‘We knew we had a nice fish’: Little River crew takes SKA season-opening event
Smoker kings were tough to find for the field of nearly 50 boats in the Saltwater Ammo Co. No Guts No Glory Kingfish Tourney last Saturday out of Murrells Inlet.
Only two king mackerel over 30 pounds and five over 20 pounds were brought to the scales at a lively weigh-in scene at Crazy Sister Marina on the Murrells Inlet Marshwalk.
The veteran crew aboard Mining My Bidness out of Little River found the right fish and weighed in a 35.13-pound king to win the tournament, the season-opener in the Southern Kingfish Association’s Division 3 (South Carolina).
The four-man crew headed south to work areas near the tideline off Winyah Bay where they found the winning fish. The crew included Chuck Permenter, son Charlie Permenter, nephew Rocky Permenter and Patrick Bellamy.
Blue Print finished second with a 30.73-pound king, My Boat was third with a 24.27-pounder, Critter Gitter was fourth with a 24.27-pounder and Pole Dancer Team took fifth with a 21.12-pound king.
The tournament was the first SKA-sanctioned event of the season to be held in the Carolinas, and a year after COVID put a damper on tournament events, it was back to normal Saturday evening for the weigh-in.
Masks were rare, a large crowd milled around to watch the fishing teams weigh in their biggest kingfish, and a band was on hand for the proceedings at Crazy Sister Marina.
“They did a good job with the tournament,” said Patrick Bellamy. “There were a lot of people there for the weigh-in. It was pretty exciting and a good atmosphere to weigh a fish. We were glad to get back to seeing people there.”
Chuck Permenter and Bellamy are longtime king mackerel tournament fishing partners, as the duo started fishing SKA events in 1998. They won a pair of tournaments in 2007, including an SKA event out of Little River, and were named SKA Anglers of the Year that year.
Fourteen years later, the Permenters and Bellamy found the winning formula again.
“We’ve had several top-five finishes (but) we were due,” said Chuck Permenter. “Getting a win with my son was special.”
Where to fish is always the big decision king fishing teams face, and Mining My Bidness team spent some time leading up to the tournament figuring it out.
“During the week we did some pre-fishing, some research, and we knew a lot of fish were in the 60-70 foot range but nobody had caught many big fish,” said Bellamy.
The crew started the day departing Little River aboard the 44 Contender with quad Yamaha 425s after discovering their bait had died.
“Our bait died on us, and it was real foggy, so we started easing our way south,” said Bellamy. “We didn’t find bait until we got to North Inlet. We got bait about 8 a.m., good kingfish-size pogeys, 7-8 inches. Since we were down that far, where we fish on the (Winyah Bay) tideline, we just rolled the dice and hoped for the best. We missed one fish about 10 a.m. that we thought was a good fish and we decided to stay in there and make it day.”
At about 1 p.m., they got the bite they were looking for.
“It was nothing special, we were just trolling and the fish hit the second longest bait,” said Bellamy. “We turned (the boat) around and it started running offshore like the bigger fish do.”
Charlie Permenter served as the angler with his dad driving the boat, and Bellamy ready with the gaff.
“The fish rolled up beside the boat, we saw him, it came around the second time and the rest is history,” said Bellamy. “We felt good (with the fish in the boat) but not nearly as good as we did when we weighed that SOB.”
Chuck Permenter added “We knew we had a nice fish, just didn’t know if he was going to be the winning fish or not.”
About four hours later, it was confirmed before the crowd at the weigh-in – they had the winning fish.
The next king mackerel tournament in the area is the Jolly Mon King Mackerel Tournament out of Ocean Isle Fishing Center, set for June 13-16.
This story was originally published May 28, 2021 at 5:32 PM.