Drum Inlet KMT 2007
Pat Renfro’s “Big Dawg” team, from Sneads Ferry, took home the top honors in the 2007 Drum Inlet King Mackerel tournament, held out of Beaufort’s Town Creek Marina. The crew brought a 19.8 lb. king to the scales aboard their 31’ Cape Horn to best the second place fish by more than 2 lbs.
Renfro and teammates Miles Bunn, Jeff Naylor, and Steven Best found their king around 30 Minute Rock, an area east of Lookout Shoals, late in the tournament’s only fishing day, Saturday, September 1.
“He bit at 3:02 that afternoon,” Renfro recalled. The king took a blue-skirted pogy trolled long behind the boat, and Bunn was the first to the rod. “He burned it down really good then,” Renfro continued, “so we went after him. He came to the boat two times and ran off again. We stayed on him, though.”
It wasn’t long before the tired fish surfaced, and Renfro was able to gaff it around 20 minutes after the bite. The near-20 lb. king was the team’s only certain king bite in the event, and the many other boats fishing the east side that day reported surprisingly slow fishing.
“We had a few more unidentified knockdowns,” Renfro said, “but that’s the only bite we could call a king for sure.” Aside from the winning fish, the “Big Dawg” anglers caught only sharks.
The team caught pogies in the ICW near Sneads Ferry before the tournament, and kept them penned up at Old Ferry Marina until the fishing day. Renfro wished to thank Larry Carlyle and Miles Bunn for “showing him the ropes” of tournament king mackerel fishing, and he also wished to express his gratitude to Old Ferry Marina, New River Marina, and Cape Horn Boats for their assistance.
The “Last Minute” team, with Capt. Leonard Taylor, took the second place king in the tournament at 17.7 lbs. The fish also earned angler Lane Burton the top Junior Angler prize in the event.
A 16.05 lb. fish secured third for Tommy Allen’s “Tenacious” crew, along with the Top Lady Angler honors for Ivy Allen.
Tournament organizer Emmett Pittman wished to thank all the event’s anglers for participating.
