Mid Season Update
After a successful run of fishing that included a class of 23’ SKA National Championship and placing second at nationals as well, last year was the end of Team Blue Water Candy. Capt. Rick Croson, Capt. Russell Weaver, and myself made up the team that decided not to fish together this year because Rick and wife Jessica have a baby girl coming soon and he needed to focus on growing his business, Living Waters Guide Service. To do that he needed his boat for charters on Saturdays.
The three of us are still the best of friends and I truly believe and hope we always will be. While this is a sad time for me personally it has opened up new and wonderful opportunities. My daughter and office manager, Jess, has fallen in love with competitive fishing. We have been blessed to fish with 3 teams this year in both Billfish and Kingfish teams.
It started with Big Rock BMT when we fished with the Brown and Mitchell families on Phil Mitchell’s 47’ Gillikin “Contagious” out of Morehead City. Lady’s day Jess landed a 28 pound Mahi good enough for second place. This set her on fire and it was truly a pleasure having all the ladies onboard. The rest of the tournament was not as successful, but a daily Mahi prize was ours. I thank these wonderful families and consider myself blessed to call them friends.
Back to the SKA competitions and that new chapter. . David Mason and I have fished quite a few tournaments in years past aboard his awesome 3480 Pursuit “Knot Kiddin’.” David is a beautiful person with a passion for fishing despite some physical limitations.
We decided to fish Division 9 in in Southeastern NC along with the granddaddy of local tournaments, the US Open. We put together a team of David, brother Jerry, Capt. Russell, and Jess along with myself. We have had reasonable success, catching fish every tournament, but have failed to run our fish to the scales because they have clearly not been tournament winners, but in some cases would have placed top 10 had we only known how bad others had done!
In Division 1, Jess and I have had a blast fishing with Capt. Roy Jarman of Jacksonville and his girlfriends, Lindsay Sanders on Roy’s 31’ Cape Horn, “Pro Build.” Kingfish have been especially hard to find on tournament day in Northern NC, but some very nice fish have been landed, including a 60.5 lb. monster by Skip Conklin and crew on the “Ocean Athlete.”
We had limited success having to settle for Amberjack prizes until Capt. Stanman’s OBOKMT a couple weeks ago. On a very rough day we set out for spots offshore of Drum Inlet and Ocracoke and bounced around to several spots all morning with only one small Mahi and a pile of small sharks to show for it. Good friends of mine, Henry Tillett, wife Wendy, and Clint Richardson aboard the “Wendy Conditions” had caught 2 respectable upper 20’s fish back toward Cape Lookout Shoals in 120’ of water earlier in the day, so we worked back down near them.
After a couple hours trolling we had a nice Amberjack (thanks Roscoe!) and several encounters with monster sharks to show for our efforts. We also we beaten and bruised from getting thrown around all day.
Most boats had left the area as time was getting short and the bite was not good. Our discussion was leaning toward packing it in and heading toward the scales early with only our Amberjack again but Jess clearly objected that notion, so we decided to get those last 30 minutes in. 10 minutes later a bite on the downrigger that was acting good ran a long ways and came to the top. While clearing the lines the last one out started screaming and losing line fast in the opposite direction of the other fish.
Jessica take the second fish since he was doing everything right and had fallen for a Bluefish dressed up with a Blue/Chartreuse Feather Weight. Lindsay held the other rod, letting the fish lay out and keeping it tight. Jess fought the fish back to the boat, but it stayed deep and was hard to raise. Knowing we were already short on time and that there were other critters swimming with him, Jess horsed it more than we normally would, but everything held up and soon we were getting a look at a very nice fish. Many circles later Roy got a gaff shot and slung him over the rail. I quickly bagged it, cleared the lines, and we knew we had to go. About the same time the other fish broke off before we could cut the line, but we didn’t care. . .we had to go!
Knowing we probably had the winner in the bag we started for Swansboro in very rough seas, making all the speed we could, but not nearly as fast as we would have liked. Roy jumped the Shoals and then set course for Beaufort Inlet, since we deemed it too rough to make Bogue Inlet which was closer to the scales. No wake zones and boat traffic are not your friend in this situation, but those were our “ob stackles!” Roy and Yamaha got us to the check point with 8 minutes to spare.
We then took a moment to the ladies to clean up, straighten their hats, and for me to remove hooks before pulling in at the scales. Folks these ladies deserve a minute to clean up when they make it back. They fish hard and do one Hell of a job. They aren’t on the boat for a pretty ride or to get a sun tan! They get after it and are an asset to the team.
Meantime we have learned that 2 fish over 40 have already been weighed and we will be last to weigh. SKA photos are taken and the girls take off for the scales.
Moments later we heard screams of joy and 46.53 yelled out. Good enough for first place overall, first place King TWT, first place Big Boy TWT, first place Lady, as well as first place SKA Lady Angler. For a topper. . . First place Amberjack and third place Mahi.
Not bad for a Saturday fishing with friends and your daughter. It was special to win this great tournament because Blue Water Candy has supported it for years due to the fact that proceeds support many children’s charities and no one is paid.
I cannot wait for the remaining tournaments this year in large part because of Jess’ fire for it. She is truly a pleasure to fish with and eager to advance her knowledge of the sport.
Photo Credit: SKA
