North Carolina duo survives wait, wins Jolly Mon King Mackerel Classic off SC coast

After a late catch and frantic run to the Ocean Isle Fishing Center last Saturday, Capt. Will Bridges and fishing buddy Robert Connelly are sitting on top of the competitive king mackerel fishing world around the North Carolina and South Carolina border.

The duo were fishing aboard Bridges’ 25-foot White Water, Jamaican Me Crazy, late on the first day of action in the early-season Yamaha Jolly Mon King Mackerel Classic and boated a 30-pound class king at about 3:45 p.m., with the 5 p.m. weigh-in deadline looming.

“We knew it was a good fish,” said Bridges. “We tidied up and turned and burned.”

The pair was looking at a 35-mile run to tournament central at the OIFC. Only 75 minutes remained until the 5 p.m. weigh-in deadline, and Bridges put the hammer down on the 300-horsepower Suzuki.

“It was wide open, going as fast as I could go, about 50 mph,” said Bridges. “We got to the OIFC (and in the weigh-in line) at 4:52 with eight minutes to spare. It was a classic story.”

Fifteen minutes later, the king weighed 34.50 pounds and took over the lead in the tournament, with one day of fishing to go. With 97 boats opting to fish on Sunday, Bridges and Connelly had to wait it out as 49 more fish were weighed in the next day.

After fishing in the event 15 times, Bridges finally found himself atop the leaderboard for the win and, along with Connelly, earned $38,000.

“We’re very excited about it,” said Bridges. “It’s a real fun, family-friendly tournament. We really enjoy it. I fish it every year.”

Mac McClure and crew aboard Forest Sea finished second in the field of 214 boats with a 33.10-pound king.

Michael Kiker aboard Reelaholics was third with a 31.95-pounder, Jason Brewer aboard Tuff E Nuff was fourth with a 31.75-pounder and Shane Moore aboard Clear Cut rounded out the top five with a 29.55-pounder.

The tournament was the first of four tournaments in the Kingfish Cup, the brainchild of OIFC’s Capt. Brant McMullan, and the first of five tournaments in the Southern Kingfish Association’s Division 2 (Carolina Border).

Bridges and Connelly plan to fish all of the tournaments in those two series, and have the early edge in both.

“We’re leading everything right now,” said Bridges. “This year we’re going to try to win the whole thing.”

The duo, from Topsail Beach, N.C., covered plenty of waterway and ocean in their quest to find the winning king in the Jolly Mon.

They rode the Intracoastal Waterway to Little River and into the ocean to look for bait.

“We rode the beach 35 miles to Murrells Inlet until we got fresh bait (menhaden),” said Bridges, who operates Topsail Island Fish and Dive Adventures. “We started fishing at Paradise Reef and caught a couple 10-15 pounders and a 40-pound cobia but were getting sharked up pretty bad.”

Bridges headed north to work The Jungle and had plenty of company at the bottom spot located south of Little River Inlet.

“There was a parking lot of boats, 20-25 boats near The Jungle,” said Bridges, who opted to work a spot about five miles south of The Jungle.

“We found a big blowup of cigar minnows on the outside of the pack and we started doing circles around that,” said Bridges.

At 3:15 p.m., a quality fish hit a naked pogy (menhaden) on a long line. The roles were pre-determined as Bridges grabbed the rod and Connelly took the wheel. After about a 30-minute fight, Connelly applied the gaff and pulled the fish into the boat.

From there, the race to beat the weigh-in deadline was on.

“We’ve caught (30-pound class kings) before,” said Bridges. “We knew it was a good fish, and we knew there wasn’t a lot of big fish being caught. We were guessing (the fish weighed) 30-31. He definitely surprised us.”