42lb King Mackerel, 637lb Marlin

Magic repeats in Swansboro


NEWS-TIMES

By Rich Levey

SWANSBORO — The Hot Rod certainly has the magic touch when it comes to fishing in the Swansboro Rotary Club King Mackerel/Blue Water Fishing Tournament.

For the second time in three years, the father-and-son team of Brett and Alan Barnes won the king mackerel division. This year, the Wilmington-based team blew away the field with a 42.20-pound king mackerel.

“We feel really fortunate,” said Brett. “This is a great event and extremely well run, from the registration through the awards ceremony.”

The big king, weighed in Saturday at the tourney’s weigh station at Hammocks Beach State Park, earned the Barnes’ $25,000.
This year’s tournament drew a field of 165 king mackerel boats, and another 40 in the blue water division.

The action was also hot for the big boys who ventured offshore in search of billfish. There were seven blue marlin weighed in at the Morehead City weigh station, the biggest of which was a 637-pounder caught Sunday by Clinton’s Jeff Vreugdenhil aboard the Reel Love.

The big blue earned the crew of the Reel Love a payday of $34,800.

“The blue water division was simply phenomenal,” said tournament co-director Stukie Payne. “We had seven blue marlin weighed in and a lot of releases.”

Payne added that despite some rough weather early Saturday, the tourney was deemed a major success.

“The fishermen had to contend with some rough seas, but the fish were there,” he explained. “It’s been some time since we had a 42-pound king caught.

“Overall, this was one of the smoothest run tournaments we’ve had so far,” he added. “We had 52 kings weighed in and a lot of excitement in the blue water division.”

The action was fast and furious at Hammocks Beach, where there was a parade of big kings carried to the scales.

Finishing in second place was the Takin’ it Easy from Raleigh, which landed a 30.80-pound smoker. The team won a BayRider boat powered by a Yamaha 4-stroke motor and trailer valued at over $20,000.

The team also won $8,122 for its entry in the tournament-within-a-tournament.

Third place was a 29.55-pound king caught by W. Randall Edens from Hampstead aboard the East Coast Sports. The fish earned the crew $8,813.

The top five kings all weighed over 25 pounds, and the top 10 all over 20.

Team Hot Rod has become a familiar sight pulling up to the Hammocks Beach dock with a big king. The team won the tourney two years ago and finished sixth last year.

But the Barneses weren’t the tourney’s only repeat winner.

The Reel Love won the billfish division in 2002 and finished second in 2004.

But this year’s win came as a bit of a surprise, because the crew started out tuna fishing.

“The prize money for the tuna hadn’t been collected in the last three years,” said Vreugdenhil. “So we thought we’d give that a shot and maybe win enough to cover our expenses.

“But after three hours of tuna fishing, we didn’t have a bite,” he continued. “So we went offshore and fished for marlin. I didn’t think we’d have much of a chance, because there had already been a couple of 500-pounders weighed in.

“But 39 minutes after we started fishing, we were hooked up, and after an hour and 15 minutes, we brought it to the boat. But she was still strong, and after making a 300-yard run, got tail-wrapped. From 2:45 until 5, it was 6 inches at a time, but we finally got her up to the boat. When I saw it, I was fairly confident it was over 600 pounds.”

Vreugdenhil was fishing with a pair of new crew members, Jason Williford and Brad Ingalls.

The big blue was actually landed on a lure Ingalls gave Vreugenhil as a gift the morning of the tournament.

Inshore, offshore and landside, the tourney was one of the smoothest yet, according to Payne.

“The tournament was a great success, and a lot of that has to do with the collective effort of the Swansboro Rotarians,” he said. “The club really has the tournament down to an art as far as making it all happen is concerned. Everyone has a job to do, they do it well, and that’s make makes everything come together.”

Tournament officials extended a special thanks to officials at Hammocks Beach State Park and Randy Gregory from the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries.