Brunswick Islands Saltwater Classic KMT 2008
“You don’t catch them every day,” said “Knot Kiddin” team Capt. David Mason. No kiddin’, and though it hurts, most competitive anglers won’t land a near 49 lb. king in a tournament in their lifetimes. Blowing away the 127 boat field with a 48.70 lb. king, Mason, his son Zachary, and Bill and Matthew Collins earned the Brunswick Islands Saltwater Classic’s $20,000 guaranteed first prize and another $8,000 in TWT money to walk home from the August 29-30 event nearly $30,000 richer.Fishing aboard a Yamaha-powered 35′ Pursuit center console, the “Knot Kiddin” anglers started off their day 40 miles offshore in 90′ of water, but they had only had one cut-off when they heard other anglers were hooking some stout kings closer to the beach. Deciding to head in to some ledge numbers they had off Carolina Beach, the anglers brought in their spread.
“We had to run right by the Cabbage Patch on the way there,” Mason said, “and we saw 12 boats there. One guy had just said he had a 27 on the radio, and I saw another boat hooked up, so we stopped and fished.”
Putting out the spread near some ledges dropping from 60-80′, the anglers got a solid strike quickly.
“Either there was a little school of them there, or they just decided to start biting,” Mason said.
The big king inhaled a blue/white skirted pogy just after 2:00, and Bill Collins grabbed the rod while the king ran.
“He took off about 200 yards, I guess,” Mason explained. After the long run, the fish headed back to the boat and began a series of short runs, circling the boat repeatedly.
“Bill’s had a whole lot of experience fishing,” Mason said, “and we wanted to make sure we got the fish in the boat, so when it came up he handed the rod to Matthew and gaffed the fish.”
With the monster king in the boat, the anglers, like most sane fishermen, wanted to get the fish to scale as soon as possible, so they picked up the spread and headed for the scales at Holden Beach Marina.
Though their 48.70 lb. fish was their only king of the day, it beat out the second place fish by nearly 9 lbs., placing them immovably atop the leaderboard.
The first boat to weigh-in, Winnabow, NC’s “Simply Storage,” put a 39.97 lb. fish on the scales. The near 40 lb. fish was over one pound heavier than the king that won the team the 2007 Jolly Mon tournament, and with high hopes that their fish would take the top honors, teammates Michael Kennedy, Mark Kennedy, Rodney Benton, and James Hammonds had to wait out the remainder of the weigh-in.
Though they were eventually topped by the “Knot Kiddin” mega-king, the “Simply Storage” fish did earn the anglers over $9,000 and another top-3 finish to add to their tournament resume. Their king bit a propwash pogy near the Fairway ledges in 60′, on the other side of Frying Pan Shoals from where the winning fish was caught.
After striking, Benton took the rod and the king came straight at the boat, where it eluded an early gaff shot by Hammonds and took off on a run. Benton was able to get the fish back to the boat in short order, however, and Hammonds was finally able to put the big king on deck.
The “Simply Storage” crew would like to thank M and M Mini Storage for their continued sponsorship of the team’s successes.
Summerville, SC’s Jack and Eren Bracewell, aboard the 23T Contender “Eren’s Addiction Too,” weighed in a 36.40 lb. king to take home third place. The fish earned Eren the event’s Top Lady Angler title, and it was the heaviest fish weighed in by a 23′ and Under boat, earning the couple a total of over $6500.
After starting the day even further south on tournament morning, the Bracewells made a quick decision that they didn’t like the conditions they were seeing, so they headed to an area 10 miles south of Georgetown, SC in 40′ of water by 7:00. After deploying the spread, it didn’t take long to get a bite.
A naked blue runner trolled in the medium position fooled their fish at 7:15, and Eren, the team’s usual angler, grabbed the rod.
“It was kind of a slack fight, really,” Jack Bracewell explained. “It made a couple of short runs and came on up to the boat.”
After the quick battle, the anglers weren’t prepared for how big the king actually turned out to be.
“We didn’t think it was nearly as good a fish as it was,” Bracewell continued. “It only ended up being 48″ long, but when we put it on deck we saw it was a really fat fish.”
Continuing to troll the area for a short time after boating their king, the anglers decided to fish their way back to the scales, heading north and stopping at several spots between Georgetown and Holden Beach. They released several smaller kings, but had no comparable fish to the one already in the box.
Jack Bracewell wished to thank Contender and Tailwalker Marine of Georgetown, SC, for their support of the team.
Clint Richardson and Wendy and Henry Tillet, fishing aboard Richardson’s 23′ Sea Hunt “Finatic,” took fourth place in the event with a 32.83 lb. king that earned the Wilmington crew over $3,000. Chris Pardue and the “Liquid Asset” finished fifth with a 32.67 lb. fish, pocketing over $3,000 as well.
Larry, Allen, Marcus, and Mark Denning took home the tournament’s top 23′ and Under spot with a 34.86 lb. king mackerel worth over $3,000.
A 27.47 lb. kingfish earned the event’s Top Junior Angler title and $300 for Madison Morris, aboard “The Sea Horse.”
In addition to the primary and secondary prizes, the Brunswick Islands Saltwater Classic raffles off over $20,000 in cash and prizes to its participants, and happy anglers walked away from the event with prizes ranging from a Mercury Optimax outboard and a Raymarine electronics package to Cannon downriggers and $2,000 cash.
