A-Team / Season Ticket’s 50.17 Tops Big Field at Golden Isles Kingfish Classic
By Jack HolmesSt. Simons Island, Georgia—Two weeks prior to the Golden Isles Kingfish Classic, Alden Thornton won the Sapelo Tournament with a great 50.99 king mackerel. It was a no check-out tournament, so Thornton trailered his boat to Daytona where he launched at the prescribed time. Their big king was in the boat by 10:30 and he ran the new 38’ Mercury powered Fountain back to Sapelo in some pretty heavy seas.
“Pete Harper caught a good fish at Sapelo but I figured everyone knew where the fish was caught so everyone and their brother would be in the area so we checked out at the pier and pointed the nose of our Fountain south,” said a happy Thornton. “We ran back to Daytona where we knew we might have another shot at a big fish. We were wrong and made our way back to Jacksonville and sent for the trailer.”
Most captains would have just said, “I blew that one,” but not Thornton. He checked out at the pier again and headed south, this time twenty-five miles farther south. “We knew it was a big gamble but we knew the area had produced big fish from the start of the season—nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Thornton reiterated. His gamble paid off with big dividends.
The A-Team / Season Ticket team of Thornton, his wife Alison who won Lady angler honors, Carl Carder, and Brad and David Butler, watched as weigh master Spud Woodard hoisted the slab on the scale and proclaimed 50.17. It was never challenged and for their gamble they won a new 21’ Contender boat, powered by Yamaha, and a Loadmaster trailer, plus when you combine the two fifties, they won Division 4’s open division.
Let’s not sell this team short. Alden is a superb seasoned fisherman finishing second in the Pros in ’08. His wife has been a top lady angler for many years, and Carder and the Butlers were a part of the Bandit’s Angler of the Year team last year. You might call this a dream team!
“The new 38’ Fountain is a big part of our success plus the Mercurys have never let us down,” he added. “I’ve never been in a boat that performs like this one. Fountain has a real winner here!”
Skin Deep was the leader after day one with a very respectable 41.45. Steve Glanz, James Ralph, Ryan Carr, Travis Ralph, and Kevin Ebersold, ran the Yamaha powered Invincible to a spot east of Gray’s Reef where they found the fish.
Skin Deep is a seasoned south Florida team who joined the Pro ranks this year and are currently in second place behind Arik Bergerman’s Under Armour / Caliente team.
“We pre-fished the area the two days leading up to the event and found fish,” said Glanz. “We heard this area had produced good fish in the Sapelo event. We have never fished this area before so we knew we had our work cut out for us.”
The Skin Deep team members are exceptional kite fishermen.
Jerry Gregory’s Double J earned third with a 35.97. With Jerry on the Yamaha powered Contender was Rusty Rogers, Bill Blount, Scott Reynolds, Rodney Rogers, and Larry Lyons. Jerry brought along two juniors, Kell Kiker and Dylan Rogers, who wound up the event's top junior anglers. “We fished in 185 feet of water by Pete Harper," said Gregory who had caught their big fish. “There was a lot of bait there and it’s a good hard bottom area,” he added.
Jerry’s was the second boat to the area, only being topped by Mr. Magoo.
He hooked up at 8:30 and before 9:00 the big king was in the bag. That fish also earned the Double J team a top ten finish in Division 4’s open class.
Actually, the third largest king caught in the event was a 35.98 caught on the HāWire, the Class of 23 winner and the team's first big win. They were one one-hundredths of a pound better than Double J. In fact as Matthew put it, if the Pros weren’t there they would have won the event. The Pro’s were supposed to go to Fourchon, Louisiana this year, however the oil spill in the Gulf nixed that plan. Here’s food for thought, though. Skin Deep never fished Georgia waters before and they earned second. The A-Team gambled and won. No Pro team should be able to march into someone’s home waters and beat them especially with the networking locals should have, but somehow it does happen. On that same note we had Georgia Pros in the event and they didn’t win the tournament either. Go figure!
Matthew Bradshaw, Trent Taylor, and Neil Rountree fish an Evinrude powered Contender named HāWire and I couldn’t be happier for them. They have been steadily improving and their hard work certainly paid off.
“We fished where everyone else was,” said Matthew. “Grays Reef. She hit a ribbonfish with a pink turbo rattler forty-five feet deep. Actually she hit like a shark, deep and slow then she finally felt the hooks and nearly spooled us. Trent got her to the surface off the bow and I stuck her. Good thing, she only had one treble left in her.”
Now that this team has smelled victory it should give them an enormous amount of confidence. Watch out for them in the Nationals.
College Station Apartments, Boigh Crane Rentals, Olympia Bend Plantation, and his great boat wrap provider, Vital Signs out of Valdosta, Georgia, sponsor Matthew.
Fourth place went to ProMarineUSA.com / Kingpin with Ken Dellane at the helm. Fishing with Chad Hickman, Chris Terry, and Chris Geschke, they caught a 35.29 in the same area most participants were fishing. It was a great weekend for them earning fourth plus earning third in the Pro ranks with a nice two-fish aggregate.
Fifth place fell to Darren Ratley’s Rat Pak, who always seem to do well in this tournament. The South Carolina team of Ratley, John Mott, and scaled a 34.86 on day one. The Rat Pak has always been one of the top Pro Teams in the country.
Sixth place fell to Scott Grant and his Lot 700 team. “We fished both days at G,” said Grant. “We found the area loaded with cigar minnows so that’s what we presented. At 11:30 she hit a double rig and I got her to the boat. Sure was a nice feeling having such a good fish in the boat.”
The team, Grant, Chase Pickett, and Kenny Couch, ran the Yamaha powered Cape Horn back to the same spot on Saturday, but moved farther to the R4 but soon discovered there were no fish and returned to where the day one action happened, but it wasn’t to be. But sixth out of a 150-boat field including the top anglers in the country is nothing to sneeze at. Sure will look good on the resume.
Steve Pello, Cole Morris, Stephen Scarlett Sr. and Stephen Scarlett Jr. had a good event earning seventh on the Yamaha powered Yellowfin named Clean Catch. That one fish, a 33.10, gave Steve an invite to the Championship.
Eighth place went to Arik Bergerman’s Under Armour / Caliente team who scaled a 32.92 while a non-member captured ninth.
Rounding out the top ten in the Open Division was Kelly Clements’ On The Brink team who scaled a 30.59.
Moving back to the Class of 23, we cannot end this article without recognizing Steve Wright, Joe Parker, and Mike Armstrong, who fish the Knot Wright. The trio, fishing a Honda powered Triton scaled 30.90 to earn second place. This one fish earned them the right to come to Ft. Pierce.
Finally, the Nette One team scaled a 26.74 to capture third in the Class.
Jimmy Bruner, Ken Fields, Nathan Williams, and Daniel Dowdy, had a great season this year earning second place in the Division with a 76.97 three fish aggregate. They fish a Yamaha powered Contender.
As usual, the Golden Isles event went off without a hitch. A special thank you to Hickory Bluff Marine, Georgia’s Contender and Yamaha dealer, for all their help in making the event happen. Buckshot goes above and beyond in supporting Georgia and north Florida events. Why anyone would not support this world-class dealer is beyond me!
A special thank you also goes to Amy Kidney and Donna Gowen Poe, who through their efforts, ensure the success of the event.
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