08-12-04

Just Angling for August 11, 2004

By Donald Millus

31^st Annual College Match To Honor Memory of Jim Michie

Our annual college fishing match is unique in intercollegiate competitions, because it doesn’t require athletic “scholarships,” it is strictly for fun, and the teams can celebrate their victory or defeat together by feasting on their catch. Also, thanks to the foresight of the founding fathers, the coaches are allowed to compete. Ditto the judges, who help to guarantee that there are have enough king mackerel steaks to feed competitors and guests.

(Student anglers are not screened for steroids or drugs, but they are allowed to partake of undecaffinated Coca Cola and Pepsi. Despite the caffeine, most of them sleep on the two hour voyage back to the docks at Captain Dick’s Marina.)

The Coastal Carolina Invitational has occasionally been fished in honor of great salt water anglers like the former governor of South Carolina, Carroll Campbell, and in memory of our colleagues such as Dr. Tom Trout of Coastal Carolina University and Dr. Don Kelley of Francis Marion.

This year’s match will be fished on the last Friday of October, as is our custom, the 29^th to be exact, in honor of the late Jim Michie, professor emeritus of archeology at Coastal Carolina University. Michie, of course, was the only man who ever gaffed two world record tiger sharks in one weekend, a special accomplishment considering he did it from a Myrtle Beach area pier.

Since all our anglers are amateurs, some of them fishing in salt water for the first time, none of them ever had dreams of becoming professionals. But the competition is fierce for the tournament “trophy,” an asterisk next to the name of the winning school on the permanent plaque of the Invitational which lists all the competing schools—sort of like the Stanley Cup without the black eyes and broken jaws.

Captain Jack Orr usually skippers the “New Capt. Bill” for the match, with a 6:30 a.m. sailing. New participants are brought up to speed with an instructional video on the history of the Invitational which is a spin-off for the Intercollegiate fishing matches held out of Wedgeport , Nova Scotia in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, and Western Ontario were among the participants. The one year that Coastal Carolina got into the act was the last year that tournament was held. (The herring and the bluefin tuna that followed them had deserted Canadian waters.)

With four teams—Clemson, U.S.C., Francis Marion, and Coastal Carolina—fishing from one big headboat, students get to see what their competitors are catching. Half the competitors fish bottom for black seabass, amberjack, and grouper, mostly the former, while judges, coaches, and students drift fish for king mackerel. Late October is usually a good time to find the kings within 30 miles of the beach. One year some 55 kings were boated by the participants.

Head judge Dr. Richard Moore supervises the weigh-in back at the marina. One point per pound of fish, sharks excluded, determines the winning team. The losers, of course, are eaten for dinner, the fish that is. The kings are steaked and the bottom fish filleted for a great South Carolina fresh-caught seafood dinner at the Hot Fish Club in Murrells Inlet.

Thanks to American tackle manufacturers there are prizes for all competitors: Buck knives, fishing outfits from Penn, Shakespeare, South Bend and Wright & McGill (Eagle Claw), and line from Ande, Berkley, and Stren, plus tackle boxes from Plano. Mustad and Eagle Claw hooks go into the prize bags with the line, and Conway National Bank supplies great t-shirts for all with a magnificent king mackerel on the front.

Last year’s weather looked iffy early in the last week of October, but by Friday it was great and ten fat kings were boated. USC won its second championship in a row after a twelve-year drought, so the other schools have something to prove for this year’s renewal of the oldest college fishing match and seminar in the world.