Sneads Ferry KMT 2008
Jay Russell, Sandy Conklin, and Skip Conklin, of the "Ocean Athlete," with the 46.47 lb. king mackerel that earned them over $31,000 in the 2008 Sneads Ferry King Mackerel Tournament.
“We don’t start out with a game plan,” said Morehead City’s Skip Conklin, the winning captain in the 2008 Sneads Ferry Rotary Club King Mackerel Tournament. “We just start across the shoals and pick a place to go.” While the crew may not start with a clear-cut itinerary, they know that the best odds of picking up a tournament-winning king mackerel this time of year lie on the east side of Cape Lookout Shoals, and by 9:00 AM on August 17, the 46.47 lb. king mackerel aboard the “Ocean Athlete” confirmed it.
After catching bait with only a bit of difficulty near Harkers Island the morning of the event, Conklin, his wife Sandy, and teammate Jay Russell crossed the shoals in their Mercury-powered 28′ Privateer and headed immediately for the 1700 Rock, a spot well established as a producer of tournament-winning fish (and in fact the very spot that produced the 44.09 lb. king that took first in Sneads Ferry last year).
With a crowd of boats vying for a big king at the rock, the “Ocean Athlete” kept to themselves.
“We stayed off of the pack,” Conklin explained. “We found a school of bait there and stuck with it.”
At 8:30, the team’s first fish of the day struck a naked pogy on the surface, and it made a hard run into the light northwest breeze. Russell, the team’s usual angler, grabbed the rod as Conklin fired up the throttles to give chase.
“That fish ran really well,” he recalled. “We had to chase it a good little bit.”
Instead of taking the fight deep, the king stayed up top, and Russell had the king close around 20 minutes after it bit. When the fish was in range, Conklin reached over the gunnel, planted the gaff, and hauled into the Privateer the largest king weighed in an NC tournament yet this year.
While a 46 lb. king would be enough to send most teams packing for the scales the minute it hit the ice, the “Ocean Athlete” crew decided to continue fishing the area, looking for another fish big enough to earn Sandy Conklin the event’s Top Lady Angler Prize.
“We stayed until about 11:30, and Sandy caught two more in the 21 lb. range,” said the winning captain, “but they weren’t quite big enough.”
After clearing the lines at the 1700 Rock, the anglers took off for New River Inlet, and they made the run in around two hours in calm seas.
As the scales closed at 5:00 PM, the “Ocean Athlete” king held onto the top spot by almost 5 lbs., earning the crew over $31,000.
Skip Conklin wished to express his gratitude to Mercury Outboards and Outback Marine of Morehead City for their supporting roles in the team’s success.
Jim Inman accepts the second place trophy and check for over $18,000 in the Sneads Ferry King Mackerel Tournament. LIke the winners, Inman and Tim Newton, fishing aboard the "Deal King," found their valuable mackerel at the 1700 Rock.
Fishing within sight of the “Ocean Athlete” and coming in just behind them at the scales, Havelock, NC’s “Deal King” took second place and nearly $16,000 in the tournament with a 41.72 lb. kingfish.
Teammates Tim Newton and Jim Inman, fishing aboard a 23′ inboard diesel Irvette center console, also headed for the 1700 Rock on Saturday morning.
Their big strike came even earlier than the winning team’s as something engulfed a naked pogy on top behind the boat around 8:00. Newton took the rod while the fish ran, and Inman took the helm, trying not to let the fish get too far from the boat.
“Oh yeah, we ran him down,” Inman explained. “We like to run them down pretty fast, get on top of them quick, and get them in the boat.”
The anglers caught up to their fish quickly, but getting it in the boat proved to be a little tricky, as the fish went deep when they caught up to it.
“We actually thought we had him foul hooked because we could see a lot of white when he was circling,” said Inman.
After a few circles of the boat, Inman grabbed a 12′ gaff and prepared to boat the fish.
“I had to reach for him pretty far,” he said. “He was down pretty deep, but I got him, and he was actually hooked good, with one treble deep in his mouth.”
Like the winners, the “Deal King” angler stuck it out at the 1700 Rock until around noon, hoping to find an even larger fish. The 41 pounder ended up being their only king bite, however, and they battled amberjacks for the rest of the morning.
The “Deal King” anglers wished to recognize Tim Newton Auto Sales, of Havelock, for their support.
Jeff Crouch, from Bolivia, NC, brought a 32.45 lb. king mackerel to the scales to secure third place for his “Strickly Business” fishing team. A 32.32 lb. king was right on its heels, earning fourth for Wayne Hewitt and “Team Germinator,” of Wilmington. Rounding out the top five was Tim Hudson, aboard the “Final Draw,” with a 29.22 lb. king.
Walter Giese, of Jacksonville, NC, weighed in the 31.61 lb. king that topped the Snead’s Ferry KMT’s Class of 23′ competition.
No stranger to the Junior Angler spotlight at NC tournaments, Kinston, NC’s Grayson Ketterer, aboard the “UnReel,” took the top honors for a 26.49 lb. king. Ketterer fished with Danny Wallace and Steve Squires aboard a 26′ Regulator, and the team found their fish around some live bottom just offshore of the 1700 Rock.
The “UnReel” crew hooked their 26 lb. king around 10:30 on a blue/white-skirted pogy, and Steve Squires brought it to gaff after a 20 minute battle.
Wendy Tillet, fishing aboard the “Windy Conditions,” out of Beaufort, earned the tournament’s Top Lady Angler award with a 27.16 lb. king mackerel.
There were 173 boats that fished in this 17th year of the Sneads Ferry tournament, over 20 boats more than last year’s turnout. The event functions as the primary fundraiser for the Rotary Club of Sneads Ferry, a service organization that puts the money to use in a variety of charitable applications in and around the community.
