Black Cat grabs Miracles lead

Black Cat set the bar early and high in the 16th annual Key West Boats Fishing for Miracles King Mackerel Tournament. The 35-foot Triton owned by Jamey Stewart of Georgetown was the second boat to the scales on Friday's opening day of the tournament with a 42.90-pound catch made by Stewart's wife, Carlette, and when the day ended the crew owned a whopping five-pound lead.

The tournament drew 200 entries, with the boats fishing for a top prize of a Key West boat, motor and trailer package valued at approximately $32,000. The top 30 boats earn prizes.

"That's our best ever. Our biggest before this was a 38 and change," Jamey Stewart said. Kateland Todd and Clay Purifoy fished with the Stewarts aboard Black Cat, and Todd weighed a 26.76-pound king.

Stewart said the big fish didn't put up much of a fight and they didn't think it was that big until they got it closer to the boat and it made a couple of runs. On each of those runs, he said the fish got bigger and bigger in their eyes. It took only 10 minutes to bring the fish to the boat.

They were fishing south of Charleston and caught the fish on a live menhaden.

"That was the third bait we put out," he said. "We were still putting out baits when the fish hit."

Stewart said the Black Cat crew is having a good season, finishing second overall and tops among Southern Kingfish Association members in the Jolly Mon tournament, posted a 17th in the Tailwalker tournament and eighth at Sullivans Island. They placed ninth in the 2005 Fishing for Miracles tournament.

"We've had a real good year," Stewart said.

Second in the tournament is Trophy Hunter, captained by Mark Mitchell, with a 37.22-pound catch. No Limit, captained by Todd Murph, is third at 36.34 pounds.

There were 107 fish weighed on the opening day of the event, with 14 topping the 30-pound mark.

The weigh-in for today's final round of fishing runs from 1-4 p.m. at Ripley Light Yacht Club.