Just getting back from Biloxi,Mississippi the host site of the SKA National Championship. I fished with Team Holden On, consisting of Alan Holden, Clayton Kirby”, and myself. The fishing was epic!! On Friday the first day of the tournament I witinessed one of the greatest king mackeral bites of all time. The average size of the fish ranged from 15-30 pounds with alot of 40′s mixed in. There were several fish over 50 pounds caught with one fish breaking the Mississippi State Record and SKA record weighing in at a whopping 74 pounds caught by Team OIFC. The fish were biting so hard that if a 40 pounder skied and missed the bait, another fish would hit it before the bigger fish could get turned back around and eat again. Toward the end of the day we were running low on bait and were fishing the baits close to the boat. This allowed us the opportunity to try to see what size the fish were trying to eat the bait. If they didn’t look big, we tried to pull the bait away before the line came tight. Even though this sounds easy, it wasn’t, about half the time it didn’t work. The fish contined to bite like this all day, and we ran out of bait around mid afternoon. On day one we had several fish right around the 40 pound mark, and decided not to weigh after hearing the reports of the size of fish being weighed.
The new format allowed us the opportunity to weigh two fish each day. We decided to hold off and fish Saturday. Saturday was a different day from Friday, the weather was bad and the fish didn’t bite nearly as good as they did the day before. Now when I say they didn’t bite as good don’t let me fool you, we still caught fish all day long, but we might go 5 minutes without a strike. That just shows how good it was day before. On Saturday the fish were not as big, but we did manage to catch and weigh a 35 and 41, not in the money but respectable fish.
I would like to congragulate Team OIFC on winning the Nationals. The family oriented team consist of Rube, Brant, and Barrett McMullan from our neighboring beach Ocean Isle. They weighed a 45 and 74 pound King Mackeral. The 74 pounder was a new Mississippi State Record and SKA record, the aggreagate weight was a new SKA Nationals Record. These are a great group of guys and awesome fisherman. Congrulations you guys on weekend that will never be forgotten in our lifetimes.
Now that tournament season is over, its time to concentrate on catching the Bluefin Tuna that are migragating our way. If you would like to have the opportunity of catching these monster fish December is the time. Once the weather cools down a little, and your ready to go toe to toe with a volkswagon on steroids give me a call and lets go fishing.
