Page 126 - South Mississippi Living - August, 2018

SPORTS & OUTDOORS intense
story by Frank Wilem photos courtesy of Austin Powell
For dedicated anglers, one thing that adds another whole dimension is tournament fishing. Local tournaments range from small inshore trout tournaments to the Mississippi Billfish Classic with 117 boats and more than $2 million in prize money. Over the years, the Mississippi Gulf Coast has been chosen for numerous king mackerel tournaments such as SKA and King Masters. This latter tournament had been dormant until Robbie Carter decided to revive it this year in response to considerable expressed interest.
On the last day of May, Neil Foster and his Intense Pro Fishing team lined up with thirty-nine other boats in a boat parade marking the start of the King Masters tournament. Nearly a dozen more teams had dropped out due to an unfavorable weather forecast which ultimately proved to be a false alarm.
Neil has been fishing competitively since the early 1990s. As his team name suggests, he is laser-focused on catching big fish and winning. You might say that he’s ... well ... intense. The six-man Intense team fishing out of Neil’s 39-foot Contender with triple 350 Yamahas would remain offshore fishing, eating, and sleeping non-stop from Thursday through Saturday. These guys are tough!
And this commitment has paid off. Last year alone, his team took first and second place wahoo in the Billfish Classic, first place king mackerel in the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, and caught the Alabama state record horse-eye jack.
Allowable species for the King Masters Tournament included king mackerel, wahoo, and cobia. But Neil made the strategic decision to place his bets solely on king mackerel. By early Thursday afternoon,
the Intense team was in position and had lines out. They fished hard the rest of the day and by the time they tied up to a rig with the sun setting, they had hooked up with several king mackerel. Though none were the fish they were hoping for, things were promising.
Sunrise the next morning found them trolling for bait after which they worked several rigs in the area producing more kings in the process. But once again none were the large one they were after to finish in the money. They did, however, boat a nice amberjack with an estimated weight of more than 85 pounds.
With Saturday’s sunrise, they headed toward
Neil Foster and his 49.3lb King Mackerel
Team Intense
126 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • August 2018
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