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Copyright 2006 Brandon W. Smith. All rights reserved.
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Fishing Team
2004 Reports
Due to preparation for the BAR Exam and my upcoming wedding,
I will not be fishing much this summer.
July 3rd, 2004
The weather forecast was great for the Jolly Mon KMT, and a record 337 boats entered the one-day tournament. Ryan, Reed, my father, Newton Hornsby (Mary Coleman’s dad) and myself fished aboard the Legal Ease.
Earlier in the week I had planned to fish on my boat in the tournament, letting my father take his own boat, and trailering south to Georgetown. Because of my hectic schedule, I decided against fishing south, and decided we would all fish on one boat.
Friday night we loaded the boat, and anticipated an uneventful departure the next morning. As always, tournament fishing seems to require drama. As we attempted to lower the engines, I discovered that the starboard motor would not go down. We had a hydraulic leak. Luckily I had some power steering and trim fluid in the garage, and I reluctantly entered the canal water and filled the empty reservoir. We were able to get the engine down, and left it in one position all day.
After breaching Shallotte Inlet, we began to run south to look for bait. We stopped with the pack and worked slowly towards the Ocean Isle pier. A few hundred yards east of the pier we spotted the Pogies flipping, but they were very scattered. After watching many boats run further south looking for bait, we stuck it out knowing they would surface when things settled down. They did, and we were off to the Sharkhole.
I had planned to fish the Jungle area, but a reliable source had reported that a couple of large kings had come from the Sharkhole. We started the day with several small kings, then the man hit.
Ryan was on the rod, with what he described as a nice fish. I did not get too excited, telling myself that he could possibly be a little rusty and might be exaggerating a little. After a half hour, I was getting fairly excited myself. Much to our dismay (especially Ryan) a 25 + pound False Albacore rolled up beside the boat. I can easily understand how Ryan could have anticipated a nice fish, as a big False Albacore will pull like mad.
We slowly deploy our lines landing a couple small Kings, a Cobia (20 pounds) and a brown Marlin. Thinking that we had to mover to find some larger fish, we ran it to the Lighthouse Chain, marking lots of bait, but only finding one Dolphin.
We finished the day at the Shallotte Inlet Tideline, with no luck, and nothing decent to weigh.
June 25th, 2004
This year I again began the tournament season about the Triple Gobble with Greg and Jeff Weathers. I had planned to fish my boat, but due to the predicted marine forecast, I decided to sit this event out. Luckily, I was able to ride along Friday with Greg and Jeff.
We left Georgetown Landing around 5 a.m. and headed up the beach. We found a very thick school of Pogies just past Murrells Inlet. The Pogies were so balled together that they were shoulder to shoulder, with their tails out of the water, some fish being forced out of the water on top of the school. It was something I have never seen before, but made catching bait very easy.
After loading the wells and keeping enough to chum, we made our way to the Myrtle Beach Rocks.
Our first line out was immediately hit, and we quickly landed a small king. We then proceeded to land several small kings, none over 15 pounds. After several hours of small fish, we debated leaving but decided to stick it out at the rocks.
Just before our fishing day was to come to an end (which we decided would be 2:30 due to the long run) Greg landed a fish in the low 20’s. We had originally only planned running a fish to the scales if it was over 25 pounds, but not knowing what the fishing was like elsewhere, we decided it was better to be safe than sorry.
The King pulled down 21.18 pounds, and put us in 26th place after day 1.
Though you would usually expect to be bumped during the second day from the top thirty when you are sitting in 26th place, I thought there was a chance that the fishing would be slow due to the rough weather. I sat out the second day of fishing, but Greg and Jeff headed back out, but could not top the day 1 fish.
The final results placed the Triple Gobble in 37th place.
May 29th, 2004
Fished the Far Out Shootout. Started at the Blackjack Hole. It was a very slow day.
May 5th, 2004
Left the dock at 4 a.m. headed to the Georgetown Hole to try to catch the early morning bite after a full moon. We had our first fish, a Yellowfin about 25-30 pounds at 7:15 a.m. Lost another large Yellowfin at the boat. Landed two large Amberjacks. Had a lull for a couple of hours, missing a couple of strikes. Picked up a 45 pound Yellowfin. Had a triple knockdown, hooked two; one was a False Albacore and a large 30 + pound Blackfin. Missed several more strikes. Picked up one small Dolphin
January 3rd-9th, 2004
Fishing aboard the Sea Lady in Quepos, Costa Rica.
We had an amazing trip, landing 55 Sailfish in three days of fishing and hooking many more. Costa Rica is a beautiful country, and the people of Quepos are not only friendly, but good fishermen.
The first day we fished we started with a nice Dolphin, which was prepared for our dinner table that night. We followed the Dolphin with six Sails to the boat and finished with a Bonito. I thought that it was an excellent day, and though it was, it paled in comparison to our second day.
After a day spent zip lining in the treetops, we were back out on the water. Today was incredible. Thirty Sailfish to the boat. Absolutely unbelievable! Words fail me when I try to describe what it’s like when you have to bring in the lines so that you can eat lunch. We never went more than fifteen minutes without a strike.
Our final day was another awesome trip. Nineteen sails to bring our total to fifty-five. This was after a great trip into the mountains and down a clean river whitewater rafting.
Costa Rica holds an unbelievable fishery in a beautiful an unspoiled country. Check out some of the photos and videos to see for yourself.
