N.C. crew ‘hammers’ it home with record day on the water

The releases started early and finished late, and by the end of the day, a Tar Heel crew had recorded one of the most prolific fishing days in the history of the South Carolina Governor’s Billfishing Series.

Last Saturday, the crew of Hammer Time, hailing from Carolina Beach, N.C., released eight sailfish on the day to finish with a record 10 total sailfish releases in two days of fishing to win the 14th Annual MegaDock Billfishing Tournament out of Charleston City Marina.

Hammer Time earned 200 points for each sailfish release for a total of 2,000 points and the win. Electric Bill finished second with 1,200 points after releasing a blue marlin and three sailfish.

“We were very lucky, there are a lot of good fishermen down there,” said Capt. Austin Eubank of Hammer Time. “We just happened to hit the right place at the right time.”

The 10 sailfish releases set an all-time South Carolina Governor’s Cup Billfishing Series record for a boat in a tournament, topping the nine releases by Micabe in 2009 – also at MegaDock.

After releasing two sails on the opening day of fishing June 30, Hammer Time skipped a day and fished on the final day of the tournament.

The crew started by quickly releasing three sails just after the 8 a.m. lines-in time, at 8:16 a.m., 8:20 a.m. and 8:38 a.m. The action was steady the rest of the day, with releases coming at 10:39 a.m., 11:01 a.m. and 12:39 p.m. They finished with a flourish, recording two more releases at 2:56 p.m. and 2:59 p.m., just beating the 3 p.m. fishing cutoff.

“We were very fortunate to see them,” said Eubank. “We happened to land on them first thing in the morning and stuck with them and (ground) it out. We saw 13, had nine bites and caught eight.”

Eubank and crew used naked ballyhoo to entice the sailfish after marking bait and fish in the bait in 350 feet of water.

“There were fresh bait marks and I was marking the fish on it,” said Eubank.

Hammer Time, a 54-foot Spencer owned by Steve Mozeley of Charlotte, N.C., is a regular in North Carolina's Governor’s Cup Billfishing Series. Mozeley plans to fish four of the series’ eight tournaments this year, but the MegaDock is the only tournament the crew will fish in the 2016 South Carolina series.

The sailfish bite in the tournament was one of the best, if not the best, in South Carolina Governor’s Cup history, with the 28 boats producing 71 sailfish releases (2.53 per boat) to go with six blue marlin and one white marlin.

In the 2009 MegaDock, 138 sails were released but the tournament field was much larger, with 74 boats fishing, for an average of 1.86 sails per boat.

The finale of the five-tournament series is the Edisto Invitational Billfish Tournament, scheduled for July 20-23 at Edisto Marina.

Sportin’ Life holds a commanding lead heading into the final tournament, with 3,275 points ahead of the second-place boat, Electric Bill, with 2,275 points. Rounding out the top 10 are Rascal (2,075), Hammer Time (2,025), Game On (1,703), Mister Pete (1,675), Anticipation (1,475), Micabe (1,475), Caramba (1,375) and Big Sky (1,336).

This story was originally published July 11, 2016 at 7:36 PM with the headline "N.C. crew ‘hammers’ it home with record day on the water."