The top fisher people descended on Little River, South Carolina for what was to be the final event of the Yamaha Professional Kingfish Tour. It proved to be much, much more. Yes, there was over $100,000 in prize money up for grabs however pride proved to overshadow monetary rewards. The title “Angler of the Year” loomed large on most teams mind, but visions of top ten and even top twenty overall tour finishes were the topics of most discussions.

“We need a big fish to move up” could be heard in-group get together's. Even those who had no chance at the title weren’t giving up. I was in awe of the passion and determination.

The SKA tournament team arrived in Little River late Tuesday afternoon to summer weather, but by Thursday evening a dry front passed thru the area dropping temperatures into the low 50’s and promises of 70’s during the daylight hours.

Bundled up teams lined up for check out and a short run to the mouth of the inlet for the 7 AM Bimini start. The early morning banter you’d see as boats showed their numbers and hear on the VHF radios was non-existent. At seven, throttles were slammed to the top of the binnacles and the majority of the Pro fleet roared to northern waters taking advantage of the relatively calm waters just offshore. A handful of boats pointed their bows to the south.

David Howard’s Hooked For Reel, Ken Upton’s Team Donzi, Chuck Permemter's Mining My Bidness, The Butler’s Crawgator, and two Pro Marine USA.Com sponsored teams, Kevin Hannon’s Hannon Cannon, and Jack Penny’s Penny Wise had the best chance to win the title and were uppermost on their minds. Even our current “Angler of the Year” Ron Mitchell’s Bandit team has an outside shot. But Mother Nature had other ideas.

At the end of day one only 42 teams weighed fish and the biggest was a 36.60 caught by Luis Urbay’s Rabbit’s Foot team out of Miami, Florida, and not a title contender. But Chuck Permenter, Patrick Bellamy, Kent Taylor, and Todd Sanders, the Mining My Bidness team, who just happens to live in Little River, scaled a 35.70. It was a very disappointing for most teams, to say the least. For Permenter’s team it was jubilation, they moved into the points race lead and were in position to win the event. In case you don’t remember this team, they were the one’s who scaled the 61.30 in stop number two of the Tour in Jensen Beach and went on to win the event and the Francis Langford Tournament. However, all the other top teams weighed fish except Hooked For Reel, but they had a 16.49-drop fish and still were poised to win the title.

“We went south to Georgetown,” said Kent Taylor, the angler on the Bidness Team. “She ate a bluefish on the surface at 2:30.

The Rabbit’s Foot ran 10 miles north to Shallotte Inlet thanks to some local information. At one o’clock Nolbert Rodriquez picked up the downrigger rod and fought the 36.60-pound king to gaff. “She ate a ribbonfish set 20 feet down in 30 feet of water,” he told me.

On day two, the Professional teams had another 150 boats on the water in the Divisional event, The Rumble in the Jungle, but fishing did improve.

It was about 2 o’clock when David Howard called me to confirm check in time and yes; his team had a fish to weigh. Then came word that Mining My Bidness had a good fish and were on there way also. This was going to get interesting.

First came Team Sebago / Loose Lucy, Mike Kaminsky’s team. They had a good fish on Friday but could only scale a 16.33 on day two which gave them a two fish aggregate of 52.16. They were still in contention to win the event. “We ran to Morehead City both days,” explained Susan Kaminsky who eventually ended up winning Lady Angler honors. “We fished in 65 feet of water and caught our 35.83 at 10:30 on the first day. Went back to the same place but the fish had moved on day two. Ran back towards Little River and set up just off the beach where we caught our 16 pounder.”

A lot of fish were weighed on day two and while we were looking for our Pro teams to return, the Rumble in the Jungle weigh in kept us busy.

Luis Urbay’s Rabbit’s Foot team slid up to the dock and held up a nice 30 pounder for the camera to capture. That fish combined with there 36.60 kept them in the number one slot. “We went right back to the same spot we fished Friday,” explained a very happy Urbay. “She hit a long trolled pogy rig in 30 feet of water at 11 AM.”

You can imagine how big the crowd was on day two, all waiting for the Mining My Bidness to hit the dock. Word had spread fast in the coastal community that their hometown boys could be crowned the best in the country that afternoon. Then they slid up to the dock and hoisted a king that looked like their 35 pounder from the day before. Then they were on the stage pulling their king from the bag. The SKA’s official weigh master Bob Flocken hoisted the king onto the electronic scale as everyone held his or her breath. “36.76,” he told the scorekeepers. The crowd erupted in cheers. Their home boys had just went into the lead for the tournament and Angler of the Year honors.

Next we were looking for Ken Upton’s Team Donzi and finally they arrived. They were in the hunt having scaled a 25.06 on day one and moving into second in the point’s race. Ken, Dan Upton, and Jack Wood would scale a 22.07. Not enough to catch the Bidness team in either the tournament or the point’s race. “Obviously we wanted to win but having one of our Donzi team members in front seems ok to us,” said Dan Upton. The team fished Yaupon Reef on day one and ran south on day two fishing the beach.

By now it was apparent that Mining My Bidness would be the tournament winner and pick up their second $40,000 check of the season. But until The Butler’s Crawgator and the Hooked For Reel weighed we could not proclaim a season winner. The Crawgator did not have a fish to weigh and here come the Hooked boat. Adam Howard brought their fish to the scale, a nice 25.75, but it was not enough to overcome Mining My Bidness.

The celebration erupted and the large spectator crowd joined in the celebration. In fact many of them hung around for the awards ceremony.

Alden Thornton’s A Team scaled a 20.29 and a 27.84 to earn fourth in the tournament. “We went north 202 miles from the scale on day one,” said Thornton. “We got our first days fish on a long lined pogy. On day two we only ran 48 miles to the Cape Fear River Channel. We caught a lot of fish but just couldn’t find the big one we needed.”

Rabbit’s Foot took second in the tournament, the team’s best finish of the season. Santiago Gonzalez was the Pro events Top Senior Angler.

Team Sebago / Loose Lucy was third with Susan Kaminsky picking up the Top Lady honors. Team Donzi earned fifth.

Ronnie Worsham and Tyler Patterson picked up their best finish of the season, sixth place on the Trivial Pursuit. They scaled a 22.54 and a 23.91. Neither fish helped them in the overall standings but they were 12th going into Little River and they. That’s a great season!

The ’98 National Champion Forrest Taylor, fishing with David Hooks and William Taylor Senior, earned seventh place scaling a 28.22 and a 17.99. The 28 pounder helped them in the overall Pro standings. They will carry National Number 17 next year.

Our current Angler of the Year team, Bandit, picked up eighth with a 19.16 and a 26.89. The Captain, Ron Mitchell, told me after scaling the 19.16 on day one the team chances for a repeat was probably over. What impressed me was they went out on day two and never gave up. The team will finish seventh overall this year.

Ninth place fell to Pro Marine USA.Com / Hannon’s Cannon with 44.61 points. Kevin Hannon, Shannon Armstrong, and Chris Blackwell scaled a 23.79 on day one and a 20.82 on day two.

Rounding out the top ten was Terry Grantham’s My Three Sons. Terry, Chris Blanton, and Kelly Sisk weighed a 43. 15 two fish aggregate.

The Little River Sport Fishing Club put on a great event, the Rumble In The Jungle, the event that we piggybacked with the Yamaha Pro Tour. It was as good an event as we have been to this season. They are to be congratulated!