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2003 Fishing Journal

This wasn't one of our better tournaments but our 18 pound fish was enough to secure our 1st place finish in US Anglers Division 3.  We've been close before but finally brought home the larger trophy.  The good thing is US Anglers pays out for top divisional finishes. 

This weekend we needed a game plan to win the tournament and at a minimum catch a weigh fish to secure first place in the division.  The reports have been hot for The Jungle so we decided to go south.  North was an option but didn't want to play hero or zero this weekend.  Friday was one of the worst days we've had on the water.  We had a half dozen missed hook ups and one massive line tangle.  The one fish we were able to hook up hit an outrigger and made a nice run toward our long line.  The rigger stopped running and then the long line screamed.  We're thinking a double hook up but then realized our fish had dropped the first bait and hooked in the second line and created a massive tangle.  We managed to get both lines back up to the boat with only one set of hooks in the fish.  The problem was we had to cut the line with the fish and quickly decide how to get the fish in the boat.  After a few minutes of chaos we tried to tie the line back to the rod but were unsuccessful.  We have to give Tony credit for hand lining the fish to the boat but the fish made a run once he saw the boat and that's the end of the fish story.  The fish was only a twenty class fish but would have locked up the division and given us the second day to hunt for a winner.

We knew the fish we're thick at the Jungle so we decided to go back the second day.  The second day was much better as we boated 6 teenagers with the largest at 18.5.  No tournament money but a great feeling to win a division.  

Next up is Toys for Tot's

We fished the Wilmington shipping channel because of the hot bite during the US Open last week.  Plus we got a report there was a 39 caught at the channel on Tuesday.  We drove down early that morning and worked with The Reel One after they made the run south.  Started at the sea buoy and worked off toward Lighthouse Rock 1.  We didn’t have a strike and saw no fish caught for over 2 hours.  We had heard an 18 was caught at McClammery Reef  but decide to stay at Lighthouse because we were marking huge pods of bait.  We told Bob about the 18 and he started at McClammery.  Bob soon called us and said he saw a teenager caught beside them so we decided to make the run.  We had no strikes for over an hour but we happened to see a charter boat land a 20 class fish while drifting.  We decided to stick it out and at 12:20 (exact start of bite time) we hooked up.  Ben fought the fish and Tony gaffed.  The fish came over the side and hit the deck.  We all guessed mid twenties.

We have to thank the Woithe family again.  I hate it they couldn't get a nice fish for their pro standings.  

The Open Wide Team finishes 1st 

The Topsail tournament has been very good to the team members of the Open Wide team.  Benson has finished in second twice before but this weekend Benson Ybanez and Randy Crews took home the big prize with a monster fish.  Benson and I have fished together for several years but this is the first tournament I was able to join Benson because this year has been dedicated to spending time with a new baby after I sold The Stealth Fighter.  This is the 2^nd tournament win of the season for the Open Wide after also winning the Carteret County tournament several weeks ago.   

The story is an easy one to tell but the morning didn’t start off great.  Benson had located plenty of bait the day before and loaded up for chum.  However the morning of the tournament was tough to find bait.  We were able to find a half dozen pogies and then decided to buy a few dozen because it was getting late. 

Our original game plan was to head north to big fish country and be hero or zero.  All of our research indicated there weren’t any big fish being caught up north but we new fish were still being caught in Bogue sound.  We decided to fish East Rock because a couple nice fish came from there during the tournament the previous weekend.  We headed out the inlet a little before 8 am because we felt it would be an early bite.  Reports from the day before weren’t great so we thought the kings would be eating early.  We got to our spot a little after 8am to find two other boats.  Benson set the spread and I made a pass over our numbers.    We were surprised to find very little bait in the area.  I made my first turn and was coming across the number for the second time.  Benson decided to dig into the Hardee’s chicken box for a bite of good old king fish breakfast.  8 am seems like lunch time when you get up at 4:00 J.  One bite of chicken and the long line started to scream.  Ben grabbed the rod and I cleared the lines.  The fish peeled off about 250 yards of line on the first run and then managed to make another 2 long runs.  She came to the boat after about 20 minutes.  We both saw the fish about 6 feet down but the water was dirty so we both said it’s about 30 class fish.  She rolled up on her side and then we both knew it was a monster.  I was able to gaff it on the first shot and then it took both of us to lift her in the boat.  She hit the deck and we both started to celebrate.  Time of death 9:00.

We made a few phone calls, cleaned up the boat and headed to the scales for the long wait.  It took both of us to carry the bag and lift her to the scales.  The weigh master announced 58.1 and the screaming began.  What a fish!!!  It’s a great feeling to win a tournament but really something to bring that size fish to the scales.