Kings Of The Coast Pier KMT
Thomas Cutler, of Oak Island, with the 14.10 lb. winning king mackerel in the Ocean Crest Pier Kings of the Coast KMT. The money-winning mackerel bit a live mullet on a pin rig off the end of the pier a few hours after the three-day competition started.
Adding another top finish to a long string of pier tournament leaderboard appearances,OakIsland’s Thomas Cutler scaled a 14.10 lb. king mackerel to earn first place in the 2011 Kings of the Coast Pier King Mackerel Tournament, held October 7-9 off Ocean Crest Pier. Along with the title, the Oak Island teen took home $759 for his winning mackerel.
It didn’t take long for Cutler to hook his fish on Friday morning, the first day of the three-day tournament.
“He bit a little bit after 10:00 on Friday morning,” Cutler explained.
With bluefish running a little scarce over the weekend, Cutler had baited up his trolley rig with a hand-size mullet before the king struck.
“I think there were a couple bluefish in the bait tank, but I just grabbed the first thing I caught in the net,” he continued.
The king leapt into the air as it struck the hapless mullet, but it failed to take the sizzling initial run the species is known for.
“He skyrocketed pretty good on the bite,” Cutler said, “but he didn’t run that much. He came in pretty green.”
The fish wrapped up in several of the other anglers’ anchor lines as it wallowed around just off the pier, but the winning angler stayed patient.
“He was kinda circling out in front of the tee,” Cutler explained. “I just let him do his thing, and on the last circle he swam right into the gaff.”
Fellow Ocean Crest regular Monty Robinson took care of the gaffing duties when the king closed in on the pier, and hauled the mackerel up to the deck.
Happy to have landed the event’s first king mackerel, Cutler had a feeling some more fish would come over the rails before the tournament was over.
“The water was beautiful Friday,” he explained. “The mullet were running, and we had perfect king conditions. I just knew we’d catch a king, and after I got that one, I figured there would be five or six more. We had the exact same conditions one day in October a few years ago and caught 27 fish before lunch.”
To the young angler’s surprise, the live-baiters on the end of the pier got no more king bites by the time the sun sank Friday. On Saturday the wind began picking up, and the weather continued to worsen on Sunday, dirtying the water and slowing down the mackerel action. Cutler’s fish finished as the only king mackerel bite of the event.
Bobbi Diaz, also ofOakIsland, took second place in the event with a 13 oz. bluefish, and Jerry Faw rounded out the top three with an 11 oz. blue.
More information on the Kings of the Coast event and all Ocean Crest Pier’s tournaments is available at www.oceancrestpiernc.com.
