Brunswick Islands Saltwater Classic
Brent Gainey and Ryan Wiggins with the 47.78 lb. king mackerel that earned they and Randy Gainey–the “Miller Time” fishing team–the win at the Brunswick Islands Saltwater Classic. The big king bit a naked menhaden 30 miles off Carolina Beach Inlet.
Putting nearly 9 lbs. between themselves and second place, Brent Gainey and Wilmington’s “Miller Time” fishing team scaled a 47.78 lb. king mackerel to earn the top spot and the $15,000 guaranteed first place check in the Brunswick Islands Saltwater Classic, held August 30-31 out of South Harbour Village Marina in Oak Island.
Gainey fished the event with his father Randy and friend Ryan Wiggins aboard a 23’ Cape Horn center console, and the trio decided to buck the trend of running to Cape Lookout waters in their search for a big king, instead choosing to focus on familiar waters closer to home.
“I work weekends, so it’s hard enough to take one day off for a tournament,” Gainey explained. “So we didn’t get to pre-fish. We have an offshore spot we’ve caught a few nice fish in already this year, so we decided to head there.”
After loading up on menhaden at Wrightsville Beach on the morning of the competition, the “Miller Time” anglers headed out to their spot, an area of live bottom in 100’ of water 30 miles off Carolina Beach Inlet.
The day got off to a slow start, but Gainey was undeterred and chose to wait out the bite instead of a change of venue.
“I knew the major feed started around 10:30 or 11:00,” Gainey said. “And there have been fish there the last couple tournaments we fished, so I at least wanted to give it half a day there until that major bite window.”
The fish must have been looking at the clock, as the crew got their first king mackerel bite on a naked menhaden trolled short at 10:45 that morning. Gainey took the rod as the fish ran, and his fellow anglers cleared the remainder of their lines.
“That fish took 2-3 real good, hard runs,” he continued, “and then we got it straight under the boat circling.”
When they got a look at the big king deep under the Cape Horn, the anglers saw that their fish wasn’t hooked well and began a tenuous stand-off.
“She was hooked under the chin and back in the belly,” Gainey explained, “so I had to drag all that weight at a bad angle.”
The stalemate went on for the next quarter-hour, with the fish visible the entire time.
“We were looking at her 15 feet away for a long time,” said Gainey. “Finally on her 30th or 40th circle, I started putting some pressure on her. I hate keeping that much pressure on a fish, but I started getting line inch by inch.”
When he finally closed the gap on the king, his father was waiting with a gaff. The elder Gainey planted the steel and the crew welcomed the big king aboard.
“We were pretty excited,” Brent Gainey reported, “but I knew Morehead City was in bounds. You never know what can happen up there, so I tried to keep everybody in check.”
The anglers put a spread back out and boated another smaller king before deciding to close the distance between themselves and the scales by fishing a spot closer to shore.
“Finally around 2:00 we decided to pull that fish out again,” Gainey said. “I’d been thinking it was in the low 40’s but it looked bigger. We hadn’t heard about anything else big on the radio, so we decided to head on in.”
Once they made the scales, the “Miller Time” fish easily took the lead and stayed there through the end of the weigh-in.
Todd Matthews and “The Right One Baby” secured second place in the event with a 38.90 lb. king. A 37.22 lb. fish put Kevin Petty and the “C Ark” crew in third.
A full leaderboard and more information on the Brunswick Islands Saltwater Classic and other Saltwater Classic Series events can be found at www.bluewaterpromo.com.
