Tournament Reports – 2019 Jolly Mon King Classic
The Sportman’s Choice/Yamaha 2019 Jolly Mon King Classic, a popular early-season king mackerel tournament hosted out of the Ocean Isle Fishing Center, once again offered anglers a captain’s choice format, but all of the top five fish weighed in came in on Saturday, June 15, the event’s first day of fishing.
Taking the overall win was Sea Bandit/Sea Keeper, captained by Lee Frick, of Salisbury, NC. Frick and regular teammate Tyler Mulkey were joined by new crew members Ray Joyner and Scott Hamilton. The team had live blues and menhaden already penned up on Saturday morning, so they headed straight out of Shallotte Inlet to their first spot, a usually productive area in about 100’ of water.
The first spot didn’t produce this tournament morning, so they headed to a second spot, and here they caught a couple of small kings and then one in the 20 lb. class. Shortly after, though, at about 9:30 am they saw the big green back of a huge king take a swipe at and miss a live bluefish they had set back about 20’ behind the boat.
The king came back for a second pass, and that’s when the hooks took hold.
“It was a good fight, but it never really burned it down,” Frick recalled. “It mostly just stayed deep and shook its head.”
Scott Hamilton was the angler, and when Frick set the gaff in the heavy fish, he called for help bringing it over the gunnels.
The team kept dragging lines for about another hour, but then they headed to the scales where the king topped out at 42.55 lbs. Frick and Mulkey regularly fish the Jolly Mon, but this was their first time winning the event.
Second place went to Capt. James Hammonds, Jr. and Team Grace, from Reidsville, NC, with a 42.15 lb. king. Hammonds was fishing with Dewayne Woods, Greg Apple, and David Aldridge, and their expectations were high as just two weeks prior they finished in second place in the Cape Lookout Shootout.
Tyler Mulkey, Lee Frick, Ray Joyner, and Scott Hamilton with the 42.55 lb. king that finished atop the leaderboard in the 2019 Jolly Mon. The big king was caught on a live bluefish in 100′ of water.
Team Grace fishes on a 25’ bayboat, so on Saturday morning they took the trolling motor off, kept the Power-Pole on, and ran the 50-ish miles to fish southwest of the tower. The spread consisted of live bluefish that they had caught earlier in the week, and their day started with amberjacks, a small king, more amberjacks, and another small king. Then the big king hit the downrigger bait, about 40’ down in 110’ of water, around 10:00 am.
“The king went on a great big run, almost spooling the reel,” Hammonds remembered. Hammonds was the angler, and he worked the king to the boat where it started doing the “SKA Shuffle,” making circles around the boat and going under the boat before starting the death circle and eventually coming within gaffing range. Apple was on the gaff.
James Hammonds, Dewayne Woods, Greg Apple, and David Aldridge (left to right) with the second place king in the 2019 Jolly Mon. The 42.15 lb. king was caught southwest of the tower on a live bluefish.
With a big king in the boat relatively early in the day, Hammonds wanted to go bottom fishing, but the rest of the team, being more conservative, insisted they start the run back to the dock. It took the team 1.5 hours to get out to the tower and about 2 hours to get back in to the Ocean Isle Fishing Center.
Third place went to Jack Brandon and Magic Stick with a 41.00 lb. king. In fourth was Kevin Norris and Reel Blessed with a 39.80 lb. king, and rounding out the top five was Billy Joe Nobles on Packman with a 36.85 lb. king.
More information on this year’s Jolly Mon can be found at www.oifc.com.
