2025 Southport Inshore Challenge
Anglers were greeted with postcard conditions for the 2025 Southport Inshore Challenge, held over the weekend of August 15-16. Light winds, clear skies, and a strong morning tide set the stage for an exceptional day of fishing, and the leaderboard reflected the quality of the bite, with multiple fish over seven pounds weighed in.
The leaderboard of the Southport Inshore Challenge is based on a boat’s single heaviest slot red drum, but the event also features several TWTs and bonus prizes, including Closest in Weight awards, bonus payouts for weighing in fish alive, and a chance for every boat that weighs a fish to win a custom Mudpuppy Salt Stix rod and a Pigford Custom Homes cash drawing.
The big winner of the weekend was Team Fowler, whose 7.57 lb. red drum not only secured 1st Place Overall but also earned top honors in both the Single Big Red Drum TWT and the High Roller TWT. Adding to their standout performance, the team claimed the Junior Angler award, with 13-year-old Isaac Fowler, and the Senior Angler award, with Tim Fowler.
The win also marked their third Inshore Challenge victory of the year, after topping the field at Ocean Isle and Topsail, and further solidified their position at the top of the Inshore Trail standings.
Team Fowler earned their third win of the season by besting the field in the 2025 Southport Inshore Challenge with a 7.57 lb. red drum. They caught their winning fish off the Cape Fear River using live mullet around structure and grass.
“On Friday we doctored up about 150 baits,” Barry Fowler explained, “and just kept them fresh and ready to go.” They began on Saturday working a low tide plan that had produced well in the spring, but summer conditions had shifted the bite. It wasn’t until around 10:00 a.m. that they landed their first redfish.
Fishing in roughly 4-feet of water around structure and grass, the team found small schools of reds cruising through. “It seemed like when we’d catch one, we’d catch another real quick,” Barry said. As the tide began to rise, they reached their go-to spots and landed two upper 6 lb. fish, and around 1:00 p.m., they hooked the tournament-winning 7.57 lb. red drum.
Team Nautic Charge Batteries, made up of Rennie Clark and his 13-year-old daughter Camille, delivered a 7.49 lb. red drum that earned them 2nd Place Overall, 2nd Place Single Big Red Drum TWT, and 2nd Place Two Red Drum TWT with a combined weight of 14.47 lbs. Camille, fishing since age three, landed all but two of the team’s 40 redfish.
Launching out of Carolina Beach, the team started their morning around Snow’s Cut before working south toward Southport. When the tide began rising, they shifted to the marsh and creeks near Fort Fisher, casting Category 5 soft plastics on weedless jig heads.
The bite picked up late in the day as they soaked bait on the flats near Buzzards Bay, landing eight to ten upper-slot and over-slot reds in the final hours. Their biggest fish came from behind Bald Head Island in the creeks around Buzzards Bay
Camille and Rennie Clark, of Team Nautic Charge Batteries, with the two red drum that earned them second place on the leaderboard (7.49 lbs.) and second place in the Two Red Drum TWT (14.47 lbs.) in the 2025 Southport Inshore Challenge.
“It’s all about finding fresh fish moving in with the tide,” Rennie said. “Day to day, it’s different fish in different spots.”
Team Kook Tacos, a crew of four, weighed in a 7.49 lb. red drum that earned them 3rd Place Overall, 3rd Place Single Big Red Drum TWT, and 3rd Place Two Red Drum TWT with a combined weight of 13.74 lbs. They also claimed 2nd Place in the High Roller TWT, rounding out a solid day on the leaderboard.
At their first stop, they pushed a school of roughly 40 fish, got tight on a few, and lost a couple good ones early, including two that might have rivaled their biggest weighed fish. One pulled the hook and another wrapped on an oyster shell, but mid-morning they landed the red they needed, a tournament-class fish that secured their top-three finish.
Fishing mostly along the waterway, the team focused on docks, banks with oyster bars, and areas where mullet were moving along the shoreline.
Their bait of choice was finger mullet on Carolina rigs, with a few cut menhaden in the mix. “If we caught ten fish that day, nine of them ate a mullet,” crew member Jimmy Deever said.
For more information including a complete leaderboard of the Southport Inshore Challenge, please visit www.FishermansPost.com. The website also contains information on the next event, the Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge, as well as the Inshore Trail, the current Inshore Trail standings, and the Inshore Trail Championship.
