OCEAN ISLE BEACH — Brothers and Lumberton natives Brian and Matt Walker were recently part of a winning crew at the Fall Brawl King Classic fishing tournament in Ocean Isle Beach, netting both a big fish and a big purse in the victory.
The pair of anglers, along with Ocean Isle Beach native Mark Coley, made up the Hot Hooks crew that won the king mackerel tournament by catching a 37.8-pound fish on the first day of the two-day event held last weekend. The team won a $42,000 prize.
Brian’s son Ty, 13, and Coley’s son Cayson, 12, were also on the boat and won the junior angler portion of the tournament.
“We finally put one in the books,” Brian Walker said. “It’s always good when something starts coming back.”
The tournament was part of the KingFish Cup series, and with the win the crew earns an automatic invitation to the KingFish Cup Championship, held next Friday and Saturday in Ocean Isle Beach. That tournament has a $250,000 prize.
The crew caught a 25-pound fish at the Rumble in the Jungle tournament earlier in October in Little River, and were looking forward to their day on the water at the Ocean Isle event. But as the event began, Brian Walker said, the crew had to overcome “one folly after another.”
The pinned bait the team had prepared the previous day was not in as good of condition as the crew had hoped, so they set out to the mouth of the Cape Fear River to catch some live bait. When they got there, they spun a propeller hub.
As they tried to figure out a new strategy for the day, the team noticed activity in the water, put lines in the water and within minutes had hooked their tournament-winning fish. A gaff shot attempt was unsuccessful, so Coley reached over the side of the boat to grab the fish by the tail and pull it aboard.
The Hot Hooks team then slowly proceeded to the scales in Ocean Isle Beach, a trip that on one engine took about four hours.
The tournament runners-up caught a 37.65-pound fish, narrowly missing the top spot held by the Walkers and Coley.
