Rebel King Pier King Mackerel Tournament 2007
The 2007 season’s first king mackerel tournament was an unusual event, at least to the king fishermen accustomed to the big money tournament trails. There were no triple engine center consoles traveling 100+ miles to find money winning kings, and no sanctioning body tallying points based on the fish weights.
Instead, the 41 anglers participating in the Rebel Pier KMT, hosted by Oak Island’s Ocean Crest Pier, dangled live baits from trolley rigs to try and tempt a tournament winner.
Excitement ran high leading up to the event as the two days preceding the tournament saw 10 kings and several cobia decked at Ocean Crest Pier. Unfortunately, a cold front blew through as fishing began, making it a tougher tournament, at least fish wise, than expected.
Ethan Brown (age 16), from Greensboro, landed the tournament-winning fish and the tournament’s only king. His king weighed 8 lbs. 11 oz. Brown has traveled to Oak Island each of the last four years to fish the Rebel King event, and this is the first time he’s finished in the money.
Brown, fishing with his parents and friend Todd Duncan, got the king bite around 12:15 pm on Saturday. He had a small bluefish pinned to his trolley rig when the fish hit. A school of bigger chopper bluefish were harassing anglers’ live baits, and Brown at first believed he’d had a bluefish strike. “I though he was a blue at first, and I put my thumb on the spool to try to stop him,” he said. “That got my thumb burnt when he took off.”
The thumb burner was the king’s only run, and when Brown reeled it back to the pier, fellow angler John Leach was ready with the gaff. “He was a little bit green,” Brown recalled, “but we got a gaff in him.”
The fish held on to the top spot on the leader board through Saturday afternoon and Sunday’s fishing, and Brown was presented a check for $820 at the awards ceremony. An Ocean Crest Pier season king mackerel fishing pass that normally sells for over $200 was also part of the winner’s spoils.
Though only one king was caught over the course of the event, the tournament accepts cobia and bluefish for prizes when not enough kings hit the deck.
The tournament’s most experienced angler, 83-year-old Clarence Robertson, of Narrows, VA, caught the second place fish, a 29 lb. cobia. Robertson was fishing the tournament with his friend David Jennings from Fort Mill, SC.
Robertson’s cobia struck a bluefish around 10:00 on Friday morning. He didn’t see the cobia strike, but was quickly summoned to his fighting rod by a screaming reel. The cobia slugged it out with Robertson for around 40 minutes before he got it close to the pier. “In another 10 minutes, he would have had me whipped,” Robertson said.
Second place in the tournament netted Robertson a check for more than $750.
An 11 lb. 8 oz. bluefish secured third place for angler J.C. Price, from Asheboro. Price got the bluefish to strike a live grass shad Saturday morning, and hoped he had king on. “I didn’t know what he was, so I let him run a while,” he explained.
After the first run, it wasn’t too long before Price tired the big blue enough for John Leach to plant a pier gaff in it. When the fish hit the scales, it turned out to be the largest blue caught from Ocean Crest Pier in 2007. Price went home with a check for $338 for third place.
The Rebel Pier KMT is an Oak Island institution, and anglers fishing it are a tightly knit bunch. The majority of tournament participants fish the event year after year, and at the awards ceremony it was easy to see why.
After enjoying a meal of home cooked barbeque, slaw, potato salad, baked beans, and cake, the anglers participated in a raffle. Tournament Director and Pier Manager Dave Cooper gave away more than 30 items ranging from t-shirts to season passes and rod and reel combos.
Cooper would like to express his great thanks to all the anglers fishing the tournament and all its sponsors for making the event the success it is.
