2025 Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge
The 2025 Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge was hosted September 5–6 out of Inlet Watch Marina, taking place during North Carolina’s keeper flounder season. As a result, the event featured a split leaderboard format, awarding payouts for the top six flounder and the top six red drum. Anglers also had the option to enter any of the five TWTs: Single Big Flounder, High Roller Flounder, Single Big Red Drum, High Roller Red Drum, and Trash Fish TWT.
Team Coastline Charters, captained by Luke Moser, took first place in the Flounder Division with a 10.19 lb. flounder that was released alive. Fishing with his father Eddie Moser, the pair worked a mix of docks, ledges, and oyster-covered structure throughout the Carolina Beach and Wrightsville Beach areas.
“We kind of fished all of it, really,” said Luke, “some docks, some deep ledges—just places I’ve historically caught big fish.” The catch also earned the team top honors in both flounder TWTs, the SeaTow Award, and Senior Angler recognition for Eddie Moser.
The team launched early, with lines in the water by 6:30 am after a pre-dawn bait mission.
“We got out there at ‘dark-thirty’ to make sure we could get plenty of bait,” Luke explained. “Bait’s been kind of hard to find, especially with the tide up real high.”
They fished two or three spots and brought four flounder to the boat, including one over eight pounds, and then the winning fish hit around 9:15 am on a large, live menhaden. “
Second place in the Flounder Division went to Team Pork Chop, with Clay Morphis landing a 9.90 lb. flounder at 12:30 pm near Yaupon Reef. Fishing with Garrett Sanders, Morphis used a five-inch mullet on a one-ounce Carolina rig to hook the 29-inch fish.
“We bounced around from reef to reef until we landed on the right spot,” said Morphis. “That was our second flounder of the day. We had a three-pounder earlier at AR-460, but I knew this one was going to place.”
Clay Morphis and Garrett Sanders, of Team Pork Chop, found success on both the Flounder and Red Drum leaderboards of the 2025 Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge. Their 9.90 lb. flounder hooked at Yaupon Reef took second place, and the 7.33 lb. red drum landed in the Shallotte River area finished in third place.
Launching out of Shallotte Inlet, the team worked their way west, hitting multiple artificial reefs from Ocean Isle toward Bald Head before finding success at Yaupon.
“We fished for two hours without much, then got to Yaupon around noon and stayed on the move,” Morphis explained. “That fish hit about 12:30, and I knew he was big enough to hold.”
The team also placed in both flounder TWTs, rounding out a strong finish in the division. In addition to their flounder finish, Team Pork Chop also placed third in the Red Drum Division with a 7.33 lb. fish, making them one of the most successful boats of the event.
Jonathan Lanier, of Rock Creek Land Company, rounded out the top three flounder spots with a 7.93 lb. catch. Fishing with his father Marty and brother-in-law Logan Lynch, Lanier shifted focus late in the day after chasing drum, and they found success near Southport.
“We had a couple river spots we wanted to check,” he said. “We dropped a finger mullet on some hard bottom, and that one bit around 3:00.”
Mark and Sam Daughtry, of Team Parker, took the top spot in the Red Drum Division of the 2025 Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge with a 7.74 lb. slot drum caught north of Wrightsville Beach. They were using live finger mullet on a shallow flat in a creek.
In the Red Drum Division, Sam Daughtry and Team Parker delivered a dominant early morning performance to take first place with a 7.74 lb. red drum. Fishing with his brother Mark, the team had lines in by 6:45 am and culled through six fish by 8:00, with four over seven pounds. The winning fish measured 26.2-inches and was caught on live mullet while working shallow flats along a creek off the Intracoastal Waterway that’s just north of Wrightsville Beach.
“It was probably the easiest tournament I’ve ever won,” said Sam. “By 8:00 am, we were just riding around.” The team also secured first place in both red drum TWTs.
Second place went to Hutch Strickland and Team Reel Outcast. Fishing with his sister Wendy Moore and stepson Blake Leigh, Strickland caught his 7.48 lb. red drum around 7:30 am on a Carolina rig with live menhaden over an oyster bed downriver. After locking in their redfish, the team ran to Southport in search of a flounder and then shifted gears and landed a nearly three-pound toadfish at Masonboro Inlet to claim second place in the Trash Fish TWT.
Luke and Eddie Moser, of Team Coastline Charters, brought in the heaviest flatfish of the day to win the Flounder Division of the 2025 Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge. They found the 10.19 lb. fish between Wrightsville and Carolina Beach soaking a live menhaden near structure.
Clay Morphis and Team Pork Chop’s third-place 7.33 lb. redfish was caught early in the day on a grass flat in the Shallotte River area. He was using a 5-inch curly tail Gulp swimming mullet.
“We had a narrow window before the tide turned,” Morphis explained. “We got it done early and spent the rest of the day flounder fishing.”
For complete leaderboard results and more information on the Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge and all five of the Inshore Challenge events, including dates for 2026, visit www.FishermansPost.com.
