2026 Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge
The 2026 Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge was hosted September 11-12 out of Inlet Watch Marina, taking place during North Carolina’s keeper flounder season. The event featured payouts for the top six flounder and top six red drum, and anglers also had the option to enter the Single Big Flounder, High Roller Flounder, Single Big Red Drum, High Roller Red Drum, and Trash Fish TWTs
Team Coastline Charters, captained by Luke Moser, took first place in the Flounder Division with a 5.32 lb. fish, also winning the Single Big Flounder and High Roller Flounder TWTs.
Fishing with his father Eddie, the pair worked creeks, docks, and oyster edges throughout the Carolina Beach and Wilmington areas.
Saturday morning produced steady action with plenty of 20-22” fish, but nothing with the right size. What would ultimately be the winning fish bit mid-morning, and Luke first weighed it only out of curiosity. His scale showed five pounds, enough to make him think they might place but not giving any confidence that it would be a tournament winner.
They fished until mid-afternoon before heading to the scales early, becoming the first team to weigh. Luke watched the leaderboard from home as other teams checked in. No larger flounder appeared, and the 5.32 lb. fish held at the top.
Luke and Eddie Moser, of Team Coastline Charters, took the top spot in the Flounder Division of the 2026 Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge with a 5.32. flatfish caught between Wrightsville and Carolina Beach.
Second place in the Flounder Division went to Turn It Up, captained by Fred Davis, with a 5.15 lb. flounder. Davis fished with his daughter Leah and grandson Finn, picking at fish throughout the day while working up and down both sides of the Cape Fear River.
The team caught around 20 fish, but most of their early fish were in the 2-4 lb. range. Sometime between mid and late afternoon, they landed back to back fish in the 5 lb. class, one weighing 5.15 lbs. and the other just under 5 lbs. The team relied on live mullet and focused on oyster banks and deeper pockets.
Salt Air Fishing Charters, with Christian Hairr, Jeff Hairr, and Blake Boyd, took first place in the Red Drum Division with an impressive 8.05 lb. fish. The team started north of Topsail at a spot that had produced earlier in the week, but more wind than expected pushed the fish off. After an hour, they moved south.
Turn It Up, made up of Fin (right), Fred Davis, and daughter Leah Inscore (both not pictured), finished in second place in the Flounder Division of the 2026 Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge with a 5.15 lb. flounder that came from the Cape Fear River on a live mullet.
Around mid-morning they checked another area and located a tight school of red drum. They stayed on the school the rest of the day and caught 29 fish, with the winning drum being the last one they landed. The team used artificials early to locate the fish and pitched live mullet once the school settled. The winning drum ate a mullet.
Rennie and Camille Clark took second place in the Red Drum Division with a 7.75 lb. fish. They caught redfish steadily, working shallow flats and pitching soft plastics. The team fished both the waterway and the river, starting near Wrightsville Beach and working toward Carolina Beach. The lure that pulled their winning fish was a Category 5 Manic Minnow in Goldrush.
Salt Air Fishing Charters took the top spot in the Red Drum Division of the 2026 Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge with a stout 8.05 lb. fish. The winning red hit a live mullet.
For complete leaderboard results and more information on the Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge and all five of the Inshore Challenge tournaments, including information on next year’s events, visit FishermansPost.com.
