This report is from Capt Brant at Ocean Isle Fishing Center
And lastly, let me finish with a record of a fish story. John McRainery of Fayetteville, NC was fishing solo on his 16 foot Jones Brothers skiff in the Shallotte River on Sunday. He was slow trolling mud minnows in 10 feet of water in hopes of catching a Flounder for supper. A fish picked up his bait and bent his pole double as it easily swam away under the minute pressure from the 14 pound test line. Typically anglers that encounter such a pull will find a Stingray or Skate on the end of their line, but not John, not today. Regardless of what it was, the fight is fun, so John held on as he fought the fish and drove the boat. The big fish would peal off 40 yards then stop and allow John to slowly bring it closer. Some ten minutes into the fight John brought the fish close enough to see through the murky water and tell that this was no Stingray or Skate. This was a big fish with a very big tale. According to John, “This was when I got really nervous.” He fought the monster another 30 minutes before it finally came close enough for him to net/wrestle into the boat. It was a huge Black Drum and worthy of immediate attention. John packed up and headed back to Sheffield’s Grocery on Ocean Isle where he weighed it at an awesome 98 pounds! John thought he may have a potential world record, and he knew that he needed the fish to be weighed at an IGFA certified weigh station. Unfortunately, he did not know the Ocean Isle Fishing Center had such a qualification, so he stuck it in the freezer and went back to Fayetteville to search the internet for a certified weigh station. He quickly found out of the Ocean Isle Fishing Center’s status and came back to Ocean Isle where he took the fish to be reweighed. On Monday at 4pm the huge Black Drum weighed 91.25 pounds on the official and state certified scales at the Ocean Isle Fishing Center. The current world record for the closest line class is 91 pounds. John’s fish is heavier, however the problem is that in order to win a world record outright, the fish must be at least ½ pound heavier than the previous record. Thus John’s record will be considered a tie under the 16 pound line class. The catch was absolutely incredible and it broke my heart, as I’m sure it did his, to see the weight just fall short of an outright record. However, there is still hope. If Sheffield’s will get their scale certified and find that it is in fact accurate, the first weight taken on Sunday of 98 pounds can be counted and John will easily beat the record. It’s a fish and fish story of incredible proportions and one in which you never thought would come out of the shallow waters of the Shallotte River. Congratulations to John McRainey for his pending IGFA 16 pound class world record. Next time you go to dip a minnow in the river, you never know what you might haul in!
-Capt. Brant McMullan
Nice Drum caught at Ocean Isle Beach
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I think he is a correctional officer or something like that. Must be all the time spent around hardened criminals. I guess the world needs more people like me and you and tarnold. I'd help anyone do anything if I thought they might let me in on a little local knowledge! 
