CCCF Spanish Mackerel Tournament
Holly Paquin accepts part of the first prize package in the 3rd Annual CCCF Spanish Mackerel Tournament. Paquin landed a 5.18 lb. spaniard while slow-trolling live pogies at AR-315 on the "Ocean Athlete" with Skip and Sandy Conklin.
A stout 5.18 lb. spanish mackerel earned first place at the 3rd Annual Carteret County Community College Foundation Spanish Mackerel Tournament for Holly Paquin, fishing aboard the “Ocean Athlete” with Skip and Sandy Conklin. The big spaniard also earned her the event’s Top Lady Angler honors and was worth nearly $1,000 in cash and prizes.
Fishing aboard a Mercury-powered 28’ Privateer, the “Ocean Athlete” anglers didn’t pre-fish for the event, relying on a typical pattern for the season.
“Those big spanish are usually in the inlet or around the Atlantic Beach AR’s this time of year,” Skip Conklin explained.
Instead of trolling Clarkspoons, generally effective for big numbers of fish but not the outsize specimens needed to win a tournament, the winning team chose to slow-troll live baits.
“It’s basically like scaled-down king mackerel fishing,” Conklin said.
Since the “Ocean Athlete” has had an extremely successful career on the SKA king mackerel circuit, it’s no surprise that scaling down their king techniques proved effective on the spanish.
After catching some smaller pogies than they typically use for king fishing, the anglers headed out to AR-315 and found fast action early in the day.
“From 9:00-10:00 that morning, it was very consistent,” Conklin continued. “We had about a half-dozen big ones, but the one we weighed was clearly the largest.”
Paquin landed all the crew’s fish, and the team was feeling good about what they had in the boat.
“We felt like it would be competitive,” Conklin finished, “but there are a lot of them that size around this time of year.”
Competitive it was, besting the second-place fish by over half a pound to earn the “Ocean Athlete” the win in a different kind of mackerel tournament. Conklin wished to express the team’s gratitude to Crow’s Nest Yacht Club for their assistance.
Weighing in a 4.55 lb. fish to earn second place in the event was Richard Hall, who squeaked by Sharp Kemp’s 4.48 lb. third place fish.
In the event’s Kid Angler competition (ages 0-8), Fuller Howard reigned supreme with a 0.895 lb. spanish. Jacob Wade topped the Junior Anglers (ages 9-16) with a 2.46 lb. fish. And Kitty Dunn was the event’s Top Senior Angler, weighing in a 1.405 lb. spanish.
Proceeds from the CCCF Spanish Mackerel Tournament benefit Carteret Community College Students. Tournament Director Wes Daniels wished to thank the 52 competing boats and the many sponsors who made the event possible.
