Tournament aplenty!

NC anglers won’t want for competition in ‘14

North Carolina fishermen yearning for the thrill of competition will have more choices this year. The economy may be picking up, and boat sales have definitely improved from the flat-line crash of a few years ago.

With more boats and fishermen on the water, the percentages say that the number interested in tournaments will increase, also. This year, several new series are testing the waters, and fishermen will find more choices for their competitive urges.

Two fishing series have been stalwarts over the past few couple of decades, the N.C. Governor’s Cup Billfish Conservation Series and the Southern Kingfish Association, and they’re back. The Governor’s Cup rewards billfish and saltwater gamefish, and it will feature eight tournaments from May through August. The Southern Kingfish Association (www.fishska.com) continues with nine tournaments spread across two divisions. Fishermen compete in SKA divisional and pro tour competition for the tournament prizes and an invitation to the SKA National Championship, to be held in Biloxi, Miss., in November.

Bluewater Promotions (www.bluewaterpromo.com) has been doing two of their Saltwater Classic Series tournaments for approximately 10 years as part of the SKA trail: the Brunswick Islands Saltwater Classic in Southport and the Atlantic Beach King Mackerel Tournament in Atlantic Beach. This year, Bluewater adds the King Mackerel Elite Tour as independent series. The Saltwater Classic series will have four regions, with the local region including tournaments in Morehead City, Southport, North Myrtle Beach, Charleston and Savannah. Three of those tournaments will be included in the King Mackerel Elite Tour, a pro tour in which tournaments will be limited to the first 35 teams to enter.

The Cape Lookout Shootout King Mackerel Series is a new tournament series to benefit Military Appreciation Day (www.militaryappreciationday.org). The series will consist of three tournaments and a championship tournament to be held from Jaycee Park in Morehead City. The series will be limited to 50 boats, and the top 25 after the three tournaments will be invited to the championship, which will not have an additional entry fee.

The Cape Lookout Shootout King Mackerel Series will be one-day events fished on Saturdays, with Sunday as an alternate date. The dates are July 12, Aug. 30 and Oct. 11. The championship will follow on Oct. 25. For more information visit http://capeshootout.weebly.com.

Redfish tournaments are gaining popularity, and fishermen will have several options. The Redfish Shootout Series (www.redfishshootoutseries.com) will offer a 3-event series with a championship to follow. The Carolina Redfish Series (www.chasintailsoutdoors.com) is a new trail with tournaments in Atlantic Beach and Swansboro.

The 2013 Lowcountry Redfish Cup (www.lowcountryredfishcup.com) has been in operation for several years as a South Carolina series that also held one tournament each year in Savannah; the series championship was won last year by Rennie and Sharon Clark of Carolina Beach. The series dropped the Savannah tournament for 2014 and replaced it with a June 7 event in Wrightsville Beach, which immediately drew criticism from a very vocal group of South Carolina fishermen. Their complaints weren’t with the facilities or people of Wrightsville Beach, but with the commercial fishing regulations that allow redfish to be caught with gill nets in North Carolina waters.

Many of these fishermen had participated the Inshore Fishing Association Redfish Tour events that were held in Topsail and Beaufort from 2009 through 2011 and had issues with gill nets and a couple of confrontations with commercial fishermen. Their complaints and threats of a boycott were instrumental in the IFA’s decision not to return to North Carolina after 2011. While the Lowcountry Redfish Cup remains committed to the Wrightsville Beach event, they are not expecting a lot of out-of-state fishermen to attend.

No saltwater kayak-fishing trail has been to North Carolina since the Hobie IFA trail visited in 2011, when no competitor caught a fish. Individual tournaments have been held by several different organizations, but not a series. That will change this year with the Crystal Coast Kayak Fishing Series.

The CCKFS (www.flatwaterspaddling.com/CCKFS) is a kayak-fishing series for flounder, red drum and speckled trout that will be run through Flatwaters Paddling in Emerald Isle. Even though speckled trout fishing is closed until June 15, because the kayak tournaments’ use catch-photograph-and-release scoring, they can count trout. The series includes six tournaments — Swansboro, Morehead City, Sneads Ferry, Hampstead and Wrightsville Beach — and a championship event in Emerald Isle on Sept. 21.

Fishermen looking for the adrenaline rush of tournament competition should be able to find something in this mix that interests them. A double handful of individual tournaments that are fun and most raise money for a worthwhile civic cause or charity are on the schedule. Whether you prefer to paddle your own or having your hat blown off from wind whistling by as multiple engines sing their high RPM heavy metal rock, there should be something here for you. Check out the offerings, pick your favorite(s) and get ready to rumble, Tarheel State tournament fishing is fixin’ to fire up for 2014.