Horry County boats make big splash in huge South Carolina Wahoo Series field

It’s all about when you go and who you go with, says Jerry Fehlig of Game Hawg’s competitive fishing family.

Fehlig, of Conway, and his two captain sons, Capt. Wade Fehlig and Capt. Watson Fehlig, headed the Game Hawg crew that finished fourth in the 2021 South Carolina Wahoo Series that featured a whopping field of 180 boats.

A total of 10 wahoo weighing 70 pounds or more were brought to the scales at the three weigh-in stations — Hilton Head Harbor Marina, Toler’s Cove Marina in Mount Pleasant and, locally, Georgetown Landing Marina.

“Fishing was good,” said Jerry Fehlig. “We’ve got two things going for us, one, we picked good days to fish and, two, I’ve got a great crew. It was a real good season. There were a lot of big fish caught.”

Other crew members included Noah McKeaige, Ben Woolcock, a 2021 CCU graduate, and Jordan Hodge.

The 10th annual series ran from Feb. 19 through April 24 with crews able to fish three days during that stretch and weigh one wahoo per day. The boat with the heaviest two-wahoo aggregate was declared the winner.

That honor went to Billy Freeman and crew aboard Mas Pescado who landed two wahoo in the 80-pound class — 80.0 and 84.8 pounds — for an impressive winning aggregate of 164.8 pounds.

Mas Pescado, of Mount Pleasant, has a history of success in regional king mackerel and offshore trolling tournaments, but a first-place finish just hasn’t been in the cards – until now.

Stranglehold of Statesboro, Ga., finished second with a 149.6-pound aggregate followed by Wild Child of Summerville in third with 148.8 pounds.

From there, an Horry County contingent of boats dominated the leaderboard, claiming fourth, sixth and seventh place in the event that drew boats from South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia.

Game Hawg compiled a 144.3-pound aggregate with wahoo weighing 75.3 and 69 pounds for their fourth-place finish.

All In, of Isle of Palms, was fifth with a 137.6-pound aggregate.

Then came the Huggins crew from Aynor aboard Reel Happy featuring the father-son duo of Mark Huggins and his son, Hunter.

The Huggins, along with crew member Kole Kaiser, weighed in the largest wahoo in the tournament, a 98.2-pounder aboard their Mako 234. Reel Happy added a 31.2-pounder to finish sixth with a 129.4-pound aggregate.

Hunter Huggins, 15, won the Youth Angler Challenge (heaviest aggregate of two wahoo) and Junior Angler (biggest fish).

Jeff Martini’s Little River crew aboard Dirty Martini took seventh with an aggregate of 124.5 pounds for wahoo weighing 66.6 and 57.9 pounds.

“Horry County shows up, there’s no doubt,” said Jerry Fehlig.

High-speed trolling has become the method to target wahoo, specifically large wahoo, and that is exactly what the Fehligs did.

“We high speed fish and cover a lot of ground until we find them,” said Fehlig. “The first two days, we caught seven fish both days.”

Game Hawg caught their two largest wahoo (69 and 75.3) on those first days, and thought that had added some pounds to their aggregate with a nice fish on their third day of fishing.

“The third day we caught three fish including a 66-pounder,” said Jerry Fehlig. “We thought we had upgraded with that one but we didn’t.”

Game Hawg has had strong finishes in area wahoo and king mackerel tournaments in recent years, including First Place Aggregate and Big Fish in the 2019 Capt. Roger Wahoo Series out of Ocean Isle Fishing Center, where Wade and Watson Fehlig work as charter captains. A year ago, In the 2020 S.C. Wahoo Series, the crew finished fourth overall and landed the third biggest fish.

SALTT Event

The Student Angler League Tournament Trail staged a spring event on May 1 out of Georgetown.

The trail features three tournaments each semester of the school year with each based out of the Carroll Campbell Marine Complex on the Sampit River in Georgetown. The student anglers, from elementary to high school, can target bass or red drum in SALTT events.

The winners in each division follow:

• Elementary School Redfish Division: Madelyn Taylor and Quinn Geisler, first-graders from Georgetown, won the division with one fish weighing 1.39 pounds.
• Middle School Redfish Division: Aden Day of Conway was first with 2 fish weighing 7.51 pounds. Ayden Konopka of Ocean Bay was second with two fish weighing 6.71 pounds and Chloe Skipper of Andrews was third with 2 fish weighing 6.42 pounds. Aiden Fleming of Waccamaw caught the Big Fish, a 4.80-pounder,.
• High School Redfish Division: Chappell and Elliott Miller of Georgetown won with 2 fish weighing 7.26 pounds including the Big Fish of 4.22 pounds. Christa Edmonds of Carolina Forest was second with 2 fish weighing 5.46 pounds. Brandon Poston of Georgetown and Thomas Bodiford of Berkeley were third with 2 fish weighing 4.31 pounds.
• Middle School Bass Division: Tucker Howard of Andrews and Wilson Hewitt of Georgetown won with a 5-fish limit of 10.71 pounds. Mack Hardee and Bryson Gerald of Conway were second with 5 fish weighing 9.15 pounds. Dawson Hawley of Green Seas Floyds finished third with 5 fish weighing 8.34 pounds. Raleigh Elliott of Green Sea Floyds landed the Big Fish, a 2.65-pounder.
• High School Bass Division: Neal Martin of Carvers Bay and Owen Powell of Georgetown with 5 fish weighing 14.43 pounds. Mason Hardee and Will Hardee McGuirt of Conway were second with 5 fish at 13.39 pounds plus weighed the Big Fish, a 5.07-pounder. Allen and Colton Ledford of Socastee were third with 5 fish weighing 13.16 pounds.

The final tournament of the 2020-21 school year will be held May 15. For more information about the Student Angler League visit www.salttfishing.com.