Tournament Report – Rumble in the Jungle KMT
Easing past their competition with a 37.47 lb. king mackerel, Dr. Kendall Suh and the “Fishin’ Physician” crew took home the guaranteed $50,000 first place prize check at the 2015 Rumble In the Jungle King Mackerel Tournament, held September 25-27 out of Harbourgate Marina in North Myrtle Beach.
Suh, fishing with friend Brian Henry aboard his 35’ Contender, caught bait the day before the competition, but he wanted to secure some fresh offerings on the morning of their fishing day.
Brian Henry and Dr. Kendall Suh with the 37.47 lb. king mackerel that earned them first place and over $50,000 in the 2015 Rumble In The Jungle King Mackerel Tournament. The big king bit a live menhaden near Ocean Crest Pier.
After the pair made a quick haul from the shotgun start at Little River Inlet to Oak Island, Henry nabbed a school of menhaden on his first throw of the cast net, and the anglers proceeded to an area off Ocean Crest Pier where they hoped they’d find their big mackerel.
The anglers marked plenty of schools of bait on their sounder and heard of several king mackerel hookups from boats in the same vicinity, but the crew had little action until later in the morning.
A single hookup turned quickly into a double before five of the anglers’ six lines had gone off. Unfortunately, a school of citation-class drum had swarmed the pair’s baits, and they landed several before breaking the rest of the multiple hookup off.
Thy continued trolling the area until around noon, when one of their surface lines took off with a telltale bite. As line poured off the reel, the anglers realized they had not only a king, but a solid one, and Suh took the reed for the fight.
After an initial burst of around 300 yards, the anglers closed the gap on their fish within 10 minutes and were soon looking at the king on the surface just off the boat. Tired from the run, the king stayed up top, but Suh didn’t think it was a tournament winner at first.
“I initially saw what I thought was only a 25-30 lb. fish,” he explained. “Brian gaffed the fish in the shoulder, and it hit the deck with a thud. Only then did I realize it was an upper-30’s fish.”
Deciding that landing a high-30 lb. king mackerel on a slow day was worth making sure they made it to the scales, Henry and Suh got the fish iced and into a fish bag before stowing their gear and heading to Little River.
With the scales not open until 3:00 that afternoon, they fished near Little River Inlet until it was time to head to the weigh-in. Their fish pushed the dial to 37.47 lbs. and was the heaviest weighed out of the competitors fishing on Saturday, the event’s first fishing day.
After a nerve-racking Sunday while the rest of the field fished, Henry and Suh were elated to see their king still atop the leaderboard when the scales closed Sunday afternoon.
Hauling a 36.88 lb. king to the weigh-in to finish just on the winners’ heels were Capt. David Hooks and the “Black Pearl” crew. The “Clearly Hooked” crew secured third places with a 36.00 lb. king.
For more information on the Rumble in the Jungle along with a full leaderboard, visit www.rumblekmt.com.
