Fall Brawl King Classic
Skip Lowry, Roger Pennington, and Troy Cowart with the 30.25 lb. fish that earned them first place in the Fall Brawl King Classic. The big king bit a naked cigar minnow near the Shallotte Rocks.
Fishing their way beyond the competition, Roger Pennington and the “For Sale” fishing team scaled a 30.25 lb. king mackerel to earn the win at the 2012 Yellowfin/Yamaha Fall Brawl King Classic, held November 2-4 out of the Ocean Isle Fishing Center.
Pennington, of Aiken, SC, fished with Skip Lowry and Troy Cowart aboard his 31’ Fountain, and the anglers didn’t pre-fish for the event or heed the weather forecast when deciding which day of the Captains’ Choice event to fish.
“The weatherman said it was supposed to be nicer on Sunday,” Pennington explained, “so I decided to fish Saturday. When is he ever right?”
The anglers stopped at a few places as they headed offshore but found cold water until they made it out to the Shallotte Rocks, a spot in 85’ of water around 40 miles offshore..
“We had 70.6 degree water out there,” the winning captain continued, “so we put out four lines.”
They hadn’t had time to get any more baits in the water when a fish took off with one line, and while Pennington was trying to clear the others, another fish bit, taking a naked cigar minnow on the surface.
Pennington soon fought the fish back to the boat, but the king wasn’t ready to come aboard yet. “When Troy gaffed it, the hook broke off the gaff,” he recalled. “I told him to reach out like he was going to grab him when it came up again and I knew it would take off. We knew we had to tire that fish out.”
After repeating the process several times, they finally wore the king out and were able to grab it by the tail and haul it aboard the Fountain around 20 minutes after the bite.
The anglers continued trolling the area until 1:00, then headed to the scales with their prize fish.
Scaling a 26.64 lb. fish to earn second place in the event were Norwood, NC’s Tim Lowry and the “Blue Ice Bandit.” Ricky Holden, aboard the “Reely Miss Behavin,” took home third place with a 24.21 lb. king mackerel.
A full leaderboard and more information on the Fall Brawl and other Ocean Isle Fishing Center Tournaments are available at www.oifc.com.
