Dilsaver, 5 More Tar Heels Among SKA Nominees

Staff photo

N.C. Sportsman's own Capt. Jerry Dilsaver leads a group of 6 Tar Heel nominees for the July voting for the SKA Kingfish Hall of Fame.

The Southern Kingfish Association will consider 12 anglers during July voting for one-to-three spots in its Hall of Fame, and there’s a good chance one or all of the honorees could be Tar Heels.

That’s because six of the 12 are North Carolina natives.

The N.C. nominees include:

• Oak Island’s Jerry Dilsaver, the promotions director/staff writer and columnist for North Carolina Sportsman Magazine. He was a charter member of the organization, served on the committee that authored most of SKA’s still-used competition rules and won the 2001 23-foot-boat-under national title;

• Jim Davis, the first SKA national champion in 1992 and a promoter of the Swansboro Rotary Club KMT;

• Lonnie Broadwell of Long Beach, for whom the SKA’s Senior Angler of the Year Award is named;

• Legendary angler Clayton Kirby, a Richlands native who moved to Wilmington and dominated tournament king mackerel fishing in the 1980's and 1990's (he moved to Florida about 10 years ago);

• Two-time national champion Jack Wood, and;

• Tommy Howell, a champion angler who happily passed on advice to anyone who asked.

Other nominees include Georgia’s L.A. Denzer (SKA charter member); Joe Bruce of Florida (1992 Angler of the Year), Bob and Susan Woithe of Florida (most famous husband-wife SKA team); Rick Smith of Georgia (two-time SKA champion and ’96 Angler of the Year); Alabama’s Marcus Kennedy (pioneered upper Gulf king fishing and holds that area’s all-time victory mark); and Ginger Shook, Lady Angler of the Year (1998, 1999), she helped husband Steve win the ’98 Angler of the Year title and at times was a teammate of SKA’s first all-female crew aboard the Contendress.

Only SKA members may vote for HOF nominees, which they can do at www.fishska.com.