Dixie Chicken 2008
Weighing in a 4.1 lb. speckled trout, a 2.18 lb. flounder, and a 1.12 lb. spanish mackerel to earn an aggregate total of 7.40 lbs., Ocean Isle’s Scott Quaintance edged out friends Brandon Sauls and Mark Stacy by just .06 lbs. to take home the $2184 winner’s check in the inshore division of the 9th annual Dixie Chicken Fishing Funament. Had Sauls and Stacy won, it would have been their third consecutive year topping the field at the Dixie Chicken, held this year May 23-25 out of Harbourgate Marina in North Myrtle Beach.
Quaintance and Noble began their fishing day near the Sunset Beach Bridge, looking for a fat trout to anchor their aggregate weight. Fishing live shrimp on float rigs, they had plenty of action.
“We caught 15 or 20 trout, but the largest was only a little over 2 lbs.,” Quaintance explained. “We also caught that flounder on a live shrimp under the bridge.”
With a decent trout and flounder in the boat by mid-morning, the anglers ran to the Little River jetties in search of a larger speck. They didn’t find one, but soon decided to go troll Clarkspoons for spanish mackerel.
Landing 5 spanish after trolling for half an hour, the anglers made the confident decision to go have lunch.
“We decided we’d go get something to eat,” said Quaintance. “We called the rules committee, and they said it was okay, so we went to Capt. Nancy’s and got a lunch special.”
After enjoying their meal, the pair continued trout fishing, landing several more fish from creek mouths along the ICW.
“Then we decided to go back to Sunset Beach Bridge,” Quaintance recalled, “but there were a lot of boats there. We went to a creek mouth nearby, and then the bridge opened and everybody left.”
Easing back into the newly vacant spot, the anglers continued fishing with float-rigged shrimp until Quaintance hooked the citation-worthy trout around 2:30 that pushed them past the second place team.
Sauls and Stacy, fishing aboard Sauls’ 18′ Bone Boat “Bone Crusher,” began the day at the Little River jetties, and they also found a good trout bite early on.
It didn’t take Sauls long to hook up with the team’s 4.28 lb. speckled trout on a live shrimp, and confident in their fish, the anglers headed out the inlet to look for a spanish mackerel.
“We were done trout fishing by 9:00,” Sauls said. “We went looking for the spanish, and we found them just west of the jetties.”
A trolled Clarkspoon fooled their mackerel, and the pair decided to head for Tubbs Inlet in the hopes of a flounder. Stacy hooked one just over 2 lbs. while drifting Carolina-rigged mud minnows in the inlet. And after Sauls netted the fish, the anglers had the three fish necessary for the aggregate.
Third place in the inshore competition went to Ricky Lefler, of Albemarle, NC, aboard the “My Dogg House,” for a 6.72 lb. aggregate weight made up of a 6.02 lb. flounder and a .70 lb. spanish mackerel. Lefler fished the tournament with his mother Ola-Bea, his wife Terrie, and his sister Vicky. The big flounder also earned the anglers $2500 as the largest fish in the event’s Flounder Frenzie category, sponsored by Marine Service Center of Little River, and brought Ola-Bea the inshore division’s Top Lady Angler honors.
The “My Dogg House” anglers hooked the big flatfish while slow-trolling a live mullet in the Shallotte River. The flounder struck an 8″ long mullet pinned to Ola-Bea’s rod around 10:30.
After a fight lasting around 5 minutes, she led the fish to the boat, where Ricky Lefler netted it.
The Leflers continued fishing the Shallotte River until heading out the inlet at 1:30 to look for a spanish mackerel. They finally found one close to the Little River jetties just before 3:00, and Terrie Lefler landed the fish after it fell for a trolled Clarkspoon.
The Dixie Chicken’s largest speckled trout was a 6.04 lb. fish that Bryan Coggeshall landed Saturday morning near the Sunset Beach Bridge.
Fred Davis weighed in 1.40 lb. spanish mackerel that topped that category.
Thomas Jenkins earned $300 as the tournament’s Top Junior Angler for a 2.36 lb. flounder.
The Dixie Chicken also featured an Offshore Division, and Capt. James Wasson, fishing on the 33′ Bertram “Crunchestuf” earned the top spot in that category by weighing in a king mackerel, a dolphin, and a wahoo for an aggregate of 67.98 lbs.
Wasson’s crew was comprised of Andy Spencer, Bryan Costello, Vance Lewis, Gaylord Mervin, and Tom Dietrich. The anglers were all experienced tournament fishermen, but they had never fished an event together before the Dixie Chicken.
Aside from the good mojo that accompanied their first time fishing as a team, the anglers had another lucky charm. Dietrich explained, “We had all of Jim Caudle’s rods and tackle. We were all good friends of his, and we fished with his gear.” The Dixie Chicken is held in memory of Caudle, a local angler and friend to many who fish the event, so what better gear to have aboard on tournament day?
Covered up with fish almost immediately after slowing the boat down on a temperature break offshore of Little River in 140′ of water, the anglers began working as a cohesive team.
“They knew what they were doing,” Wasson said of his crew. “It was great to watch them work. It was a true team effort. Five minutes after we started, we hooked four dolphin. We didn’t lose a fish.”
After landing the dolphin, the anglers continued fishing the area and soon landed the king mackerel and the wahoo that rounded out their aggregate weight. Fishing the area for a short time longer, the anglers eventually made the call to head for land due to worsening seas and a promising catch in the fish box.
At the scales, their catch topped the second place boat’s by over 7 lbs., and the “Crunchestuf” crew took home a check for $3187 for the offshore victory.
Jeff Drake, fishing aboard “The Law,” weighed in the second place offshore aggregate of 60.57 lbs. The weight was anchored by a 38.16 lb. wahoo that took first place in the wahoo category and earned Michelle Evans the offshore category’s Top Lady Angler award.
Robert Pyle weighed in both the event’s third place offshore aggregate of 49.76 lbs. and the heaviest king mackerel at 27.46 lbs.
Ken Dodson took home the prize for largest dolphin with a 39.52 lb. fish.
The top offshore Junior Angler was Kaleb Sloan, who weighed in a 15.14 lb. dolphin.
The Dixie Chicken Funament raises money through auctions and prize drawings in order to fund expansion of the Jim Caudle artificial reef, located just offshore of Little River at one of Caudle’s favorite fishing spots. At the tournament’s inception nine years ago, the reef had approximately 40,000 cubic feet of material and was known as the Little River Inshore Reef. Today, the Jim Caudle reef has over 240,000 cubic feet of material on the bottom, thanks primarily to the funds raised by the Dixie Chicken. The reef is now the most visited artificial reef in South Carolina.
Tournament Director Ron McManus wished to express his gratitude to all the event’s sponsors and the participating anglers for making it yet another successful year.
