Hook A Hoo Rodeo 2009
The "Hoorah" fishing team, from Ocean Isle Beach, with the 87.88 lb. wahoo that earned them $15,500 and first place in the second annual Martini's Hook a Hoo Rodeo, held April 4-13. According to the crew, the giant 'hoo fell for a naked split-bill ballyhoo near the Blackjack Hole.
After one of the event’s organizers, Jeff Martini, weighed in a brutish 101.16 lb. wahoo just two weeks before the 2009 Martini’s Restaurant Hook a Hoo Rodeo, offshore anglers all over the Carolina coast received notice that they’d be facing some stiff competition in the tournament, and the waters off the NC/SC border hold some serious wahoo this time of year. On the second day of the weeklong event, Ocean Isle Beach’s “Hoorah” fishing team arrived at the scales with another beast, this one an 87.88 lb. wahoo that eventually took the event’s $10,000 guaranteed first prize.
Brothers Lee and Nathan Frick and Jeremy and Jason Foster chose Sunday, April 5, as their fishing day, and they took off from Ocean Isle aboard the “Hoorah,” a 32′ Mercury-powered Yellowfin.
Finding fairly calm seas, they ran to the well known Blackjack Hole and began to troll around 8:00 Sunday morning.
“We worked for a good hour and a half, maybe two, before we got a bite,” Jeremy Foster explained.
Eventually the anglers found a rip created by a temperature break, and fished it even though they had doubts about the water.
“The water was ugly,” Nathan Frick said. It must have been the right kind of ugly, as the “Hoorah” crew hooked four wahoo shortly after 10:00.
Continuing to fish the area, their money-winning monster fell for a naked split-bill ballyhoo just before noon, and Lee Frick took the rod.
“About 30 seconds in, he took a big run and stayed down,” Foster recalled, “so we knew it was a decent one.”
After around 20 minutes, Frick worked the fish back to the boat, where his brother was waiting with the gaff, and the first place fish was soon on the Yellowfin’s deck.
While landing a near 90 lb. wahoo in a tournament should have a team feeling pretty secure, Martini’s triple digit ‘hoo had made it painfully apparent that larger fish were out there, and there were still seven fishing days left in the event.
Fortunately for the “Hoorah” anglers, the wind blew hard most of the week, meaning that boats who didn’t fish on the first weekend would have to wait five more days to get offshore. While a number of boats did fish the final weekend, none were able to put a fish on the leader board, and the “Hoorah” ‘hoo stood strong, winning the team a total of $15,500 (including the event’s largest wahoo calcutta).
A 38.82 lb. wahoo that ate its last meal on the opening Saturday of the event earned second place for North Myrtle Beach’s “Russellhatt” crew. Their fish brought the team $3,000.
Fishing aboard a 48′ Hatteras, Capt. Robert Russell, Kirkley Russell, and Eric Beltz set out for the 100/400, another well known wahoo hangout in the area, and also found dirty water. Trolling offshore, they landed a gaffer dolphin and were resetting their trolling spread when the second place fish struck around 10:30.
“He bit a purple/blue sea witch and ballyhoo on the planer,” Kirkley Russell explained. “We were actually fighting him thinking it was a big dolphin, because we saw a green flash when he was 50’ behind the boat. We didn’t realize until he was next to the boat and we saw his mouth that it was a ‘hoo.”
Descending from the bridge to the cockpit, Robert Russell planted a gaff in the fish and brought it aboard.
With a nice wahoo in the boat, the “Russellhatt” continued trolling with high hopes, but they hooked no more fish before heading to the scales.
“We were actually surprised by how light that fish was. We thought it was bigger,” Russell continued. “We knew if we could get through Sunday we’d have a chance with how bad the forecast looked. We were in second after Sunday, but not until yesterday at 7:00 did we feel like it was in the bag.”
The “Start Me Up” fishing team was narrowly bumped into third place, weighing in a 38.52 lb. wahoo to earn $2,000.
Separate calcuttas were held for largest tuna and dolphin, and the “Randys Phyl” crew took the tuna category with a 10 lb. blackfin. The “Dirty Martini” weighed in a 28 lb. dolphin to take the honors in that category.
The Hook a Hoo Rodeo, created last year by Martini and fellow local businessman Ace Parker, was born for two reasons: to highlight the area’s phenomenal early spring wahoo fishery and to benefit the Shriner’s Burn Centers, who provide no-cost care to youth burn victims. This year’s event left no doubt about the quality of the area’s wahoo fishery, and it attracted 42 boats, several more than last year. No less important, the event generated $11,000 for the Shriner’s.
Ace Parker would like to thank all the participating fishing teams and especially all the event’s sponsors for making it another successful year.
