Got Em On KMT 2008
Hooking their big fish with less than an hour before the weigh-in closed on the tournament’s second and final day, Capt. Brant McMullan and the Ocean Isle Fishing Center team brought a 34.15 lb. king mackerel to the scales at the Carolina Beach Municipal Docks to take home first place in the 2008 East Coast Got-Em-On Classic King Mackerel Tournament.
The king earned McMullan, his father Rube, and teammate Brian Aycock a total of $31,254 as the top fish in the overall weight category, the TWT, and the High Roller’s TWT.
“We work really hard in all these tournaments to do well,” McMullan explained, “and it’s awful nice to have some luck and have it work out.”
The trio of anglers fishing on the “OIFC 1,” a 36′ Contender powered by twin Yamaha 350 four strokes, left Ocean Isle and caught bait Sunday morning, and soon put a solid king in the boat.
“We caught a good fish, a 29 pounder, at 8:00,” the winning captain said, “and then we just spot-hopped the rest of the day.”
After boating their early king near the Jungle in around 60′ of water, Aycock and the McMullans worked their way out to several spots in 110′, but couldn’t find a larger fish offshore.
“We were working back towards Carolina Beach, knowing we’d have to be there in the end,” McMullan continued. “We caught some more pogies at the tip of the shoals, hit a rock a few miles from the inlet, and didn’t do anything, but we had another hour until we needed to weigh in.”
Electing to fish Carolina Beach Inlet for the tournament’s final hour, the anglers set out a spread of pogies and ribbonfish just off the inlet at 3:30, agreeing to head for the scales at 4:15 if nothing happened.
“At 4:15, between 1/4 and 1/2 miles off the sea buoy, I turned the boat with the sea and put it in neutral,” McMullan reported. “Then the downrigger ribbonfish went off, and that ended up being the winner.”
Aycock took the rod as the fish made a strong run offshore, and after they cleared lines, the “OIFC 1” anglers began to give chase with Rube McMullan at the helm. Catching up to the fish fairly quickly, they found out that the fight had just begun.
“That fish was hooked in the stomach, and it became a really tedious, straight up and down fight,” said McMullan. “We could see how he was hooked and see the fish, but we spent another 5-10 minutes trying to get him up.”
Eventually, Brant was able to plant a long gaff in the fish nearly 10′ beneath the boat, and the anglers boated it around 4:30.
“We were at the weigh-in 15 minutes after we had him in the boat,” McMullan explained. Putting their fish on the scales with just 14 minutes left in the weigh-in, the “OIFC 1” crew knocked the 32.45 lb. king that led day one into second place and secured the event’s big prize.
The Ocean Isle Fishing Center crew would like to thank Yamaha for their support of the team.
Leading the event nearly until the end, Allen Rippy, Jr., and the Wrightsville Beach-based “Satisfied” crew took home second place and $12,179. Rippy and teammates Brian Kampschroeder and Michael Davis, fishing aboard a 31′ Cape Horn, chose to fish Saturday.
They found their big king off Carolina Beach near the Cucumber, and the second place fish ate a pogy beneath a pink Mylar Cape Lookout Skirt. It ran hard, staying on the surface while Davis picked up the rod and the anglers pursued it with the boat.
“He took a bunch of line and stayed up until we got about 15′ from him,” Rippy said, “and then he went down and circled, and that was the longest part of the fight.”
Like the winning fish, the “Satisfied” king remained in sight but out of reach.
“We had him just out of gaff range about three times, but she finally got tired, laid up, and I stuck her,” Rippy reported.
With the fish in the boat around 15 minutes after it bit, the anglers continued trolling between the Cucumber and the Cabbage Patch, experiencing quite a bite of action.
“We had a sailfish later,” Davis said, “but it was a Palm Beach release.”
Along with the sail, the “Satisified” anglers caught amberjacks, a cobia, sharks, a dolphin, and more kings, but none were bigger than the 32 pounder in the box.
The “Satisfied” crew wished to thank Port City Signs and Graphics, Rippy Automotive, and Party Suppliers and Rentals for their support.
Third place went to the “Frayed Knot” team, from Wilmington, for a 32.05 lb. king. Jeff Smith fished the event with his wife, Tammy, and Daniel and Debbie Godbold aboard the team’s 32′ Wellcraft, and the anglers took home nearly $9,000.
The “Frayed Knot” crew found their money winner at the Shark Hole, where it bit around 1:00 Sunday. A naked pogy fooled the king, and Daniel Godbold took the rod from the holder as the king ran on top.
“It was a good fight,” Smith said. “We had him hooked behind the head, and he ran several times and came up to the boat about five times, but we couldn’t reach him with the gaff.”
Finally, around 30 minutes after their king inhaled the pogy, Smith sank a gaff into the king and swung it into the boat.
Fourth place and $1686 went to Ronnie Reaves, of Wilmington, and the “Sure-E-Nuff” crew for a 30.10 lb. kingfish caught Sunday.
Shallotte’s “Playin Hooky” crew took home fifth place and $2,262 with a king weighing 29.60 lbs. Hemphill and teammates Frollie Hughes and Billy Noble fished Sunday aboard a 21′ Starcraft.
The fifth place fish fell for a naked pogy fished 45′ down while the anglers were trolling around a ledge in 90′ of water 23 miles off Carolina Beach. Hughes fought the king after it bit at 8:00 in the morning, and he had it to the boat in around 20 minutes.
Ashely Jones and the “Miss Teny” fishing team, from Walstonburg, NC, took first place in the Class of 23′ competition, taking home over $6,000 for a 29.80 lb. king mackerel they weighed in Sunday.
Eren Bracewell, aboard the “Eren’s Addiction Too,” earned the Got-Em-On’s Top Lady Angler title with a 25.95 lb. king mackerel that garnered the team $759.
The event’s Top Junior Angler was Tripp Hooks, fishing with Capt. David Hooks aboard the “Black Pearl,” and winning $525.
The Got-Em-On Classic is put on annually by Carolina Beach’s Got-Em-On Live Bait Club. This year’s event attracted 187 boats, with 107 electing to fish Saturday and 80 on Sunday. Proceeds from the event benefit the Carolina and Kure Beach Fire Departments.
