Catch of the Day: Four family members, four king mackerels

In what may be an unmatched feat in the long history of fishing on the Outer Banks, a family of four from central Virginia caught four king mackerels from the same pier on the same day.

David Slaybaugh, Sr., David Slaybaugh, Jr., Parker Slaybaugh and Maidson Slaybaugh were fishing from the end of Nags Head Fishing Pier when they hit for the cycle on Tuesday.

“I can promise you today was like no other and one that will never be repeated,” said Parker, communications director for Virginia Speaker of the House of Delegates Kirk Cox and a former television journalist in Richmond and Roanoke.

David Jr. had the heaviest king at 30.8 pounds, followed by David Sr. at 30.6, Parker at 24 and Madison at 15.5 pounds.

They were using pin rigs. A long “heaver” rod is used to launch an anchor line with four long wires attached to a weight that snags on the bottom.

A shorter, fighting rod has a live bait has multiple treble hooks along wire leaders that attach with another hook near the dorsal fin.

The line from the fighting rod is attached with a breakaway “pin” to the anchor line, which allows the live bait to swim freely and then detach from the anchor line when a big fish hits the bait.

Three of the fish were caught using live Taylor bluefish and one with a live menhaden.

Parker said there were 14 rigs off the end on Monday, but the wind change overnight kept a lot of the regulars away on Tuesday. So the Slaybaugh’s were the only ones out there.

The guys caught their fish by 8:30 a.m, and Madison had her’s at 2 p.m.

“By then, word had spread about our three and there was a lot more rigs out,” Parker said. “But these were still the only four caught today at the pier.”

“It’s a memory I will always cherish, the day dad and his three kids let the worries of the world slip away and live a fishing tale that doesn’t end with the big one getting away,” Parker said.

One day when I’m an old man, I can promise you I will still be telling my grand children the fishing story of today’s…

Posted by Parker Slaybaugh on Tuesday, August 13, 2019

This story originally appeared on OBXToday.com. Read More local stories here.

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