Team McNeill takes Kingfish Tour lead in North Carolina

‘Close bite’ rules day one

ATLANTIC BEACH, N.C. – A gentle northwesterly breeze rippled the barrier sands of the Crystal Coast today, leaving the door wide open for Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour teams to make the long runs north and south for mammoth king mackerel.

But when the scales opened at Sea Water Marina, it became readily apparent that the big kingfish bite was close by. All of the top five teams stayed relatively close to Atlantic Beach, and those teams that talked of long runs and burning lots of fuel had little to show for their efforts.

Showing the way in close was Team McNeill, captained by Ellis Phillips of Richmond Hill, Ga., with a king mackerel weighing 38 pounds, 10 ounces.

Team McNeill endured a long day on day one of the event, but not necessarily a long day of fishing, considering that their top king bit within 15 minutes of fishing.

“We were running about seven or eight miles outside the inlet when we came upon a pile of bait – blues and Spanish mackerel were everywhere,” Phillips recounted. “I immediately stopped the boat, and we put out lines as quick as we could. That fish hit the second line we put out – a bluefish on top fished naked. We got it in the boat at five minutes after 8 this morning.”

From there, the day grew long due to anticipation. The team returned to the dock at noon and waited nearly four hours for the scales to open. Then they had endured another three hours of weigh-in as they sat nervously in the crowd, carefully watching every mackerel that came to the scales. No one, however, could push them off the top of the heap.

“We’ve still got to fish tomorrow,” Phillips said. “I’ve been in this position before. On two occasions I’ve been in the top five after day one and got bumped out on day two. I know the wind is supposed to blow tomorrow, but we’ve got to go out there and at least look around at some other options.

Logan’s Run, Team Predator tied for second

Two teams, Logan’s Run, captained by D. Logan of Belville, N.C., and Team Predator, captained by Jack Wood of Wake Forrest, N.C., each brought in kingfish weighing 36 pounds, 6 ounces to lock up in a tie for second place.

“We caught just two kings today,” said David Logan of Logan’s Run. “The big one came at about 3 o’clock. We fished to the east, but we didn’t go too far. We had out five lines, and that fish hit a menhaden on the long, flat line over about 40 feet of water.”

Logan’s Run noted they will go out and try to improve on their catch tomorrow.

Captain Jack Wood of Team Predator got off to a slow start this morning due to some minor mechanical issues. After coming in and getting the problems resolved, the team set out for another try.

They captured three kings in all with the third one being the biggest.

“They kept getting bigger, and at about noon we scored the biggest one on a mullet fished naked on a long line,” Wood said. “We didn’t fish real close, but by no means did we make a long run either – I’d say we ended up making a midrange run.”

Wood, too, is planning on fishing hard tomorrow despite the windy forecast.

“I will fish to better my weight,” he added. “Even though it’s supposed to blow, there’s no guarantee that this fish will hold us up in the top five.”

Double J settles in fourth

A 33-pound, 9-ounce kingfish weighed in by Captain Rusty Rogers of Team Double J from Richmond Hill, Ga., put the team in fourth place after day one.

Double J made a 28-mile run and got their heavy king on the second line in the water.

“I put out a double-pogey rig with a green skirt and got the bite within minutes,” Rogers said. “We got it in the boat at about 7:45. Then we came in closer to look around and began putting together a strategy for tomorrow. We finished the day by catching some fresh bait.”

Bitta Sweet rounds out top five

Rounding out the top five after day one was Team Bitta Sweet, captained by Jerry Tumbleston of Mount Pleasant, S.C., with a kingfish weighing 32 pounds, 1 ounce.

Day two of the Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour in Atlantic Beach continues at 6:30 Saturday morning out of Sea Water Marina located at 400 Atlantic Beach Causeway.