CCU Saltwater Angler Club alums provide Chanticleers another title

In the last four weeks, Coastal Carolina University has received unprecedented publicity after alum Dustin Johnson won the U.S. Open to claim his first major on the PGA Tour and coach Gary Gilmore’s baseball team took fans throughout the Palmetto State on an amazing ride to the championship of the College World Series.

Now, what is essentially a club sport from CCU has stepped into the limelight.

On Sunday, another title had CCU’s teal stamped all over it in Carolina Beach, N.C., as a crew of Chanticleers claimed first place in the 37th Annual East Coast Got Em On King Mackerel Tournament.

A four-man crew aboard CCU professor Joe Winslow’s boat, Hooligan, weighed in a smoker king mackerel that tipped the scales at 44.07 pounds to win the event, which was the first of the year in the Southern Kingfish Association’s Division 9.

Winslow, a professor of instructional technology at CCU and a resident of Sunset Beach, N.C., just down the coast from the tournament site, has a long history of fishing in king mackerel tournaments.

Over the last 10-plus years, Winslow has selected current and former members of CCU’s Saltwater Angler Club, which originated in about 2005, as members of his crew for the tournaments.

Matt Eisenberger, Scott Hefferman and Austin Keener are all former members of the club and joined Winslow to land the winning king in the tournament. The club has grown into a fishing fraternity of sorts, with a true fishing network developing between current and past members.

“It’s been a great summer for Coastal, first with Dustin winning the U.S. Open and then the baseball team winning the World Series,” Winslow said. “Our little accomplishment pales in comparison, of course, but our (fishing) club provides a unique experience for university students – there are many members who will say that the club was one of the reasons they chose Coastal.”

This isn’t the first tournament triumph for Winslow and his salty CCU crews.

In the last 10 years, Winslow and company have won two other major tournaments – an SKA event staged in Charleston in 2013 with a 43-pound king and the FLW Kingfish Tour Championship in Biloxi, Miss., with a two-fish aggregate of nearly 85 pounds in 2007.

The tournament featured fishing on Saturday and Sunday with Hooligan competing among 67 boats in the Open Class, all looking win the event by weighing in the largest king mackerel.

King mackerel fishing has generally been slow in waters adjacent to the state line of the Carolinas, and the trend held true in the tournament.

“We knew the fishing was probably going to be slow, but what we had not counted on was bait fishing to be difficult,” Winslow said. “We had bait located the day before (the tournament) and (Saturday) morning we went to find it at Cherry Grove.”

The crew members looked and looked for schools of menhaden – the preferred kingfish bait – heading south along the coast, but didn’t find any until they had cruised across the state line all the way down to Garden City Beach.

“We checked out every pelican and slick we could find and we finally found them at Garden City,” Winslow said. “By then, two hours had expired and at 8:30 a.m. we were further south than we had planned. We had to improvise, adapt to adversity. We changed the order of some of the spots we wanted to fish.”

The crew headed to a live-bottom area in 65 feet of water but could not get a bite.

“After an hour-and-a-half, I got antsy,” Winslow said. “I was losing patience and the tide was not running very strong. We needed to run to our next spot before the tide started running again. We pushed offshore to 100 feet and then we got the magic bite.”

Indeed, the bite was magic, and aggressive, Winslow recalled of the strike on a medium, top line.

“It was about the most vicious strike I’ve ever seen,” Winslow said. “There was a big hole in the water where the pogey was. Before we could get to the rod, the fish ran into another line and for a moment we thought we had a double.”

They quickly had a tangle on their hands.

“We snipped the other line – thankfully we got the right line,” Winslow said. “It was a comedy moment, kinda like defusing a bomb when we made sure to snip the right line.”

Winslow served as the angler as the fish quickly ran off over 200 yards of line.

“We ran her down and she just kind of floated up for a surprising gaff shot,” said Winslow, noting Keener handled the gaff duties.

“When we first saw the fish, I was the only one who saw it,” Winslow said. “I knew it was a very large fish. I downplayed how big it was because I didn’t want anybody panicking. We didn’t see it again until it floated right up under the boat. Austin gaffed it on instinct.”

Eisenberger recalled the moment the fish came over the gunwale.

“Once she hit the deck we went crazy (with) a major adrenaline rush – hollering and high-fiving,” Eisenberger said. “We all just about lost our voices from celebrating. Things got real when we measured her and the length and girth put it at over 40 pounds. I don’t think any of us broke out of a smile for the whole ride in.”

After a quick picture in which Winslow and Keener hoisted the fish, along with a Coastal Carolina Chanticleer flag, the race was on to the weigh-in.

“We boated the fish at about 3:15 p.m. and that didn’t give us much time to get back to the scales, in choppy seas,” Winslow said.

Hooligan, a 34-foot Yellowfin, arrived at the weigh-in about 10 minutes before the deadline.

When the dust settled, the 44.07-pounder was the clear winner, with a 35.04-pounder weighed in by All In claiming second place.

In all, it was another great accomplishment for the Hooligan crew, headed by Winslow with a big assist from alumni of Coastal Carolina University’s Saltwater Fishing Club.

“I am proud of the club and everything they have accomplished,” said Eisenberger, now Corporate Director of Revenue Management for Brittain Resort Management in Myrtle Beach and an avid fisherman in his spare time.

“When (the club) first started there were less than 10 members and now it is one of the biggest clubs on campus. They have a wide range of fishing experience and are always eager to learn and get better at the sport they love. When school is in session they are always finding ways to get on the water to surf fish, tag along with me on inshore or offshore trips, or go tournament king mackerel fishing with Joe.”

Winslow has been instrumental in the club’s growth and is proud of what it has developed into.

“I’m very proud to be associated with these young men and women – they’re honest, hard-working, good people, and I’m excited that our tournament win has generated so much positive publicity,” Winslow said. “Coastal is a great institution with a lot of momentum right now, so if this club impacts recruitment, then I can’t think of a better compliment.”

Notes

Wahooligans won the Small Boat Class in the tournament with a 34.33-pound king and Back-Lash won the Single Engine Class with a 29.70-pounder.

SKA’s Division 9 is back in action this weekend, again in the Wilmington, N.C., area, with the S.H.A.R.E. King Mackerel Tournament set for The Dockside set for The Dockside, located at 1308 Airlie Road in Wilmington.

This story was originally published July 15, 2016 at 7:42 PM with the headline "CCU Saltwater Angler Club alums provide Chanticleers another title."