Outdoors: Another great surf and turf Wednesday

Dr. Jason Rosenberg’s weekly Wednesday excursion aboard his 32-foot Contender, Painkiller, was a quick one this time around.

It was another afternoon and evening of surf and turf for Rosenberg, a board certified neurologist and pain doctor at SC Pain & Spine Specialists in Murrells Inlet.

For the surf portion of the day Rosenberg had red drum in mind – bull reds – that can be found on near-shore bottom spots along the beach in autumn. But later, with the rut for white-tailed deer in full swing, Rosenberg had designs on bagging a big buck in the woods around dusk in the woods of Georgetown County.

That meant Capt. Jay Sconyers, owner-operator of Aces Up Fishing who handles the deck for Rosenberg each Wednesday, had about a three-hour window to put the doctor on some bull reds. I joined the duo on the trip, which happened to fall on Sconyers’ birthday.

October is prime time for mature red drum, known by most anglers as bull reds, to congregate along the beaches and near and inside inlets on a spawning mission. Carefully releasing any of these majestic – and critically important – fish we caught would be job one.

It was about 11:30 a.m. when Rosenberg guided the Painkiller through the maze of spot fishermen in Murrells Inlet and, once clearing the jetties, headed north along the beach. We were on the lookout for schools of menhaden or mullet, and Sconyers had the cast net ready.

After about 10 minutes of no luck spotting bait, we pulled up to a pair of well-known local shrimpers and bummed some by-catch for bait.

Then it was off to the Surfside Beach area about a mile off the beach where Sconyers had in recent days successfully caught and released bull reds.

Sconyers broke out the Penn Spinfisher reels on Ugly Stick rods with Carolina rigs tied on. The terminal tackle featured a 12-18 inch leader (Ande Ghost) and a 1.5-ounce egg sinker with a bronze circle hook.

After anchoring up on the spot, we deployed four lines with large cut chunks of spots, croaker or whiting for bait.

After about 45 minutes of no action, one rod bent over sharply.

“You’re up, Gregg!!” Rosenberg shouted.

I grabbed the rod and soon the powerful redfish began pulling line off the reel. A few moments later, another rod went off with Rosenberg taking that fish. About the time I had worked my fish to the boat, a third rod went off and Sconyers grabbed it.

There it was, a tripleheader – hooked up with three red drum in the 25-30 pound and 40-inch range.

Sconyers, who rarely reels a fish in thanks to his profession as a charter captain, was fired up. He got to tangle with a big red as an angler for a real, or reel, birthday treat.

After about five more frantic minutes, we had all three fish netted, unhooked and on the deck. After a quick photo op, with the help of a timer, Sconyers carefully released the fish near the stern of the boat in the order they were caught, ensuring they swam away and did not turn belly up and float to the surface.

We wound up catching two more bull reds in the same size range and two were hooked up but lost.

We wound up 5 of 7 on the day, and also hooked up with a big fish that took a bait under the boat and sluggishly but steadily pulled line straight offshore before breaking off. Sconyers noted he has seen some sizable tiger sharks on the spot on previous trips and surmised that is what the mystery fish was.

A little after 3 p.m. Rosenberg, noted it was time to head in if he was going to – hopefully – make his date with a big buck in Georgetown County. So the doctor took the helm and opened up his new twin 300-horsepower Yamahas, which he had upgraded to last winter.

As the Contender skimmed over the two-foot waves at just over 50 mph, Rosenberg pointed out that by sea is the quickest way to get from Surfside Beach to Murrells Inlet. You’d get a ticket going this fast by land.

Indeed, Rosenberg did make it to the woods for the turf portion of his day. He spotted a few does on the hunt but let them walk to wrap up another great Wednesday, by land and sea.

Marlin Quay King Mackerel Shootout

Shan Lemmonds and the crew aboard Fin Chaser stayed close to home to win the inaugural king mackerel tournament out of Marlin Quay Marina in Murrells Inlet.

Lemmonds and company worked a school of bait near the Pier at Garden City to catch the winning 35.05-pound king to win first prize of $6,750, reports Dave Christian of Marlin Quay Marina.

The first annual edition of the tournament attracted a field of 30 boats.

Dan Carey of Careyon was second with a 26.93-pounder followed by Jared Floyd of Keepin’ It Reel with a 23.70-pounder. Webber Smith of Reel Deep (20.32 pounds) and Andrew Justice of Reel Justice (16.05) completed the top five.

For complete results visit the Marlin Quay Marina Facebook page.

SKA Nationals

If there seem to be more boats than usual on the water adjacent to Brunswick County, N.C., beaches from Ocean Isle to Southport on Saturday, there is a very good reason.

The Southern Kingfish Association Nationals is being held just to the north out of Morehead City, N.C., with a field of 190 boats, according to Erin Henshaw, SKA Director of Communications.

Fishing was scheduled for Friday and Saturday with boats allowed to weigh in one king mackerel per day.

The public is invited to the weigh-in Saturday, from 3 p.m. to approximately 7 p.m. at Jaycee Park in Morehead City.

The weigh-in can be viewed online at http://watchska.com.

The SKA Nationals have traditionally been held out of Biloxi, Miss., but the new ownership of the tournament trail plans to move the event around.

“Our goal is to find a few locations throughout our demographics and rotate it every 3-4 years,” said Henshaw. “Morehead (City) has gone above and beyond in welcoming us. Just incredible southern hospitality.”

This story was originally published October 23, 2015 at 7:12 PM with the headline "Outdoors: Another great surf and turf Wednesday."