OIFC Fall Brawl 2008
The “Reel Finatic” crew, from Murrell’s Inlet, SC, took first place in the Fall Brawl King Classic with a 35.55 lb. king mackerel they hooked on a dead cigar minnow in 63 degree water at the Belky Bear, off Myrtle Beach.
While strategy, preparation, and execution are key elements to tournament fishing success, the most prepared and skilled teams cannot eliminate luck, good or bad, from the playing field. After pre-fishing and locating some nice fish, the “Reel Finatic” fishing team, from Murrells Inlet, SC, made a game plan for the first day of the Yellowfin Fall Brawl King Classic, held November 1-2 out of the Ocean Isle Fishing Center. However, after they found less than ideal conditions on tournament day, luck intervened to produce the 35.55 lb. king that topped the leaderboard in the event, earning the crew over $13,000.
Capt. Jason Burton, who operates Reel Finatic Charters out of Murrells Inlet, fished the event with Gaby Larrainzar (the tournament’s Top Lady Angler) and brothers Joel and Todd Vick, together for the first time as a crew aboard a 28′ Mercury-powered Triton. Stopping at some nearshore structure off Murrells Inlet to jig bait, the anglers had an inauspicious start to the day.
“I was trying to take a bluefish off the sabiki rig,” Todd Vick explained. “Well, he bit me, and I had to get Joel to come over with a pair of pliers and literally pry the fish off my hand. I’ve got a bit of a war wound.”
After assessing the damage to Vick’s hand, the crew continued to the Belky Bear, a live bottom area in 55′ of water off Myrtle Beach. They were greeted with 63 degree water, about 5 degrees lower than most would even bother kingfishing in.
“We figured we’d stop and try it anyway, then head to the Bill Perry or the Jungle,” Burton said. “Well, when we got there, we immediately hooked up with a 12 pounder, so we knew there were some fish there.”
After trolling for a short time longer and only hooking sharks, the anglers took the boat out of gear to regroup.
“Here’s the real Cinderella story,” Todd Vick explained. “We weren’t even trolling. I just loaded up a naked cigar minnow and tossed it back. No sooner than it hit the water that fish jumped on it. There was no lag time. I casted, turned, and before I could shut the bail, he was on it.”
The real Cinderella part of the story may be that the fish hit a bait on a Penn 460 Slammer spinning reel, light tackle for even smaller kings.
John Theodorakis, Austin Eubank, and Brent Gainey--crew of the Carolina Beach-based
After the strike, which came about 10:30 on Saturday morning, Todd Vick had his hands full with the big king on light tackle.
“It basically took a couple hundred yards of line in 30 seconds. There was quite a bit of chasing going on,” Vick said. “We were on our knees, too, because it was pretty rough out there.”
With Barton at the helm, the crew followed their fish for around 20 minutes before getting close enough to think about gaffing.
“We wanted to gaff it on the side of the boat without the downrigger,” Vick explained, “so I was giving Jason hand signals about which way to drive us.”
When they finally closed in on the fish, Joel Vick sank home the gaff, but couldn’t lift the king over the gunnel.
“We knew it was a good fish, but not until we gaffed it did we realize how big,” Barton recalled. “When we went to help him with the gaff, a wave knocked us all over with the fish. It was a chaotic scene: all three of us on the floor, with the fish flopping on top of us and Gaby not knowing what to do.”
After boating the 35 pounder, the “Reel Finatic” anglers thought there might be an even bigger one in the area and returned to the Belky Bear to continue fishing.
“We decided to try a different tactic,” Burton said, “and floated some live bluefish for a while, but the bite had shut down.”
Calculating that it would take an hour and 45 minutes to reach Ocean Isle, the team quit fishing at 12:15 in order to make the opening of the scales at 2:00. After weighing their fish, the crew watched nervously as the other boats weighed in, but none of Saturday’s fish were even close to unseating them. Nor were any fish caught by the 20-odd boats that fished on Sunday.
At the awards ceremony Sunday night, Todd Vick wished to express his gratitude to Penn Reels and Power Pro. “That reel was just flawless, and there’s absolutely no way I’d have caught that fish on mono,” he said.
Carolina Beach, NC’s “Miller Time” fishing team hauled a 29.35 lb. king to the scales to earn second place and more than $7,000. Brent Gainey, John Theodorakis, and Austin Eubank, fishing on a 27′ Fountain, started their day out at some bottom structure just offshore of the 30/30, but they didn’t find what they were looking for.
They caught a few small kings before deciding to head 10 miles further offshore. Finding more schoolies at the next spot, they worked their way out even more.
“We finally got called into a bite by our friend Clint Richardson,” Eubank said.
Heading to some rocky bottom in 110′ of water around 15 miles south of Frying Pan Tower, the crew found a wide open bite in the early afternoon.
“That big fish was actually part of a quad hookup,” Gainey reported.
With each angler fighting a fish and one in the rod holder, the anglers were unable to do much chasing, and they had to concentrate on moving the fish back toward the boat. Though they lost what Theodorakis called the largest fish of the four, they landed the next three, and Theodorakis’ fish, the second to hit the deck after Gainey gaffed it, proved to be the second place king. A naked mullet on top fooled the 29 pounder.
“We stuck it out there hoping for a bigger one for another hour and a half,” Gainey said. “Then we ran 51 miles back here.”
Weighing in a 28.5 lb. king to capture third place and over $7,000, was Jeff York and the “Trick C,” out of Burlington, NC.
Smithfield, NC’s Larry Denning, aboard the “Screamin Deacon,” took home fourth place and the top spot in the event’s Class of 23′ competition for a 27.35 lb. king. Another 27.35 lb. fish weighed in just a few minutes later tied up fifth place for Capt. Mike Jackson on the “Live Line.”
Madison Morris, aboard “The Sea Horse,” earned $599 and Top Junior Angler with a 24.65 lb. king mackerel.
At the awards ceremony, Tournament Director Capt. Brant McMullan thanked the participating anglers. “We had 178 boats, which I’m tickled to death with. Thanks to everybody for being here,” said McMullan, and he went on to express his gratitude to all of the event’s sponsors for making it another successful year.
