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Jesse's Hunting > Fishing Articles > Fishing Articles Archives > Team Done Deal Finishes in the Money - Stage 2 of the Mercury Tournament Trail
Team Done Deal Finishes in the Money - Stage 2 of the Mercury Tournament Trail
Mike Gilmore - JHO ProStaff
- Pensacola, FL
June 22, 2004
On Saturday, June 12th, at 0545, Blake Reynolds, Stephen Kehoe and I sat in the bay in Pensacola, Florida along with nearly 130 other boats awaiting the kickoff of the Outcast King Mackerel Classic. We already had a plan to run nearly 70 miles southwest of Pensacola to a private wreck in search of a tournament winning king mackerel. 
Go! Go! Go!
Boats head out into the Gulf from the tournament start. About 130 boats fished the tournament. Team Done Deal finished with the # 10 kingfish for the weekend. |
Tension was high among the anglers, and at 0600 we were given the, "Go! Go! Go!"
We took off out of Pensacola Pass, running southwest for nearly an hour before coming upon a small pop-up oilrig with a large school of hardtails bunched near the legs. We began to fill the live well by jigging diamond jigs and crippled herrings in the middle of the school. While we did this we saw two nice kings sky on baits near the boat and decided to go ahead and drop one back on a fly-line, hoping to get a knockdown. We trolled this bait around this rig, but never could pick up the bite. We were still optimistic because we saw some kings and knew we still had all weekend to put a keeper in the fish bag.
The wreck we had planned to fish was still 30 miles away, so we set off to find it. Upon arriving we noticed a large school of hardtails hovering in the water over this wreck. This was great and we knew there had to be some nice kingfish in the area. Fishing over a sunken shrimp boat in 150 feet of water, we deployed two fly-lines on top of the water and put two on the downriggers at different depths.
In less than fifteen minutes we had our first strike. Blake fought the fish and eventually brought a nice 30-pound kingfish to the gaff. I was able to safely put him in the fish bag and get him iced down. The baits were re-deployed and almost as soon as we put them in the water, we were on again.
Stephen took the rod and the fish made a smoking run against the drag. We knew we had a nice fish on, and I told Stephen to take his time and don’t force him into the boat. Nearly thirty minutes later, I saw a large kingfish about 10 feet down slowly coming to the boat. Stephen brought him to the gaff several times but I just couldn't get the hook in him. The fish made several more screaming runs and finally I stuck him good in the front part of his body. This was one nice fish and according to our on board scale he weighed over 35 pounds. We put him in the bag and put the baits back out.
We caught several more kings in the 30 pound range but popped them all off at the boat because we knew we already had a bigger one in the box. For nearly 3 hours we caught kingfish after kingfish before the bite shut off. This spot was great but we decided to check out a few more before heading in to the scales.
All of the tackle was secured and we set off to find a sunken tugboat and submarine a little farther to the west. We found both wrecks and deployed baits but could not find any large kingfish. We did find several nice amberjack. This tournament had an amberjack division and we decided to at least boat a few of the nicer ones in hopes of placing in the money.
These amberjack were very hungry and were chasing baits on top of the water. I began to cut up a small bonito we had on board and chunk it into the water. We took turns hooking up on the amberjack until we had our limit of three nice ones. This took a couple hours, but we wanted to get some more bait and return to the shrimp boat wreck for the afternoon bite.
We caught some more baits and headed to our spot. When we arrived, the bait was still balled up over the wreck. We hooked up with several more nice kingfish in the 30 lb. range, but since none of them were bigger than the big boy in the box, we cut them loose at the boat. At 1500 we began the two-hour trip back to the scales. We arrived at Palafox Pier shortly after 1700 and waited in line for nearly an hour with the other boats to weigh our catch. When our turn came, we took two kings and the largest amberjack to the scales. The amberjack weighed in at just under 27 lbs., falling short of the 3rd place fish by nearly three pounds. We needed the biggest kingfish to get us on the board.
Big King
Team Done Deal placed in the money with a 38.6 lb. king mackerel. They are now ranked 18th in the Mercury Tournament Trail. |
Sunday morning rolled around fast and we again waited for the start with the other boats. We decided to return to the shrimp boat wreck in hopes of picking up an even larger kingfish. We knew this spot held some big ones, and the bite had certainly turned on.
After loading up with bait at the oilrig, we ran straight to the shrimp boat. Upon arrival, we noticed another boat had anchored over the wreck and was bottom fishing. We put out the baits and trolled for nearly two hours without a bite. We decided to try some spots further west, including some oilrigs.
The water was clear and blue at the rigs. This wasn't good for kingfish, because they like dirty, green water. We moved to the north and found some rigs in better water. Several hours later we still were not catching fish. Judging by the chatter on the VHF radio, everyone was having trouble.
It was getting late, since we knew the scales closed an hour earlier today at 1700. We still also had a two-hour run back to the scales. Stephen decided to try the shrimp boat wreck one more time. The other boat had pulled out, and we were the only ones around. We decided to put out 2 fly-lines on top with large hardtails.
Just as I began to let the second bait out, a large fish slammed it. This caught me off guard with my left thumb on the free-spooling reel. Smoke erupted from my thumb as the skin burned off. I dropped the reel to the strike position and set the hook. I told the guys that we had hooked a nice kingfish. I fought the fish for 45 minutes as he made seven long screaming runs.
Stephen, Blake and I figured this might be a tournament winner. Stephen finally saw the fish coming near the boat as I reeled him to the side. Stephen put the gaff in him and had trouble getting him over the side into the boat.
"Wow," was all I could say; this was one long kingfish.
We put him on our scale, and to our surprise he only weighed 30 lbs. This fish was a true soldier for only 30 lbs. We knew he wasn't bigger than the fish we weighed on Saturday but he was longer. He appeared to be very skinny and his belly looked malnourished. If this fish had been healthy, based on his length, he probably would have weighed over 50 lbs.
I put out another hardtail on the fly-line and another nice kingfish took this one almost instantly. Again my thumb was burnt up by the free-spool and now I had a large blister to show for it. We boated this next fish and he was short and fat. The scale again read only 30 lbs. We knew we had to get a big fish in the boat fast before we ran out of time. We fished until 1500 and caught several more nice kings in the 30 lb. range, but never topped our 38-pounder.
Back at the weigh-in, we waited to see if our big fish stayed in the money. At 1700, the scales closed and we were told that our Saturday kingfish held the 10th place spot. We were extremely happy that we placed in the top 10 out of 130 boats.
We returned to the marina and got cleaned up for the awards ceremony. We were provided with free food and drinks by the tournament committee, and awaited our prize. Stephen was finally called to the front of the room to accept $850.00 and a nice plaque. "Team Done Deal" sponsored by JHO was slowly making a name for itself and being recognized by the other anglers as serious competition on our first year on the circuit. We also advanced to the 18th spot out of nearly 120 boats fishing the Southern Kingfish Association and Mercury Tournament Trail with 67.61 points.
Our next tournament, number three on the trail is out of Venice, Louisiana on June 24-26th. We are currently putting together a game plan for this tournament. Keep your eyes open for the next report as "Team Done Deal" fishes the Mercury Tournament Trail. We would like to thank JHO once again for the sponsorship in this series of fishing tournaments.
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