East Coast Got-Em-On Classic
The "Toes Up" fishign team, from Laurinburg, NC, scaled a 44.45 lb. king mackerel to earn first place and well over $20,000 in the 2009 East Coast Got-Em-On Classic. They hooked their money-winning mackerel on a live pogy at the 41/510 off Myrtle Beach.
With a huge king mackerel in the boat before 10:00 on the first morning of the East Coast Got-Em-On Classic, any team would be thankful, and the “Toes Up” crew, from Laurinburg, NC, wanted to make sure a higher power knew it.
“The first thing we did when we got her in the boat was to have a prayer,” team captain Richard Boles explained. “We wanted to thank the Lord because without God all this is not possible.”
The 44.45 lb. king that the anglers hauled from South Carolina waters to the scales at the Carolina Beach Yacht Basin was the first fish weighed in, and it held on to the top spot through the two-day event, earning them first place and a check for over $22,000.
It didn’t take long for the “Toes Up” anglers, fishing on a Yamaha-powered 23T Contender, to hook up on the fateful Saturday morning.
“We’d like to thank Ocean Isle Fishing Center guys, too. We talked on Friday, and we knew they’d caught some fish close in,” Boles continued. “And, truth be told, we were headed out and happened to see some of them hooked up at a spot within sight of Myrtle Beach.”
The spot turned out to be the 410/510, a live bottom area off Myrtle Beach that’s well known for producing king mackerel. After pulling back the throttles, the crew, comprised of Boles, his son Richie, Doug and Jordan Robson, and Mark Ward, deployed a spread of live baits.
It didn’t take long to find some action, and at 8:50 a fish crashed a live, naked pogy fished on top.
Richard Boles took the rod as the king ran, and the big first run clued the anglers in that they’d hooked something special.
“We knew it was a big fish,” Boles said, “and we wanted to take our time with it, not hurry her or anything like that.”
Boles fought the big fish for between 35 and 45 minutes, countering four or five long runs before passing the rod off to Doug Robson.
Marisa Game and Richard Clark, part of the "Reely Misbehavin" Fishing Team, accept the second place award for the 38.35 lb. king mackerel they caught at the Shark Hole. Their valuable fish ate a live pogy and earned them over $16,000.
“This is Doug’s first tournament back after some surgery,” reported Boles. “We got a look at the fish and it was so big I didn’t want him to gaff it and hurt himself, so I gave him the rod. The fish saw the boat then and took off on another long run and fought us for another 20 minutes.”
When the team finally saw their fish again, Boles was ready with the gaff.
“I gaffed her,” he continued, “and then everybody helped get her in the boat. Then we tried to get her in the bag quick and get ice all around her.”
The lengthy battle was over at 9:55, and while many teams would have begun heading to Carolina Beach to wait for the scales to open up, the “Toes Up” anglers elected to keep fishing.
“Yeah we kept fishing,” Boles said. “That was our first fish of the day, and it was Mark’s first trip offshore, and we wanted him to catch some fish. We caught four or five more kings, then had lunch on the water, caught the 1:00 Sunset Beach Bridge opening, and made our way up to the scales.”
Though they’d weighed the fish on the boat, the first place team was still a bit apprehensive to see what the official weight would be, but it didn’t disappoint.
“We kind of had an idea where we were at because we’d put it on a Boga Grip, but we got pretty excited when we saw the official weight.”
The other competitors weighed in 86 more fish over the course of Saturday and Sunday’s fishing, but none came close to the “Toes Up” king, and they took first place by nearly 6 lbs.
With a fish that would have won many tournaments, Southport’s “Reely Miss Behavin” fishing team took second, scaling a 38.35 lb. king mackerel. Capt. Ricky Holden fished the event with Richard Clark, Marisa Game, and Steve Smith aboard his 26’ Yamaha-powered Cape Horn, and the anglers walked away from the Got-Em-On with $16,715.
The second place team targeted the Shark Hole, off Southport, in their search for a big king, and they dealt with some disappointment before their big fish struck.
“We’d caught a 15 and we lost a 25 or so,” Clark said. “Every time we crossed this rock, we got bit. We were pretty quiet after losing the 25. The whole boat was heartbroken.”
The heartbreak didn’t last long, as the next time they crossed the rock at 2:05 Saturday afternoon, they hooked something more substantial.
“I put a bait out behind the boat, and he swam right into the propwash,” Clark explained. “I pulled him out and flipped him back and backlashed the heck out of the reel. The fish hit it right there about 5’ off the back of the boat. I’ve never caught one like that before where I flipped it right into his mouth.”
Somehow, the king’s initial run pulled the backlash out, and the anglers were hooked up.
“It was only about a 10 minute fight,” the angler continued. “It was 83 degree water, and they don’t usually fight that great when it’s that hot. That fish took one run and ran like crazy, but that was it. He was done. I knew it was a good one when I got it close and Ricky told me not to look at the fish.”
Holden planted the gaff soon afterward, and the team got a bit excited.
“Everybody within a half-mile probably heard us,” Game said. “We screamed so loud boats were calling us on the radio to ask if it was a good fish.”
The "Reel Pleasure/Shuck'N Shack" team celebrates their third place finish in the 2009 East Coast Got-Em-On Classic. The anglers landed a 37.05 lb. king mackerel on a live pogy 9 miles off Carolina Beach Inlet to earn over $10,000.
With the high-30’s fish in the boat, the anglers immediately took a vote onboard and unanimously decided to run for the scales and weigh their fish.
Another fat king, this one 37.05 lbs., secured third place in the event for the Carolina Beach charter boat “Reel Pleasure.” Not the typical king mackerel tournament boat, the 48’ Chris Craft sportfisherman was host to anglers George Bell, Chad Holbrook, Matt and Mario Piccinin, Chuck and Jeffrey Jacobi, Jeanna Boyd, Robb Sabota, and Capt. Steve Schley for the event, and the large crew took home $10,419.
After fishing the Cabbage Patch all morning with little to show for it, the “Reel Pleasure” anglers decided to head for a ledge 9 miles off Carolina Beach in 57’ where they’ve had some king mackerel success before.
At 1:30 Saturday afternoon, they got a strike on a live pogy beneath a pink/white skirt on top.
Sabota was first to the rod, and he held on while the fish ran hard.
“He ran about 250 yards or so,” Schley explained, “and went down pretty good. We cleared the lines and got everything up and turned on him to chase the fish a little bit.”
The fish managed to keep away from the big boat for about 30 minutes before Sabota finally worked it within range and Chuck Jacobi sank home the gaff.
“I couldn’t stop shaking for 20 minutes after we put him in the boat,” Jacobi said.
After celebrating for 5 minutes, the team pointed the Chris-Craft’s bow for the inlet and the weigh-in.
Landing the heaviest non-winning fish by a boat under 23’, Larry Denning and the “Screamin’ Deacon,” from Smithfield, NC, won $6,581.
Carlette Stewart, on the “Black Cat,” took home the tournament’s Top Lady Angler prize of $900 with a 28.90 lb. king. Charlie Permenter, on the “Mining My Bidness,” was the Top Junior with a 22.55 lb. king mackerel worth $525.
