Tournament Report: NC Coastal Trout Series
The NC Coastal Trout Series, a points trail based on five area trout tournaments and hosted by the Jacksonville-Onslow Sports Commission, finished again this year with the Jacksonville Rotary Speckled Trout Tournament, held November 19 with weigh-in at The Marina Café, as the last of the five events and deciding the Series’ champions.
Team Reel Obsession went into the Jacksonville Rotary needing a better finish in that event than Team Live Shrimp, the team sitting in first place in the Series after four of the five events, and they delivered. They not only won the tournament, but they also captured the extra point in the Series by weighing in the single heaviest trout of the weekend.
Team Reel Obsession finished the NC Coastal Trout Series in first place overall with a total of 301 points, and they also won the Trout Series Big Fish competition.
Team Live Shrimp was in first place in the Trout Series going into the Jacksonville Rotary event with 298 points, but they needed a first-place finish to hold on to the championship position. They finished the Jacksonville Rotary in third place, and that third-place finish dropped them to second overall in the Trout Series.
Team Reel Obsession won the 2022 NC Coastal Trout Series, hosted by the Jacksonville-Onslow Sports Commission, with 301 points.
Ricky Kellum and his brother Randy fished a spot in the upper New River, and they found success all day long. Kellum estimated they caught 50 or so trout in the 3 lb. range, most of them in the high 3’s, but they only managed to land one trout in the 4 lb. class.
They were drifting live shrimp over ledges, and the ledges ranged from drops of 2-10’ to 10-20’. The weather was ideal, Kellum noted, with winds blowing 20-25 out of the N/NE helping the team drift shrimp up to 100 yards on the falling tide.
With their third-place finish in the Jacksonville Rotary event, the team’s total for second place in the NC Coastal Trout Series was 298 points.
The second-place finisher in the Jacksonville Rotary ended up in a tie for third place for the NC Coastal Trout Series with 297 points. Team Smokin’ Trout, comprised of Daniel Stephens and his dad Tommy Stephens, started the day at a spot where they had been on a solid trout bite, but a lot of rain just before the weekend seemingly had the fish moved along as they didn’t generate a single bite that morning.
Team Gainey finished the 2022 NC Coastal Trout Series tied for third place. They and Team Smokin’ Trout both finished with 297 points.
The team moved to some places they had been fishing earlier in the season, and they started by landing a bunch of small fish. Then they landed four trout back-to-back that were all 4+ pounds. All of their trout came in deeper water (15’) and were caught on live shrimp.
The team that tied Team Smokin’ Trout for third place in the NC Coastal Trout Series finished the Jacksonville Rotary event in fourth place. Team Gainey, made up of John Gainey and R.D. Benedict, had an amazing start to their fishing day. They targeted a spot in a creek off of the New River, and their first five lines in the water brought in five trout.
The first fish of the day was their 5+ pounder. They also caught three in the 2-3 lb. range and one in the 4-pound class. The fish came from 8-12’ of water, and Gainey and Benedict had their floats set to 1’ off the bottom.
The duo didn’t get another bite all day, but the fish they did manage to bring to the scales were good enough for a NC Coastal Trout Series points total of 297.
More information on the NC Coastal Trout Series, designed by the Jacksonville-Onslow Sports Commission to help the community connect and build the local trout tournaments, can be found on Facebook (search NC Coastal Trout Series) or at www.playjosc.com/troutseries.
