One of my worst nightmares came true last weekend....
Those of you who are my FB friends already know:
Others, as you may or may not know, I fish my fair share of king mackerel tournaments at our coast. Last weekend was the BIG one. The US Open KMT out of Southport. My home waters.
After a very strong finish last year, we already made a pact that all of us would fish it again this year. Had it all planned out 8 months in advanced.
Week leading up the the tourny, get a call saying hey I kinda forgot to pencil you guys in for the house, someone has it rented. Great. Its ok we had a backup plan that involved a bit more mileage.
The day before the tournament
Friend #1 was sick which included a hospital visit.
Friend #2 flight home was cancelled on thursday night, so just considered it a loss and just decided to fun fish with another buddy.
Friday we had planned to run offshore but a sudden change of the forecast forced us to stay nearby. So I decided to treat day 1 as if I was going to fish the tournament (minus the trailering part). I had a strong feeling the water was cleaner way south so being that we were staying at cherry grove, we decided to trailer to Murrels inlet and fish away from the pack.
Broke the inlet at 9am, hung a turn North, and immediatly about 1000 yrs above the jetty was a big school of big baits that no one has been able to find for days. 1 throw and done.
Set the spread just near garden city pier and didnt get all lines out when the prop was was blown up on and a 400 yd run...while pickkng up all the baits, had 1 sky on a bait as i was about to flip it in the boat nearly jumping in the boat, missing the bait.
After a 20min fight, gaffed a 33lber hoooked in the tail. talk about luck.
Set spread out, and didnt take long to gaff a mid 20s.
Missed a few more strikes, then made a few phone calls.....Few buddies showed up with just a few hours to fish, and they all caught fish and hauled butt to weigh them in.
At approx 130 our way back goes off screaming and heading offshore. I knew right away we had a real one. 25minutes later we had a 36+ lber in the boat and we were officially hating LIFE!!
Called it quits with NO BOATS in sight other than the ones I called over ALL DAY. 4 kings, 3 miss strikes. Estimated we had about 85+ lbs in 3 fish. Biggest weighed 36.1 on an UNOFFICIAL scale after laying around for about 5 hours. I swear it was more in the 37-39lb range.
Yea i talked to a few people that evening, and I am sure one of them spilled the beans to all the guys with fancy boats and patches but hey it didnt matter to me. Went offshore Saturday.
Long story short, we should have been cashing a $75,000+ check + all the benefits that would have followed afterwards, BUT it just wasnt meant to be. Lesson learned.
