A local Cape Carteret SKA fishing team, Liquid Fire, accomplished a feat this past weekend that only seventeen other king mackerel fishing teams can boast. The Liquid Fire Fishing Team, consisting of ten family members, ranging in age from 12 to 64, decided earlier this year to test the waters in fishing the SKA’s Yamaha Professional Kingfish Tour.
The Yamaha Professional Tour is a prestigious five-tournament series for SKA members who want to challenge their skills by fishing against the best of the best of kingfishing. To be able to compete on this tour, teams must have qualified for the SKA National Championship in the top twenty in their division the previous season.
Every pro tournament, each team is allowed to weigh their largest fish each day of a two-day event. By the end of the pro season, each team’s seven largest fish are totaled to equal their final score. The team with the highest seven-fish aggregate is crowned “Top Angler of the Year”. This is a highly coveted title in the world of sport fishing and can be likened to the Super Bowl of king fishing. The winning teams have proven that they can catch large king mackerel in unfamiliar waters and in sometimes severe adverse conditions.
The tour began in Key West, Florida at the end of February, a tournament in which, despite fishing rough waters in a 23 foot boat, Liquid Fire had the eleventh overall largest aggregate for two days. From there, they went on to Jensen Beach, Florida in May, where they also fished a 23 foot boat, the smallest on the pro tour. Once again they battled high seas but still managed to come up with a 39.55 pound king the first day and an impressive 50.56 pounder, the second. This would give them the highest aggregate for the tournament, securing the first win of their competitive career.
In June, they would make the twenty-one hour commute to Port Fourchon, Louisiana where a two-day aggregate of 62.43 pounds would keep them in the running for Angler of the Year. In St. Simons Island, Georgia, at the beginning of August, they would once again strike gold, or at least silver, with a second place 68.72 pound aggregate finish. At this point, they were leading in the Angler of the Year points race.
Having caught a fish each day of competition to date, the Liquid Fire had already dropped a 20.27 pound fish, making their remaining smallest drop fish a 28.51 pounder going into the last tournament in Little River, South Carolina. With the second place team being only six pounds behind and having a mere 18 pound fish to drop, the Liquid Fire knew it would be unlikely to hold on to the lead. Still, they went to Little River on October 10-11, this time in a new 31T Contender, with intentions to do their best.
Fishing conditions were so bad that none of the teams could fish more than a few miles off the beach. But despite being at a disadvantage with such a large drop fish, the Liquid Fire still managed to hold onto the lead through the end of the tournament with a seven-fish aggregate of 256.17 pounds . At the close of the tournament this past Saturday, the team was proclaimed Top Angler of the Year, a feat which only one other rookie team has ever accomplished. The junior angler, Crockett Henderson, 12, was also crowned Pro Junior Angler of the Year.
The team will now travel to the National Championship in Biloxi, Mississippi in November to complete their phenomenal season. Here, they will receive their Angler of the Year trophy and rings as well as a $20,000 bonus.
