Shallotte Point Flounder Tournament
Scaling an 8.45 lb. flounder on the event’s first day, Billy, Reba, and Terry Lefler took the top spot on the leaderboard and held it through the second and final day of competition to earn first place in the 2012 Shallotte Point Flounder Tournament, held June 8-9 out of the Shallotte Point Volunteer Fire Department.
Veteran flounder tournament anglers, the Leflers targeted the Lockwood Folly River on the Friday of the event, utilizing a slow-trolling tactic to cover water and try to find active fish.
“We cruise around to try and find where the bite is,” Lefler explained, “and where people haven’t fished.”
The strategy worked, as the winning fish was one of seven they turned in at the scales on Friday.
They’d just caught a pair of 3 lb. fish while dragging baits through a 14’ hole in the Lockwood Folly River when their big flatfish struck around midday. A small live menhaden fooled the big fish.
“Reba was on the rod for that one,” Lefler continued. “She picked it up when he hit and was just dragging it in like it was another 3 pounder. We didn’t know it was a big one until it saw the boat.”
When she’d worked it close enough, the family’s Bass Tracker spooked the doormat flounder and it began to peel some line off the reel.
“That’s what most of the big ones do,” Lefler said. “Once he saw the boat, he was a fighter. He kept peeling line off and trying to go back to the bottom.”
The fish put up a dogged fight, keeping Reba busy for 20 minutes before she was finally able to work it to the boat.
With Terry at the helm, Billy Lefler was ready with the net when the fish drew close, and he scooped the big flatfish into the boat.
“We knew about how big he was because we measured him,” he reported. “He was between 28-29 inches, and a fish that size is right about 8-9 lbs.”
With the big fish in the boat, the family team continued fishing for a brief time, and then they headed for the scales to weigh it in.
“We knew we had a fish we needed,” Lefler said, “so we trolled on out of the Lockwood and got on to the scales.”
Once there, the numbers confirmed the anglers’ guesstimate about the fish’s weight, and they took the lead.
With a day left in the event, the anglers were a bit concerned someone would best their fish.
“We were kinda scared it wasn’t going to hold up,” Lefler recalled.
At the close of the weigh-in on Saturday, however, their flounder had more than 1.5 lbs. on its nearest competitor, and it earned the Shallotte locals the win.
Cody Tyatte hauled in the 6.75 lb. flounder that earned second place. The tournament awards third to the heaviest five-fish aggregate weighed in, and Tim Parnell earned that title with five flounder weighing 20.32 lbs.
Just on Tyatte’s heels, Britt Williams took the fourth place check with a 6.73 lb. fish, and Larry Lefler (Billy’s brother) secured fifth with a 6.73 lb. flatfish.
