SKA Nationals
Team Forgiven, from Scotts Hill, NC, won the 2023 Southern Kingfish Association National Championships, held November 30-December 2 out of Morehead City.
The team, comprised of Randy Burton, Sheila Burton, Justin Hudson, Joseph Ennis, and Trevor Burns, weighed in a two-king aggregate of 108.26 lbs., topping the second place team by roughly half a pound. Team Forgiven fishes on a 34’ Fountain center console powered by twin Mercury Marine Verado V10 400s.
Due to unfavorable weather, the tournament chose to modify the two fishing days to Thursday and Saturday, with Friday as a lay day, and boats were able to weigh in one fish a day or two fish on any one day.
Team Forgiven started Thursday like most boats in the tournament, by heading to the Bad Bottoms located about 20 miles offshore of Hatteras Inlet. From Morehead City, it was a 90-mile run, and once they arrived, they were disappointed to find 63-64 degree water, a little too cold for Randy Burton to be confident in the location.
Team Forgiven, from Scotts Hill, NC, with the two kings caught off Ocracoke that brought them the 2023 SKA National Championship. Both the 52.95 lb. king and the 55.31 lb. king came off of live bluefish in 68-degree water.
After little success and only hearing of modest success at best from any other boat on the radio, they soon decided to fish a handful of spots as they made their way back to Morehead City. The sharks were terrible and their heaviest king of the day was just an 18-pounder, so they decided not to weigh in anything on Thursday, hoping for Saturday to be a much more productive day.
On Friday night, Randy began working with SiriusXM Marine Fish Mapping, looking for an overlay of 68-degree water (Randy’s preferred for king mackerel fishing) with SiriusXM’s circled area of the highest likelihood of finding the desired fish species. That overlapping was present off of Ocracoke, so on Saturday morning, the team left before daylight, running up Core Sound, heading out Drum Inlet, turning north, and then making their way east once off Ocracoke.
Team Forgiven found 68-degree water about four miles off of Ocracoke, but they first wanted to check out an AR just a little further out. However, while heading offshore, Randy saw the water temperature climb to 69 and 70, so the team decided to return to the 68-degree water.
When Team Forgiven arrived, the area was desolate on the bottom finder, but they decided to try a few baits anyway. A live bluefish went out first, and before the second bait was fully set, they had a big king sky on the first bluefish.
The second bluefish got bit, too, and while they lost the second king when lines crossed, the first would end up being one of their two fish weighed, a 52.95 lb. king.
The rest of the morning continued to be action packed, with baits being bit almost as soon as they hit the water by kings ranging in size from upper 20s to upper 40s.
Then at around 9:00, the second king the team would weigh in hit a live bluefish on the medium line. This second king weighed 55.31 lbs.
Team Forgiven, from Scotts Hill, NC, and comprised of Randy Burton, Sheila Burton, Justin Hudson, Joseph Ennis, and Trevor Burns, holds up the first place check in the 2023 SKA National Championship. The team won with a two king aggregate of 108.26 lbs.
At around 11:15, Team Forgiven experienced something they had never done in a king mackerel tournament: they found themselves without any bait left in the boat. Every single bait they had brought had produced a strike (15 bluefish—the maximum allowed with the tournament’s three per person rule, and 37 big pogies). The bite was so immediate and consistent that they had no need to use skirts or downriggers.
The team debated catching bait off Ocracoke to try and upgrade, but with the tough weather conditions, all agreed to make way to the scales opening at 3:00 pm.
If you would like more information on the SKA National Championships, as well as information on the upcoming 2024 SKA season, then you can visit www.fishska.com.
