Got-Em-On KMT
Mark, Bruce, Reed, and Fisher Gallup and Jared Floyd–the “Part Time” fishing team–with the 48.75 lb. king mackerel that earned them first place and over $30,000 in the Got-Em-On King Classic. The smoker king bit a naked menahaden in 85′ of water off Carolina Beach Inlet.
Traveling up from Pawleys Island, SC, to fish the event, the “Part Time” Fishing Team dashed some hopes on the second fishing day of the East Coast Got-Em-On Classic, held July 12-13 out of the Carolina Beach Municipal docks, when they arrived at the scales with a 48.75 lb. king mackerel. The fish easily took the lead in the event and held it through the close of competition, crowning Bruce Gallup and the rest of the crew the tournament’s champions.
The crew, made up of Gallup, his brother Mark, Jared Floyd, and junior anglers Fisher and Reed Gallup aboard a 31’ Contender, did some pre-fishing for the event, but they didn’t find exactly what they were looking for in the day before competition.
“We fished out of Murrells Inlet on Saturday,” Mark Gallup reported, “but didn’t do much so we decided to fish to the north on Sunday.”
The morning of the event, they easily netted some menhaden off Oak Island, and then headed for the other side of Frying Pan Shoals to some rocks in 85’ where Floyd had heard of some action.
“Jared fishes up there a lot,” Gallup continued, “and we heard there had been a few fish in there. There weren’t a ton, but the bites people were getting were decent fish.”
The anglers found only sharks when they first arrived, which became such a nuisance they stopped fishing deep baits on the downrigger.
“Everything we put down got shark-attacked,” Gallup went on. “We got a good bite on the long line about 10:00, but he tail-whipped it and popped the line.”
A short time later, they released a small king mackerel, and then got another bite just after 11:00 that morning.
“That fish hit, and peeled off for a second and stopped,” Gallup said. “I looked at Jared and asked what rod that was, and when he said ‘that one’ it took off again.”
A naked pogy trolled long had fooled the fish, and it took a decent run while Floyd took the rod and the anglers prepared to give chase, but then it stopped again.
“Jared said he didn’t know what it was but it was big,” Gallup explained. “I thought it might just be a 5 foot shark.”
When the anglers caught up to the fish, they finally got a look at it and realized it was in fact a king.
“We got over top of her and could see her about 30 feet down like a painting,” Gallup continued. “We could tell looking at her tail she was a pretty good one.”
Though they’d gotten a look at the fish, the battle was far from over, as it held deep and Floyd laid on some pressure in an attempt to move the king to the surface.
“We were worried a little with that fish laying down there,” said Gallup. “We’d seen some big sharks in the area, and I could just see one hitting her.”
With Bruce Gallup at the helm, the anglers decided to spin around the fish and put pressure on it from the other side of the boat, a tactic that finally brought it to the surface.
After a few dramatic moments as the fish lay just of out of reach, Mark Gallup finally sank a 12’ gaff in the king and hauled it over the side.
“We put her in the boat and acted like idiots for a couple minutes,” the gaff man said. “I really thought that fish was 50 lbs.”
After the celebration, the anglers packed away their gear and headed for Carolina Beach and were waiting in line when the scales opened at 2:00 pm.
Scaling a 45.70 lb. fish to earn second place were Ken Strickland and Greensboro, NC’s “All In” crew. Eris Jones on the “Back-Lash” secured third place in the event with a 38.30 lb. king.
More information and a full leaderboard for the event can be found at www.gotemonliveclassic.com.
