man roll on our short naked !!!! I saw enough of him to know it was a nice fish but not a tournament winner so we fight him carefully. This king must have had some AJ blood in him because he sounded and never ran on the surface. After 25 minutes of vertical tug o war he finally surfaced only for me to miss him with the 12 foot gaff when the 2 inch hook pulled through the meat of his tail. 5 minutes later he rolled up again and I stuck him just in front of the dorsal and punctured a major vessel. As I drug him in the boat the blood poured out of the bigger 3 inch hook gaff hole. I plugged it but the damage was done. With the blood loss and big gaff wound from the first attempt he lost substantial weight. Oh well, I slipped him in the fish bag and set the spread again. Next king was a 15 lber. The shark bite turned with full force and we were off to our next spot down the beach. East Rock, nothing... Station Rock, nothing. Headed to the scales and put the boat back in at Dudley's. Crossed my fingers hoping the fish would be enough to place since the KMT only pays the top 5. Luckily it tipped the scales at 27.2 and landed us in 3rd place!!!!!

Saturday, first day of tournament we bought bait from Capt Stacy and headed straight to 30 Min Rock. First line in got smacked by a dinky dink. Thought that was a good sign but ended up being our only king of the morning. Put a gaffer dolphin in next and several sharks and watched Skip and Jay catch the winner to our port side. Also watched the Bite Me boys pull a mid twenties to our starboard. Not the scenario I was anticipating. Ground it out there until the afternoon only to catch one more king that went 35 inches. Packed it up and went to the house.

Sunday, same plan, run to the east side and grind the spot and hope for a hog. Bought bait at Stacy's and headed for the slough at 6. Broke my radio box and knocked my GPS loose trying to keep up with two 32 Donzi's. That extra five feet really helps smooth the ride. After some quick repairs we were off again. Got there to find a fleet of boats. Saw two boats hooked up so we decided to fish the pack. We ground it out there the whole day seeing and occasional fish brought in. Tempted to run to the East Rock after hearing a bite had turned on but didn't want to risk losing the whole GPS bracket. Overall, a pretty bad showing for the Teresa Gale this year.

Hopefully we'll have better luck on the Stealth Fighter. Next tournament is Island Harbor.

Saturday Randy and I pre-fished the Dead Tree Hole, Barge wreck and offshore shipping channel markers without much success except for a lost cobia and feisty black tip shark which we fought for 15 minutes. Heard on the radio of some nice fish being caught at the inshore shipping channel markers but only had a short day scheduled. Sunday Walter Giese, Jon Stuckey, and I decided to run to the east side and try several spots. Loaded up with bait at McGinnis Point and headed out the inlet. First stop was 4 Mile Rock out of Drum. Nothing except sharks and a big barracuda. Second stop was the Chicken. This time we had dolphin action and one good screamer that bit my leader. Also another citation barracuda. Third stop was a number I call E3 or inshore east rock. Nothing but sharks. Fourth stop was the famous East Rock. Big AJ's and another citation barracuda but still no kings. Almost ready to call it a day I wanted to try one last place near the 30 Minute Rock called the 69lb rock. The area was loaded with bait on the screen and another boat was already hooked up with a king. So we set the spread and hooked up to a nice mid twenties, then a mid teenager, a snake, then finally a double. The first king hit a naked pogy long and the second hit a naked short. The first king when boated went low thirties. The second king which missed the bait after skying on it was at least mid to high forties. Finished the day there and decided we found the place to fish for the CCSA.

Well The Stealth Fighter finally put a decent fish on the scales at The Jolly Mon, which lead to a 4^th place finish overall and 1^st in the 23’ and under TWT. Brant puts on a great tournament and there are plenty of fun things going on at his tournaments. I would suggest you fish them if you haven't before.

Our good result is no indication of how our day went. It was very eventful and several times we thought we wouldn’t fish. We left Swansboro at 2 am and headed to Carolina Beach. Half way down Ben remembers we forgot the ribbon fish. After a few choice words we realize we don’t like ribbons anyway. We stop to get gas on the way and locate one of few stores that still stay open 24 hours. However, from the note on the door, the cashier decided to leave for 30 minutes. Back in the truck and we find another store. I start pumping gas and hear something running. For some reason my bilge is running but the switch isn’t on and there isn’t any water to pump out. I turn the bilge switch ON and the bilge stops, but a live well pump comes on. I’ve made no changes to the boat so this is spooky. I pull a few wires and replace them in the same spots and things are back to normal. Then we realize all of the trailer lights are out and we can’t get them turned on. I’m glad we are die hard fisherman because we’re starting to get frustrated.

We finally get to Carolina Beach ramp and put in. We heard the boat basin held pogies so we start there. The boat that put in before us threw one time and loaded up. Unfortunately we try for some time and only get peanuts. We finally get on a nice school and then the engines overheat warning goes off. I’m forced to put the boat on plane, in the basin, to get water flowing through the engine. That cools things down and I cleaned out the water drain to make sure there isn’t a clog. That works for a few minutes but the horn sounds again and the temp is red lined. We decide to head south and run for awhile to hopefully clear out the clog. We arrive at Southport but the overheat is still there at idle. I make a call to Rick at Power Marine and he tells me they have had problems with poppet valves sticking. He suggests putting the engine in neutral an running it up a few hundred RPM. That does the trick but will make fishing very difficult because we won’t be able to troll. Ben and I are both hot and about ready to call it quits. We are already in the tourney, and the engine is running, so we press on.

We head for the hot hole to catch bait and see a hundred boats off of Bald Head in the channel. We immediately get into the largest school of pogies I’ve ever seen. We were in a 50’ hole and there was solid bait from 10’ down to 50’. One throw and we load both bait wells. Now we finally feel better and amazed we caught pogies in 50’ of water.

The Jungle was our first target so we stick to our plan. It was a little rough running out but an hour later we put lines in the water and set into a drift. We still need to keep the engine in neutral and run about 800 RPM. This seems to keep the engine horn from sounding and we get a quick double hook up. We put both kings in the boat but the largest one is only about 10 pounds. Lines go back out and we hook up again with a very large Spanish. I break him off and Ben sets lines again. We get one more hit but the hooks pulled. We figure there is only a small class of fish here so we head to a second number we have near the Jungle. No hits in 30 minutes so we start looking for another option.

It’s getting pretty rough about this time so we decided to head inshore. We decide on 390/390 and set a course. It isn’t far but the seas made for a very rough ride. We get there to find a dozen other boats. We have marked several good spots around this area over the years and we try to get back to a spot where we caught a nice fish last year. The seas and our inability to troll made it tough to get on the spot we wanted. I kept telling Ben the wind was playing havoc and I couldn’t do much to stay on the spot. I finally get up wind at the right location and was able to drift over our spot. This was the lucky pass we needed. It was like a repeat of last year….same spot….another big fish. This time the big king couldn’t resist a double pogy on the long line. The king makes a nice first run, dives and comes back to the top. We gain ground but it makes another long run. We gain more ground but it makes a third long run. This has to be a big king. It heads for another boat which Brent, on the Sea Drag'n, tells me was The Pescador. I don’t know this boat but Brent says they had a fouled engine at the time. Even during trouble, they do their best to move out of our way. So we appreciate their efforts. Finally we were able to get between their boat and the fish. A few minutes later the fish rolls to the surface and Ben puts a perfect gaff in the fish.

We have been waiting 3 tournaments for any fish and this put a smile on our face. I think there were a few high fives on the boat but I don’t recallJ. We guess the fish is mid to high 20’s because both of us were scared to admit this fish would go 30. It’s about 1:30 and we decide to head to the scales. No one had been catching much around us plus our engine problems have kept us on edge all day. We took it easy and the run took 1.5 hours. We got to the scales right at 3:00 but Trade Mark had already put a 32 on the scale. I know ours is close to that but the scale settled at 30.65. We hang around for awhile to see two other bigger fish. We finally end up in 4^th and won the 23’ TWT. We are extremely happy with the result based on the day we had. The only regret is we would have won the high rollers TWT if we had entered. So we left $5000 for someone else to collect. We still took home $6,000 so we are happy but learned a very expensive lesson.

Ben and I decided to fish this tournament at the last minute on Thursday. There aren't many 23' boats on the leader board for Division 3 so we jumped in. Originally we decided not to fish this division but the current leader board helped make our decision.

We pulled everything together at the last minute and headed to Southport. No time for pre-fishing or hunting bait so we went on what we knew from last week at the Swansboro tournament. We knew there was small bait and the fishing reports last week gave us a decent feeling. That feeling changed when we pulled into North Myrtle for the captains meeting. The bait reports weren't good and the wind was blowing 20+ and gusting higher. The seas were 5-6 feet so we wouldn't be running far. Some friends where fishing in Charleston and gave the same type of weather report. We headed back to Southport because we knew it would be calmer on the east side of the shoals with the SW wind. Plus we had the option of the river channel.

At 10:00 pm I get a call from the tournament committee. They are postponing until Sunday. This is good because the weather report looks better for Sunday and now we can catch bait. One problem...no bait pen. I learned a lesson to always take your bait pen even if you aren't planning to catch bait.

Saturday morning we decided to at least find the bait for the next day. We hit every spot within 30 miles of Southport and only found little bait. The biggest was probably 3" and my 5/8" net would gill everything. This isn't good. I guess we didn't need that bait pen after all.

The weather report isn't getting better as predicted. The wind is still blowing strong and Sunday will still be 20+ and 5'+ seas. The committee offered to tear up our check so we decided to cut our looses and head home. I've never done this before but it's early in the season and there was no since in killing ourselves so early. We'll have many more opportunities to do that.

We get a much earlier start today and arrive at 30/30 around 6:00. We got a few reports that a nice fish was caught there yesterday so it sounds like the place to be. We were able to find some suspended bait but not like yesterday. We know there are fish here and we have several hook ups today but no size. We also saw Mister Stanman catch a nice one beside us so we're staying put.

After several hours this ledge just isn't producing and no ones hooking up. So we decide to head closer inshore thinking the warmer water has moved bigger fish inshore because of the decent fish caught in close yesterday. We end up at AR 386 and find a fleet of boats. Some big name boats are catching plenty of fish but no size. We join the crowd and start catching dinks. Unfortunately by this time our small pogies just don't have enough energy and most are belly up in the live well. So we switch to cigars and dress them up with some skirts.

Today turns out much like yesterday. Short strikes and a couple pulled hooks are on the menu. We finally catch a 10 lb fish that made a 30 lb set of runs. This fish did it too us again and made a dash to the boat. Luckily the down riggers are up and most lines are in. I have to almost dive into the water to prevent this fish from hitting the props and he stays on. He finally comes to the boat but he's not big enough to make the run back to Swansboro. Paired with that 15 lb fish yesterday would have put us in the top 15. It's just not our luck. We also boated a remora fish in between dinks today. You know it has to be a bad day when we one of these hooks up.

Congrats to Sea Rat, Hooligan, Bob Cat, Stanman, Hit and Run and all the others that placed. Especially to "Quit Wishin". A 17 foot boat beats all the big guns this year.

We haven't decided whether we we'll fish next weeks Frantic Atlantic Division 3 tourney. If not then we'll be fishing "Raleigh" because we've decided not to fish Division 13.

Finally we may fish Swansboro next year but we'll definitely stay closer to home.

Ben and I have Rocky Allen along for the tournament. Rocky lives in Ben's neighborhood and it's his first king fishing trip. What a way to start. It's Swansboro, it's rough, winds blowing, he slept on the floor at Motel 6 but he was a great trooper.

I was right, the new bait pen didn't work. There was too much flex in the mesh so the baits get tangled. The mesh is also too large which let the crabs get to some of the baits. Having small baits doesn't help. Maybe bigger baits would work fine. However our round pen I bought from the SKA trailer last year works great. Sometimes it's just easier to spend the money than building your own. Maybe I'll have to try one of the Joe Winslow special pickle barrels next.

After loading the live wells we head out the inlet. We decide to go with plan A and fish south. There was a pretty strong head sea and Ben's Fountain pushed along but we couldn't get up on top to run. This slowed us down and we didn't get to our favorite ledge (we call it Ben's ledge) off Carolina Beach until around 7:00. I hate starting after fishing time. We'll definitely get an earlier start tomorrow. Water temp is 74.5 degrees. Some really warm water has moved in this week even with the cold front.

We moved around our ledge searching for bait. They are stacked up so out go the lines. The Shot gun line is the first to hit. A real screamer that made a few good runs. Then the fish sounds. Could it be a reef donkey? We still think it's a king and play it for awhile. It goes deep and sits in one spot. It has to be an Amber Jack or maybe a big shark. We'll never know because the leader rubbed something and came back frayed. Lines go back out and another one hits the starboard downrigger. Some nice runs and Ben fights this one. This fish makes a slow first run and we think it's a shark so lines stay out. Then the line screams. Now we're getting lines in. Ben yells he thinks he threw the hooks. Actually the fish makes a mad dash back to the boat. Now we think it's a big king until we see this small flash fly under the motors. We guess it's about a 15+ lb fish and would be good for day one. Disappointed it's not a 30 but still happy. We all know we haven't caught a fish until he's in the box. About the time we get all the lines untangled or cut so we don't loose the fish, a 7 ft hammerhead decides it's dinner time. One bite and now Ben's fighting a hammerhead. We break the line and a share a few choice words with the shark. The fish are here so we set the lines again.

We then hook up to a small AJ and several small kings but nothing to weigh. We decide to try another spot close by but not much bait and little action. We figured it would take 3 hours to get back home safe so lines will come up at 2:00. At 2:00 we pull in lines and find the port downrigger was hit but no hook up. We decide we can make it back in 2:30 minutes if we run the ocean. So another ribbon goes down the port side and another short strike. It's not our day or these fish are really small. 4 more ribbons later on the port downrigger and the exact same spot produced short strikes and more small fish. Still nothing to weigh and we're out of time.

This has been a day of weird events and it's just not our turn to get on the leader board. It was a slow quite trip back to Carolina beach.

Next time I'm sure Rocky will figure out the difference between the windward and leeward side of a boat. Even getting back to the dock soaking wet he still says he had a good time.

Another day for catching bait. This is a fun tournament but more work than any tournament throughout the year.

Ben and I headed south to Carolina Beach. We knew we wouldn't be able to use any of the bait we caught yesterday in Swansboro. So off to the bait holes at Carolina Beach. We found plenty of bait in Snows Cut but it wasn't very big. It would have been great if we were flounder fishing. We stopped by the boat basin and was able to load up on 6-8'' inch pogies. They aren't big but it's all we have. We were able to load 2 pens but we'll have to see how they keep. I made a new pen over the winter and I'm skeptical if it will work.

Another day for catching bait. This is a fun tournament but more work than any tournament all year.

Today I hooked up with Mitch Yates from "Sea Rat" to pogy hunt. We heard about bait in the waterway so I headed to Mitch's place in Swansboro. We searched the waterway but no bait. So off to Morehead where we heard of bigger bait around Town Creek Marina. Didn't find much bait at first but as the tide lowered we began to see some flips. They are still scattered and small but we were able to load the live wells.

We get back to Swansboro to meet up with Chip and Chad on "Reel Screamer". They arrived in Swansboro a little later and where able to load up where we originally started searching. It figures the pogies would show up after we run 40 miles. Patients is a big part of this sport. I wish I had more of it....

We were able to load up 3 large bait pens. Enough for all of us and Kurt Whorf on "Reel Time". Something about he had to work late Friday so he asked us to catch bait for him:-).

Today we spent the entire day searching for bait. Tried a few more spots but still no pogies. I take that back. We did catch one about 1" long. The smallest one I've ever seen.

Later we went on a mullet hunt and managed to blind cast about 2 dozen around New River. Lets just hope they make it through the week.

That night we got a call and another pogy update. Sounds like we'll be bait hunting again on Wednesday. Don't get the impression I fish for a living. I'm on vacation all week even though I I would like to.

Well it's Saturday before the Swansboro tournament. The tournament you love to hate. There's little bait and very few kings.

You can only do so much to get a boat ready for the season. So Ben and I ventured out today to do some scouting for bait and test the waters. This was the first fishing trip of 2001 for The Stealth Fighter and it feels great to be on the water again.

We start the morning talking to some friends to get a reading on the bait situation and hear there is some in our favorite holes around new river. We do some quick scouting but found no pogies. Therefore we decide to head out New River and catch some of the Spanish run. We were able to put 4 decent Spanish and one Bonita in the box in a little under 3 hours.

Not really much activity on the radio about the kings so everyone's being quite or there aren't many fish. Probably a little of both.

I teamed up again with Joe Winslow on The Hooligan. We'll the Frantic Atlantic stink still follows The Hooligan. Joe hasn't done well in past years during this tournament and Kurt Whorf (Reel Time), Travis Owney (Team Badfish), and myself weren't able to help the cause.

We were able to find fish off of Georgetown during pre-fishing but they weren't there during the tournament. However we were able to find plenty of tuna during the tournament and were able to boat one 65⁺lb yellow fin and a 31⁺lb black fin. The black fin was just shy of the South Carolina state record. It was a great blue bird weekend and the fishing was fun but no money this time.

Congrats to Walter Giese on The Miss Mercy. He finished 1st in 23 and under, and 7th overall.

I fished the final Division 11 tournament with Joe Winslow on The Hooligan. Happy to say we ended up 7th overall in the Division and 11th place in this tournament. This gets Joe qualified for nationals. Now I still have my work cut out to get The Stealth Fighter to Fort Pierce.

It was just Joe and I so the strong bite on day two made for some fun times. This included 3, yes 3, double hook ups. One is unusual but the big boys were biting and we were putting them in the bag. Unfortunately we never bagged the big one but several low twenties and a couple of high twenties made for a fun weekend.

I'd like to thank Joel and Christina on :08secs and The Woithe's on The Reel One. The outcome of this Division would have been much different if it hadn't been for the help these teams provided us through the 3 tournaments. Also The Woithe's were able to bag the big boy in this tournament to take home a new boat. I never was able to personally say thanks so here's my official "Thank You". Don't hesitate to give us a call when your up in Carolinas. The last person to thank is Joe's mom. She gave me a place to sleep and feed us every night. It didn't feel like a tournament since we had home cooking every night:-).

I won't go in to all the details here but see Joe's full report for the details.

I'm sure everyone wants to know what it's like fishing with Joe. There's a couple of things I learned while fishing with him. First and foremost he is a die hard king fisherman. Second, there is no funny business going on aboard The Hooligan. Joe gets a bad rap for winning so many tournaments but I'm convinced it's because of his tenacity. He is always thinking about fishing and what he's doing or could be doing better. He doesn't just drag baits. He effectively networks with others and proved to me that he gives more than he takes. This hard work has paid off for him and David. There's a few other secrets but those I'll keep to myself:-).

Joe you're a great tournament fisherman and now I can say a good friend. Thanks for the invitation to Florida.

The first tournament of the year. Problem is today it isn't a fishing day. It's a 14 hour drive down to Marco Island Florida. I now have an appreciation for the many teams that travel to those far off tournaments. King Fishing is fun but I'll need to get use to this traveling.

I joined up with Joe Winslow on the Hooligan and Kirk Whorf from Reel Time. I want to first give these guys a big thanks for an awesome weekend. Finishing 15th is a great way to start the season. Joe thanks for the invitation and I can't wait until the end of March to do it all over again. Also thanks to your mom for the great hospitality.

For all the teams fishing the NC divisions let me tell you it's great to hear a reel scream in February. I've always started king fishing in April or May so this is a great change. I would give you a complete run down of the weekend but Joe has already done an excellent job on his web site. So please visit The Hooligan website for the full report.