Cape Fear Red Trout Celebrity Classic 2008
Jason Crowder with a 25" red drum caught on day one of the Cape Fear Red Trout Tournament while fishing with Capt. Ricky Kellum of Speckled Specialist Charters.
After locating some heavily feeding trout off the New River the Thursday before the event, Capt. Ricky Kellum was hopeful that he’d be able to put his anglers for the 2008 Cape Fear Red Trout Celbrity Classic, Jason Crowder and Brian Rich, in the winner’s circle. However, when Friday morning came around, the specks had different plans, as the bite had shut down.
“That spot can be like that,” Kellum said. “It’ll break your heart on tournament day.”
Over the course of the day, the anglers released just two speckled trout and three red drum above the tournament’s minimum size limits of 15″ for trout and 18″ for reds.
The next day, Kellum tried a new game plan.
“I decided to go to a spot I’ve only fished twice before,” Kellum revealed. Leaving tournament headquarters at Figure Eight Island and heading south, the anglers ran all the way to the Cape Fear River before beginning to fish.
“We pulled up to our spot, and the floats would drift 100 yards in seconds because the tide was moving so hard,” Kellum continued. “There wasn’t anything going on, but I told the guys not to lose hope, because we just had to wait for the tide to get right.”
Sure enough, an hour before high tide at the dock on the west bank of the lower Cape Fear where Kellum had anchored, the trout flipped the feeding switch, and the action became fast and furious for the anglers.
Fishing with live shrimp under slip floats, the action was nonstop for Crowder and Rich, who landed 28 tournament qualifying specks before the bite slowed down a few hours after the tide peaked.
At the awards ceremony, the 20 trout and single red drum Crowder caught over the two fishing days combined to earn him 1100 points overall and the Grand Champion title for the event. In addition, Crowder topped the speckled trout category and the bait division, with 19 of his specks released on bait.
Rich put two drum in the boat on day one, and added 10 trout to the reds to earn 725 points and the Runner Up Champion award.
In addition, their 1825 combined points put them handily on top of the rest of the field as Team Champions.
Bryan Rich, from Wilmington, with a 21" speckled trout that helped he and Jason Crowder earn Team Champions in the 2008 Cape Fear Red Trout tournament. The trout fell for a live shrimp under a float.
Capt. Eddie Stuart guided his anglers, John Sloan and Brannon Lancaster, to some serious points in the tournament as well, putting them on big numbers of red drum. Brannon brought nine reds to the boat on spinning tackle and artificial lures to top both the red drum category of the event and the Spin Division (artificial only).
Sloan angled four reds on the fly rod to take home victory in the fly division, and he took the event’s largest red (on fly) at 27.5″ as well.
Buddy Creed, fishing with Capt. Brent Banks, caught the tournament’s largest speck, a 24″ fish.
Liz Bielski took home the Cape Fear Red Trout’s Top Lady Angler title with 600 points for 12 speckled trout she caught while fishing the lower Cape Fear River with Capt. Jot Owens.
The Cape Fear Red Trout Celebrity Classic is an all-release event dedicated to conservation, with all participants documenting their caught and released fish on cameras provided by the tournament. Winners receive a variety of impressive signed artwork in lieu of prize money, allowing the event to donate the maximum amount possible to its worthy beneficiary, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
The tournament is part of the Red Bone tournament series, a non-profit event that raises money for cystic fibrosis research. The tournament pairs captains, who donate a free day of fishing, with anglers, who make what amounts to a sizeable donation to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in their entry fees. Gatherings open to public ticket buyers and silent and live auctions help the event raise money for the very worthy cause of genetic research into treatment for this now-incurable disease. This year’s tournament raised over $40,000, made possible in large part by the event’s sponsors: Autumn Hall and Raiford Trask, Rippy Automotive, Charter Lakes Marine Insurance, and Woodlands Bank.
Tournament Director Pete Baxley wished to thank the Figure Eight Yacht Club, perennial hosts of the event, and all the sponsors, participants, and volunteers for making it another successful year.
