Most bass anglers have fished in tournaments, from local club events all the way up to FLW and B.A.S.S. sanctioned affairs. But until just the past few years, saltwater tournaments have been almost nil; and, the ones that did take place were for what I call “the big boys”.
All that has changed for the saltwater angler, and even the little guys can enter and have a chance at winning some prize money. While inshore events for trout, flounder or red drum are gaining in popularity, the most popular tournaments lately have been for king mackerel.
Kingfish! From spring through fall, they roam the coastal waters of Georgia. From the beach, just behind the breakers to the radar towers fifty miles out and beyond, kingfish can be caught and they garner the attention of more anglers than ever – and of late anglers in smaller boats.
I pre-fished with a boat entered in the Sapelo Open King Mackerel Tournament a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to see just how to go about preparing for a tournament and what it takes to fish one.
The Sapelo Open is a Southern Kingfish Association (SKA) sanctioned event. Put on by the Sapelo Saltwater Fishing Club out of Darien, it is the first of five events this year in SKA’s Division 4 – the Georgia Coast. 128 boats were registered for this one.
Prizes in these SKA events range from cash to vehicles to fully rigged boats. The Sapelo Open first place prize is $15,000 cash in the Overall or General Class. Prizes are also awarded for Class of 23, Ladies, Juniors, and Seniors.
“Sea-N-Double” is the boat I fished on the day prior to the tournament. Owned and captained by Jim Mason, the boat’s fishing team included Jim’s brother Tim Mason, and their cousin Billy Mason. The four of us headed out from Shellman’s Bluff early on the Friday before the Saturday tournament.
The “Sea-N-Double” is a Pro Line 23 Sport center console. Like most kingfish anglers, this team fishes from a center console. The boat model says 23, but the boat is actually about 26ft in length from bow to stern along the centerline. In a curious measure, this boat qualifies for the “Class of 23” in SKA sanctioned tournaments. The boat must be 23 feet or less as measured at the waterline to qualify.
Some makes of boat are quite large above the waterline but still meet the requirements to fish in the lower bracket. This is a definite advantage when the weather kicks up. Heavy seas that keep most 23 ft boats at the dock are still fishable on those “larger” boats in the 23 ft class.
This was the first kingfish trip of the year for the ”Sea-N-Double” team. It was designed to attempt to find some fish, ring out their tackle, find any faults with rod, reel, or line, and to bring their skills up to par after the off season.
Like many bass tournament anglers, the team needed a fishing plan. Even if they found no fish on the practice day, they would at least eliminate some water. Fish had been reported far to the south off the Florida coast, and while their boat is capable of making the run on a good day, the forecasted sea conditions precluded that run today and on tournament day.
Running out from Shellman’s Bluff, we headed for Sapelo Sound. Instead of running out the sound, we took a shortcut into Blackbeard Creek. This creek runs through the island dividing Blackbeard Island from Sapelo Island and comes out on the beach at the south end of Sapelo. Navigable only at high tide, it allowed us to get to the beach area that Jim had planned to look for bait without having to run all the way around the sound.
We came out of the creek and across the several sand bars, looking for pods (schools) of pogeys (menhaden shad) along the beach toward the southern end of the island at Doboy Sound. A favorite bait of kingfish anglers – mainly because they are so abundant along the beaches in the summer months, these oily shad are also a favorite food fish for the kings.
It only took one cast of the net to haul in several hundred pogeys. Tim Mason threw the twelve foot cast net over the school of bait that was being marked on the boat’s fish finder. Most of these pogeys were small, less than five inches long, so Tim dumped the net and released all of them. We were looking for larger bait.
I asked Jim if pogeys could ever be too large. He grinned and said, “not in our boat. The bigger the better.”
We idled about looking for a school of bait that would have larger fish. Pogeys generally swim in a school on the surface, flipping their tails out of the water and sometimes jumping out of the water. We watched and looked for larger bait.
