Swansboro Bluewater 2008
Mirroring the repeat success of Brett and Alan Barnes, the Swansboro event’s king mackerel winners, Jeff Vreugdenhil and the Clinton-based “Reel Love” team weighed in a 637 lb. blue marlin to take home the Billfish Points championship at the Swansboro Rotary Club King Mackerel/Bluewater Tournament. Like the Barnes’ team, who topped the king mackerel portion of the event in both 2006 and 2008, this was the “Reel Love” crew’s second trip to the winner’s podium, as they won the Billfish Points category of the event in 2002 with a 509 lb. blue.
Fishing in one of the smallest boats entered in the event’s bluewater division, a 28′ Privateer powered by twin 200 Yamahas, Vreugdenhil and Brad Ingalls and Jason Williford, his crew for the tournament, didn’t even start out marlin fishing on Sunday, May 24, the event’s second fishing day.
“We left the dock Sunday to go tuna fishing,” Vreugdenhil explained. “Nobody’s taken the tuna prize money in the last three years in the tournament and it rolls over, so we thought we’d try and win that.”
Trolling a spot off Ocracoke for over three hours without a bite, the crew decided to change their game plan.
“We knew there was a good marlin bite going on,” the winning captain continued. “And we said ‘let’s try to at least get a blue marlin.’ I had no notion that we’d get one 600 or bigger for double points, and three fish over 500 were already on the board. I just thought maybe we’d get lucky and get a bite.”
The “Reel Love” started marlin trolling in 120 fathoms near the Triple Zeros at 1:00, and they hooked up with their big fish at 1:39 on a somewhat special lure.
“It was Brad’s first time on the boat,” said Vreugdenhil, “and he gave me a lure that morning. I cut off the lure I had on the long rigger and thought if he’s going to give me a lure, I’ll put it out.”
The lure, a Mold Craft Wide Range, turned out to be special indeed, and as nearby boats watched, the marlin put on an aerial display.
“We hooked the fish next to Adrian on the ‘Sea Striker’,” Vreugdenhil recalled. “She jumped right next to his boat, but all we could see was white water. He called me on the radio and told me that if I got a chance, I should take that fish to Morehead.”
The chance was still a long way off, though. The marlin, after fighting near the surface for over an hour, ran deep and became tail-wrapped.
“She dumped us for 300 yards straight down and got tail-wrapped and died,” the captain said. “For the next hour and a half, we got line back 6″ at a time.”
Gaining a little bit of line each time the boat went down a swell, the anglers took turns cranking up the fish. They finally got it to the boat around 4:00 in the afternoon. The big marlin was much too large for the anglers to boat on brute strength, and the “Reel Love” doesn’t have a transom door, so they were forced to use a come-along to winch the fish aboard. Once they had the fish in the cockpit, Vreugdenhil radioed the tournament headquarters.
“We were 47 miles off of Lookout Point, so I told them we’d be there around 7:00. We shot up to the lighthouse, ran to the point, waved at the surf fishermen, and headed for the inlet,” he explained.
Although there were 546 and 548 lb. blues on the leaderboard already, Vreugdenhil never had any doubt that the fish aboard the “Reel Love” would be the tournament winner.
“I told the guys my guess was 657 lbs. When I grabbed her tail when we got her to the boat, I knew she was over 600.”
The 637 lb. marlin didn’t quite make Vreugdenhil’s guess, but it was plenty to top the other fish by nearly 90 lbs. According to the tournament’s rules, a marlin over 600 lbs. is worth two points per lb. towards total points, giving the “Reel Love” a total of 1274 to top the 1130 points put up by the “Big Hunter,” earning them the event’s largest prize.
All told, the “Reel Love” crew pocketed nearly $35,000 for their efforts. Vreugdenhil lamented that his usual crew of Mike Cutler and Mike Butler weren’t able to make the event, and he wished to thank Yamaha for their support of the team.
Brian Peele and the aforementioned “Big Hunter,” from Salter Path, NC, weighed in a 530 lb. blue along with two releases to make up their second place points total. Raleigh’s Doug Abrams and the “Peggy” released two blue marlin to finish third with 600 points.
The Bluewater division’s Top Lady Angler was Rebecca Wells, fishing aboard the Wilmington-based “Rameseas,” and weighing in a 546.5 lb. blue marlin. Scott Poole, aboard Morehead City’s “Waste Knot,” took home the Top Junior Angler honors with a blue marlin release.
A 41.95 lb. dolphin landed aboard Rick Schepur’s “Megabite” took top honors in the dolphin competition, and Robert Schwarz, aboard the “Noah’s Ark,” weighed in the 57.95 lb. first place wahoo.
