Kinston-based boat wins first SKA king mackerel event of 2013

Fish weighing 56.41 pounds takes home title in Key West

Southern Kingfish Association

Kinston’s “Unreel” fishing team won the SKA Key West Harbor King Mackerel Tournament with this 56.41-pound fish.

The first Southern Kingfish Association tournament of the 2013 season was held in Key West, Fla., last weekend, and first-place trophy has returned to North Carolina.

Team Unreel, captained by Steve Squires of Kinston, won the two-day Key West Harbor King Mackerel Tournament, beating a field of 58 other boats with a 56.41-pound king.

Squires and crew caught a king on the first day of competition that weighed more than 40 pounds, but with a handful of fish exceeding the 50-pound mark, they were nowhere near the money. 

The next day, however, they put their big fish in the boat and won the first-prize package of a boat, motor and trailer, winning by more than two pounds. Squires also won the Top Senior Angler prize for his catch. 

Lil’ Devil, the leader after the first day, finished second with 54.46 pounds. 

Another North Carolina boat, Team Ocean Isle Fishing Center, finished eighth with 50.36 pounds. Brant McMullen captained that team. 

Meanwhile, at Johnnie Mercer’s Pier in Wrightsville Beach, 105 fishermen braved some extreme cold to compete in the Johnnie Mercer’s Pier–North Carolina Fishing Pier Society (NCFPS) 2013 Dogfish Tournament.  

Travis Horne of Wilmington successfully defended his 2012 title, but it was touch and go until time expired. His 9-pound, 4-ounce spiny dogfish was one of the four fish landed in the final hour of the tournament, hitting the deck 15 minutes before the weigh-in. 

Fishermen weighed in a dozen dogfish. Gist Maroney of Clayton was second at 9-3, and Grayson Shallo of Chapel Hill was third with 7-7.