Southport Inshore Challenge Welcome

August 16 – 17, 2024, at Morningstar Marinas Southport

WELCOME

Welcome to the Southport Inshore Challenge, a premiere red drum tournament that local anglers have embraced, even if their heart still longs for the days of flounder tournaments.

The Southport Inshore Challenge will feature an eight-place leaderboard for red drum only and will be based on a boat’s single heaviest red drum. The red drum only leaderboard means bigger payouts, since red drum anglers won’t have to share any leaderboard money with other species, and with a leaderboard based on only your single heaviest red drum, we believe more anglers can be competitive in a search for one (instead of two) upper-slot red drum..

Of course everyone likes the idea of walking away from the event with a big check, and our Southport event offers optional Single Big Red Drum, Two Red Drum, and High Roller Single Big Red Drum TWTs as a way to further fatten your winnings. And like we’ve done in recent years, we’ll also be offering a “Trash Fish” TWT. The “Trash Fish” TWT payouts will go to the boats that weigh in the heaviest oyster toad or lizardfish.

Fisherman’s Post is thrilled to be returning to the beautiful setting of Morningstar Marinas Southport, and the marina and crew are excited once again to welcome Fisherman’s Post and all of our anglers, as they will be the host site of all tournament activities—Registration, Captains’ Party, Weigh-In, Awards Dinner, and Awards Ceremony.

Our Captains’ Party on Friday is compliments of Adams Beverages & Anheuser Busch, and our Awards Dinner on Saturday is sponsored by Southport Yamaha & Zimmerman Marine. When scales close on Saturday, we will be putting out a great spread for our tournament anglers to enjoy after a fun day of fishing.

In the long-standing spirit of Fisherman’s Post, we’re continuing to encourage teams to bring the whole family out by offering $50 prize checks for the heaviest single red drum weighed in by crews with junior, lady, and/or senior anglers on board.

More special prizes include closest-in-weight prizes offered by Intracoastal Angler, where anglers closest to the designated weights receive a $50 Intracoastal Angler gift card. And if those red drum closest in weight are brought in alive, then they’ll receive an extra $25 gift card. In addition, we’ll also be offering the SeaTow prize for the heaviest red drum weighed in by a SeaTow member, as well as the Mudpuppy Salt Stix Prize–every boat that weighs in a fish will be automatically entered into a drawing for a Mudpuppy Salt Stix custom rod (valued at $300+).

For those that like the chance to win even more cash prizes, the Southport Inshore Challenge is the fourth qualifying event in the Inshore Trail, a season-long points competition running in the background of the five Inshore Challenge events we host every year. Any boat can use Southport fish towards the Inshore Trail, both for additional payouts in Southport and to try and qualify for the invite-only Inshore Trail Championship at the end of the season–click here for more info and the complete rules of the Inshore Trail.

Fisherman’s Post is committed to conserving the resources that make events like this a possibility, so we’ll be awarding bonus cash payouts to all red drum making the leaderboard that are alive and in releasable condition. We feel this encourages live weigh-in without penalizing those anglers who don’t have the ability to keep an upper-slot redfish alive over the course of a full day of fishing.

And just like all of our inshore events this year, we’ll be partnering with the Wilmington Elks for volunteer support and then donating proceeds from the event to aid their mission of helping children, enhancing communities, and honoring the service and sacrifices of our military veterans.

If you’ve never fished a tournament before, this event is a great way to join in the tournament experience. Come celebrate red drum fishing, as well as tournament fishing, with others like you, and we hope to see you for a weekend of heavy fish and good times.

Gary Hurley / Tournament Director
(910) 452-6378
trail@fishermanspost.com