Tidelines – September 15, 2011
King mackerel tournament fishing off the North Carolina coast in September means cooler temperatures, a good king bite closer to the beach, and hurricane exposure. This year we moved the NewBridge Bank Wild King Classic (presented by Fisherman’s Post) from early August (the 2010 date) to late September (the 2011 date). The cooler temperatures and good king bite are still a little up in the air, but we’re already feeling the effects of trying to host a tournament during the hurricane season.
We don’t know yet what weather will be in store for us the weekend of September 23-25, but we do already know that the current weather forecast (Tropical Storm Maria—formerly Hurricane Maria—will be creating hard NE winds) has caused the Atlantic Beach Saltwater Classic, originally scheduled for Sept. 15-17, to be rescheduled for the same weekend as our event.
So since the date conflict is now unavoidable, the next question becomes how to make the best out of the situation.
Terry Adkins (Tournament Director of the Atlantic Beach tournament) and I have decided to amend our rules to accommodate anglers that would like to fish both tournaments. Both of our events have rules that prohibit making landfall, but both of our events will also amend those rules so that an angler can weigh in a fish at one tournament, and then have their fish returned so they can make the long boat ride to the other tournament’s weigh in.
Terry and I realize that not many anglers will choose to fish both, but we do want to try and accommodate those that were already planning before the date change on participating in each event.
More rules clarifications will be made at both captains’ meetings, including extended weigh in times and the system that will be employed to mark fish (so that the same fish can’t be weighed twice in the same event).
Other than this slight date conflict, our plans for the 2011 NewBridge Bank Wild King Classic have been moving along nicely. I hope you’ve noticed the ad copy in our pages where we are promoting free king mackerel fishing seminars during the week leading up to the tournament. The two seminars are Wednesday, Sept. 21, 6:00 pm, at Tex’s Tackle, and Thursday, Sept. 22, 7:00 pm, at Intracoastal Angler. Each seminar will be taught by Capt. Jodie Gay of Bluewater Candy.
Our registration will be Friday, Sept. 23, from 2:00-9:00 under the big tents beside Wild Wing Cafe. There you can enjoy free pizza (thanks, Papa John’s) and drinks (thanks, Coors Light and Atlantic Shores) at our captains’ party. We’ll also be raffling off a stainless steel grill, compliments of Bubba’s Grills. TowBoat US will be onsite, as will vehicles by Bob King and boats from Atlantic Marine.
If you haven’t been to a tournament weigh-in in a while, then make plans now to visit Seapath Marina on either Saturday or Sunday. Our event is a captain’s choice format, so anglers can either choose to fish on Saturday or Sunday. The scales open at 1:00 and close at 6:00 (it was 5:00, but we’re extending the time to allow for anyone traveling from Atlantic Beach), but most of the action will happen right around 5:00.
Then Sunday at 6:00 we start our big awards dinner, a buffet of wings, chicken fingers, barbeque, cole slaw, baked beans, garden salad, and more, all provided by Wild King Cafe.
When the awards ceremony is complete, the result will be a crowd of participants with prize money in their pockets, great (and free) food and drink in their belly, and some money raised for the Cape Fear Community College Sea Devil Club, the backbone of the college’s Athletic Program.
Here’s another thought: many of you are already planning on participating in the 2011 US Open KMT, to be held the weekend after ours on Sept. 30-Oct. 2, and if that’s the case I hope you use our weekend and our tournament to pre-fish for that great event.
