Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge
Tony Hayes, Gary Willis, and Doug Shores with the 4.01 and 6.56 lb. flounder that earned the crew the top spot in the Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge. Both fish bit live finger mullet under docks in the ICW near Carolina Beach.
They say life is timing, and Gary Willis’s was impeccable. The Wilmington native landed the largest flounder of his life on the day of the Fisherman’s Post Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge, held September 14 out of Inlet Watch Yacht Club. He and “Team Willis” teammates Doug Shores and Tony Hayes paired the 6.56 lb. fish with a 4.01 lb. flounder to top the two-fish aggregate tournament with 10.57 lbs. and walk away with over $2,500.
Willis, Shores, and Hayes—all Kure Beach Pier regulars who’ve fished together for 15 years—ditched the planks for the boat for the tournament.
“I came down two days before,” Willis explained. “I fished both days and didn’t land a single keeper.”
The trio’s tournament morning got off to a similarly slow start after they loaded up their livewell fish finger mullet.
“We didn’t catch a fish until 1:00 that day,” Willis continued. “We fished the bridge to start with, hit some pilings in the ICW, and fished the towers in the river before we went back to the ICW and started fishing docks.”
Their day took a quick turnaround when Shores landed a pair of 4 lb. class fish within 10 minutes of each other around 1:00 that afternoon. Both fell for live finger mullet under a dock in the Carolina Beach ICW, and Willis was happy to perform the netting duties for each flatfish.
“We went from not having a thing in the boat to having to worry about getting in line at the weigh-in,” Willis reported.
With their trip to the scales secured, the anglers kept at it, working a dock and then moving to the next. They didn’t have to go far before Willis locked down their spot in the winners’ circle.
“We were about two docks down from where Doug caught his fish,” Willis explained, “when I caught the big fish.”
Casting another finger mullet to the dock, Willis got a strong bite but didn’t realize at first it was a flatfish.
“I thought that fish was a big drum,” he explained. “He went crazy this way and that way right after I hooked him.”
Gradually working the fish toward the boat, the anglers were delighted to see a flounder appear in the water instead of a red.
“You could tell it was a real big one when he came to the top,” Willis said.
Hayes was waiting with the landing net as the fish came towards the boat, but the big flatfish eluded his first attempt. His second shot put the flounder over the gunnel and the anglers kept the search up.
“We had about 30 minutes left when I caught him,” Willis said. “We kept fishing around there for 30 minutes and then headed to the weigh-in.”
Ricky Evans, Eric McMahan, and John Ballantine with the Marine Copper Design trophy they earned (along with $1,000) as 2013 Fisherman’s Post Inshore Tournament Trail Champions. A trio of citation flounder they hooked in a Southport-area creek earned the anglers the title.
Once there, their fish earned them not only the top spot on the main leaderboard, but first place in the event’s Two-Flounder TWT, third in the High Roller Big Fish TWT, and the event’s Senior Angler honors for Shores.
Scaling the heaviest single flounder in the event at 7.86 lbs., along with a smaller flounder, Southport’s Ricky Evans and team “Redemption” secured second place on the leaderboard with 10.48 lbs. Perhaps more importantly, their big fish put the final touch on the crew’s first place finish in the 2013 Fisherman’s Post Inshore Tournament Trail, rocketing them past the nearest competition to a three-fish total of 18.66 lbs.
A first place finish in the Wrightsville Beach Inshore Challenge and a second place berth in the Southport event set up Evans, John Ballantine, and Eric McMahan—the “Redemption” crew—for the Carolina Beach tournament, and every one of their big fish came from the same spot, a creek near Southport.
“That spot won us over $8,000 this year,” Evans explained. “It was cool. Eric caught this fish, I got the Wrightsville Beach one, and John caught our fish in Southport.”
The anglers didn’t have to wait long for the big fish in the Carolina Beach event.
“We’d just pulled up to the spot and anchored,” Evans said. “I was in the back of the boat and had casted one or two times when I looked up and saw Eric’s rod bent over. He said ‘It’s big.’”
A live spot fooled their big fish, which dashed toward the front of the boat and under the anchor rope.
“I got up there and lifted the rope for Eric to walk under,” Evans continued. “Then it went under the boat. There are some big pilings at that spot we were worried about, too.”
McMahan was able to work the fish out from under the boat, but it took another run as Ballantine reached for it with the net. When the angler finally worked it back to the surface, the fish wasn’t so lucky, and Ballantine scooped it into the boat.
“We screamed and hollered,” Evans said. “We knew right then it was going to be hard for us to be beat for the year.”
Landing five more fish before they decided to head for the scales at 2:00, the anglers’ hunch proved correct, as the flounder put over 4 lbs. between them and their nearest competition on the Tournament Trail leaderboard.
Just shy of the “Redemption” crew’s Carolina Beach aggregate were John Donovan and “Team Donovan,” scaling a pair of flounder weighing 10.47 lbs. to finish third. Jeremy Somers and “Team Drizzle” secured fourth with a 10.36 lb. aggregate, and Scott Blevins and “Vinsanity” earned fifth with 8.89 lbs.
Charles Powell, Sr. and the “Powell Brothers” crew topped the event’s Red Drum TWT with a stout 7.65 lb. fish.
More information on the Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge and Fisherman’s Post Inshore Tournament Trail, along with full standings, are available at fishermanspost.com.
