ATLANTIC BEACH, N.C. – With time running out and bait running thin late this afternoon, Joshua Denton of Team Hard Way made a move that would bring about a major change of fortune for his kingfish team: He sacrificed his prized 6-pound bluefish for bait.
The last-minute move lured a 41-pound, 7-ounce kingfish onto Team Hard Way’s line at about 4 p.m. and allowed them to take over the top spot in the Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour event being held in Atlantic Beach.
“We were out of bait and having to catch it as we were fishing,” Denton recounted. “And I caught this giant bluefish; I mean it’s the biggest bluefish I’ve ever seen, like a about a 6-pounder. I was actually planning on bringing it in and getting a picture of it.”
Instead, Denton’s bluefish became bait.
“I’ve never used a bait that big for kingfish,” Captain Todd Korker chimed in. “But what else were we going to do? We were running out of time, and we were out of bait. So we hooked him up and put him out.”
Minutes later the reel holding the bluefish “exploded.”
“I’ve never heard a TLD-25 reel scream like that,” Denton continued. “By the time we got the rod out of the holder, that fish had ripped out 375 yards of line.”
After a 10-minute battle, the team hoisted the smoker king aboard and made an hour-long run back to weigh-in.
Team Hard Way won the Beaufort, S.C., FLW Kingfish Tour stop in 2006 and now looks to be the first team to win two Kingfish Tour events.
Team McNeill/Double Gobble slides to second
Nervously watching the weigh-in all afternoon was Team McNeill/Double Gobble, 
captained by Ellis Phillips, who remained in the top five in second place on the strength of their day-one, 38-pound, 10-ounce kingfish.
Ellis and crew did sample the waters today but came up with nothing bigger than their day-one fish.
“We went over and checked the Dead Tree area for a while and found nothing,” Phillips said. “Then we tried to jump the shoals, but it was just too nasty out there. So we came back into the channel out here and fished for a while. We caught five fish with a couple in the mid-20s – which I’d be tickled to death with tomorrow morning to get things kicked off.”
As for tomorrow, Phillips says he is going to stick with his game plan of running around looking for bait up in the water column.
“I won’t even stop to fish unless I see that bait up good and high on my machine.” Phillips added. “This time of year I don’t fool around with GPS coordinates or particular spots. I just run until I find the bait. I think those bigger kings are just roaming around there with those big bait schools right now.”
Logan’s Run, Team Predator remain in top five
Teams Logan’s Run, captained by D. Logan of Belville, N.C., and Team Predator, captained by Jack Wood of Wake Forrest, N.C., took up the third and fourth spots with their tying day-one catches of 36 pounds, 6 ounces.
Though both teams fished hard today, they did not best their day-one efforts and now look forward to final-day competition Sunday.
Team Reelin slips into fifth
Team Reelin, captained by Marc Pincus of Hilton Head, S.C., grabbed the last top-five qualifying spot with a 36-pound, 2-ounce kingfish.
Pincus made the top five thanks to a last-minute bite at about 5 o’clock in the afternoon.
“We stayed hard on the rod all day,” he said. “We refused to quit until we absolutely had to. And that big one ate a bluefish on a medium line with just minutes to go. I’m just amazed it was enough to get us into the top five.”
The top five have been set, and the final day of the FLW Kingfish Tour event begins Sunday morning at 6:30 at Sea Water Marina located at 400 Atlantic Beach Causeway.