Day At The Docks
Rob Hunoval, Capt. Zach Shackleton, Allen Johnson, and Wes Johnson with the 18 lb. winning king mackerel in the Day at the Docks King Mackerel Tournament, held April 28 out of Capt. Pete's Marina in Holden Beach. Their fish bit a dead cigar minnow under a pink skirt near Frying Pan Tower. Photo courtesy of Steffie's Photography.
Scaling an 18 lb. king mackerel at Holden Beach’s Capt. Pete’s Seafood Restaurant, Allen Johnson, Capt. Zach Shackleton, and the “No Pro Bono” fishing team earned first place and $1000 in the Day at the Docks King Mackerel Tournament.
Johnson, from Elizabethtown, NC, his brother Wes, and friend Rob Hunoval teamed up with Shackleton, a Holden Beach local, to fish the event.
Piling into Johnson’s 24’ Aegis center console on the morning of the event with Shackleton at the helm, the anglers departed for Frying Pan Tower on April 28, the morning of the event.
“It was our first time going out this year,” Johnson said, “but Zack runs charters on the Twister boats, so we knew he’d put us on some fish.”
The anglers had a tough time finding live baits that morning, so they deployed a spread of frozen cigar minnows upon reaching the Tower, and it wasn’t long before they started hooking some fish, sharks at first, and then got a few king mackerel bites.
Their big fish struck a pink skirted cigar minnow around 1:00 in the afternoon while the crew was still fishing the Tower area, and Allen Johnson took the rod.
“He came in pretty easy,” Johnson explained, “but when he saw the boat he started fighting a little more.”
When he’d finally worked the fish up to the boat, Johnson passed the rod off to Shackleton and planted the gaff.
Knowing that the 18-pounder likely wasn’t the biggest fish in the area, the anglers kept trolling, searching for an even larger fish. They may have hooked one, but will never know for sure.
“We had another nice fish, but a big shark came up and got him right beside the boat,” Johnson continued. “All it left was the head. It was possibly bigger, but it’s hard to say when all you’ve got left is the head.”
With the wind and seas freshening, the anglers soon made the call to head back towards the beach before conditions got any rougher.
Adam Sellers, Jason McDowell, and Wes Knox--“Team Wide Open”-- with the trio of flounder that earned them first place in the Day at the Docks Flounder Tournament. The win earned them $400.
“If we’d stayed out there, I know we could’ve caught some more fish,” Johnson said, “but I knew we wouldn’t be able to come in too quick. When we got back in radio distance, we found out we were the only boat to catch a king, so we weren’t lollygagging anymore. We showed up with five minutes to spare.”
With the only king mackerel landed by the field, the anglers handily earned the victory in the event’s king mackerel tournament.
The Day at the Docks Event is put on by the Greater Holden Beach Merchants’ Association, and this year featured a flounder tournament running concurrently with the king mackerel event.
Bolivia, NC’s “Team Wide Open,” of Adam Sellers, Jason McDowell, and Blake Stone brought a trio of flounder to the scales to earn first place and $400 in the flounder competition.
More information on the Day at the Docks event and the Greater Holden Beach Merchants’ Association is available at www.hbmerch.com.
