Tidelines – August 30, 2012
A tournament in Topsail—the Topsail Inshore Challenge, event #4 in the Fisherman’s Post Inshore Tournament Trail—meant that the staff had a reason (excuse) to spend the night on the island, and Adam Meyer of Charter Lakes Marine Insurance upped the ante by offering us accommodations with him at a family beach house in Topsail Beach.
I was the guy that went to bed first on that Friday night. For a second I thought about trying to defend my early exit, as I’ve been working around the clock for a couple of weeks now that classes have begun at CFCC. My approach would have been to logically explain that I need sleep to keep moving forward on Saturday, but then quickly realized that trying to make a sensible argument to a bunch of guys drinking at 11:00 pm about why I wanted to go to bed was a waste of everyone’s time.
Adam and crew were fishing the event on Saturday, and they made a respectable departure from the driveway a little before 7:00 am (though before going to bed they swore they’d be at the Masonboro jetty ready to drop lines at 7:00). Ordering a breakfast sandwich from Jolly Roger Pier by 7:15 was close enough to the jetty rocks for Team Charter Lakes.
Working Saturday’s weigh-in is a slow process. We rush to get setup completely by the time scales open at 1:00, and then we sit around and wait for boats that don’t really start pulling in until 3:00-ish. We fished a little as we waited: Lauren was the first to pull up a small flounder (then her boyfriend, seeing her catch one, quickly grabbed the rod out of her hands); Sean caught a neighbor’s dock no less than three times (and said he couldn’t figure out how not to get snagged, as he cast again straight at the dock); Joshua was too uptight and needed an analogy about picking up women to help him understand the fluidness of fishing (he probably struggled as much with women as much as he struggles now with fish); and I stood helpless as a big sheepshead (I think) pulled drag at will before breaking me off on a piling.
The article on the tournament can be found on page 36, but there are many stories of the tournament that don’t make the article. One story would be the determination of Southport’s Scott Blevins and Tim Corn. They made the run from Southport all the way to Topsail Beach in a jon boat. In addition, they didn’t have anyone to bring the trailer, so after weigh-in and a few free hotdogs (and by few I mean Scott alone had at least six), they hopped back in the jon boat for the long and back-jarring run back to Southport.
Another story would be that the winning flounder was a devil fish, weighing in at 6.66 lbs. It brought them a nice cash payout for first, but it seems that once they cash the check they’ve made an implied Faustian deal.
Or if I’m pointing out folly, then we would talk about Hunter Avery’s repeated timid approaches to dock his new Riddick Bay Runner. Apparently he doesn’t want to get even a scratch on his “fishing” boat, and this includes the bottom (he won’t beach the flat bottom boat yet). Once I get an invitation to go fishing with him, the first thing I’m doing is cutting bait on the gunnels.
We said our goodbyes after giving out raffle prizes (we’re almost out of Trigger X), and made plans to see everyone again for the North Carolina Inshore Championship, event #5 in the Trail, to be held September 14-15 out of Inlet Watch Marina (see ad copy on page 3 for details).
I hope you join us that weekend. I also hope you win big and make Max’s NCIC tournament article, or at least do something memorable and find yourself in a Tidelines column.
