Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina -An SKA team did not win this year’s Ocean Isle Fishing Center. Com / Yellowfin Jolly Mon King Classic. It happens but not that often. A boat called Reel Time with a 38.15 won it.

With a baitwell full of pogy’s, the team fished an area in sixty feet of water, twenty-six miles from Ocean Isle Beach.

“We hooked up at eight-thirty and put the king in the boat at nine-fifteen,” said Travis before going onstage to collect their rewards. “She ran deep doing her best to not come to the surface. She did not make a reel-burning run so she just wasn’t tired. We had a hard time gaffing her.”

The team felt they had a good fish so they came into the scales at two twenty. That’s when they found out it was the biggest king they’ve ever caught in a tournament.

Chelsea Lyerly won the tournaments Top Junior honors fishing with this SKA team.

Tournament Director and SKA Pro Brant McMullen has developed this event into a true family oriented tournament we are certainly proud of. Brant uses the either or format, you can choose to fish either Saturday or Sunday but not both and you must declare the day you fish when you register.

Over two hundred teams fished on Saturday.

SKA team Reel Broke picked up fourth with a 32.85. Fishing the Yamaha powered Sea Pro was Jonathan Stevens and Bobby Kilbourne from Murrells Inlet, South Carolina.

“We fished about thirty miles east northeast of Murrells Inlet,” said Jonathan. “It’s an area we’ve caught fish before under the same conditions. We were fishing in fifty-five feet of water where she ate a pogy on the surface at two o’clock. I had her to the boat in fifteen minutes where Bobby stuck her.”

Jonathan went on to recall, “This was the biggest fish we’ve caught in a tournament, however, we have caught a fifty-two. We caught her during the weekend of the Tailwalker event but we weren’t registered to fish.” That has to be very tough to take especially when the South Carolina SKA record is a little over forty-nine pounds.

The Reel Broke also won second place Class of 23 money.

Sixth place fell to Randy Lingerfelt’s Feedin’ Frenzy Charters with a 31.30. With Randy was Kevin Sneed and Angela Moran on the Mercury powered Contender.

“This was our best finish in a tournament so we’re pretty proud,” said Randy. “We were fishing in thirty-seven feet of water two miles north of the Carolina Beach Sea Buoy. The king hit the middle line on the kite rig. She got tangled in the long, long line and ran two hundred and fifty yards of line off the reel before we could cut the lines and get free. Then we dropped the anchor and ran the fish down.”

The team had a fourteen-inch bluefish, which enticed the king to strike. The whole fight lasted ten minutes.

We then jump to eighth place where the Fulcher’s, Garret and Brian, earned the honor with a 29.40.

“In the U.S. Open we caught twenty-two kings in a hour at the Shark Hole so that’s where we headed,” Garret told us. “We thought that this would be a good spot this time of year.

They were fishing in sixty-five feet of water using pogys they had caught earlier. “It spooled the reel three times,” he added. “We hooked up at ten-twenty. Jason Knite caught the fish and Brian gaffed her. It was our best finish in a tournament to date.”

The team fishes a Mercury powered Fountain.

Clint Richardson and Henry and Wendy Tillett earned eleventh place with a 26.75 fishing a Class of 23 Johnson powered Sea Hunt named Finatic.

“Wendy did a great job landing the fish,” said Clint. “It was an early fish, getting her to the boat by nine o’clock. We were fishing in  fifty-five feet of water at the Cabbage Patch.”

Twelfth place fell to Dieter Cardwell’s Yamaha powered Wellcraft, Tide Line. Dieter, Kevin Alley, and Lori Seawell, weighed a 26.70.

Now the SKA leader board drops to sixteenth where Field Hucks, fishing the Yamaha powered Yellowfin Mean C, caught a 26-pound king.

Brant does something different that truly instills family values in the event. He gives a $100 Ocean Isle Fishing Center gift card to every team that has a Junior, Lady, and Senior angler on board and weighs a fish.

Long Shot was seventeenth with a 25.65. Wade Long and Todd Lewis fish a Yamaha powered Yellowfin.
  Eighteenth place fell to the 2004 Angler of the Year Dean Spatholt, fishing the Fish Meister. He caught a 25.35 while twentieth went to Mike Edwards’ Talkin Trash with a 23.95.

The top SKA Juniors were Caitlyn Schumann on the Roofing Contender first, Kateland Todd and Hunter Harrelson on the Black Cat second, and Hannah Stevens on Sea Bandit third. The Black Cat junior Hunter Harrelson also won the Mercury Scholarship Award.

Congratulations to all who competed!