Tournament Report – Dean’s Dream Inshore Challenge
Attracting 28 boats, the First Annual Dean’s Dream Inshore Fishing Tournament functioned as a fundraiser for melanoma research in honor of Dean Rivenbark, an avid inshore angler who passed away after a battle with metastatic melanoma in July. Held out of Surf City’s Sears Landing Grill and Boat Docks, the event exceeded all fundraising expectations, and featured competition for the area’s three most popular inshore fish—flounder, red drum, and speckled trout.
The winners and organizers of the First Annual Dean’s Dream Fish For Cure Inshore Tournament at the awards ceremony following the event at Surf City’s Sears Landing Boat Docks and Grill.
Chris Lee and the “Lee’s Equipment” crew scaled the event’s heaviest fish, a 6 lb., 8 oz. red drum that topped that category’s leaderboard. Fishing with his father-in-law Vernon Knight, Lee had done some scouting prior to the event and found a group of upper-slot red drum he wanted to return to on the morning of the competition.
“They were in a little pocket in a creek in Topsail Sound with a mud bank,” Lee explained. “It’s a place I’ve fished a lot. I blew some fish out of there when I pulled in but I think they were just mullet.”
Apparently he hadn’t spooked the fish he was after, as it took Lee only a few casts with a Betts Halo Shad to connect with their first red drum of the day.
After a quick battle, Knight slid a net under the red drum, and the anglers measured it out at 26.75”, just inside the NC 18-27” slot limit for red drum.
“He was just a perfect slot fish,” Lee continued.
After putting the red in the boat, the anglers continued casting but didn’t land anything to rival their opening fish by the time the bite slowed.
“Once the sun came up good and the wind started blowing it shut them right down,” Lee explained.
The anglers spent the rest of their day looking for a big flatfish from Topsail to past Carolina Beach, but were forced to settle for the tournament’s top red drum as the flounder plan didn’t pan out.
Barrett Baker and Pat Huffman earned the top spot in the event’s speckled trout division, scaling a 4 lb., 3 oz. fish to secure the win.
Fishing together aboard a 19’ Carolina Skiff, the anglers did a bit of pre-fishing for the event, but didn’t find a lot of success.
“There wasn’t much caught,” Baker reported.
Deciding to focus their energies around Topsail Inlet, the anglers found more of their pre-fishing luck at first, casting for 3 hours before things began to turn around.
Working a grass bank near the inlet with D.O.A. Shrimp, the anglers began hooking some fish late that morning, some of them solid trout.
“We had a couple 3-pounders,” Baker said. “And one 3.5. And Pat caught that 4-pounder.”
After the anglers put their biggest speck in the boat, the bite slowed down and they decided to focus their efforts elsewhere.
“They started biting, we caught them, and then they stopped just as quick,” Baker continued. “We felt good once we had that big one in the boat though.”
Like the “Lee’s Equipment” crew, the anglers changed their gameplan once the big fish was in the boat and began targeting drum and flounder, but weren’t able to add some icing to the big speck they had in the boat.
The “Fast Break, Jr.” crew of Blake and Cindy Boyd and Matt Mingione scaled a 2 lb., 9 oz. flounder to top that leaderboard and round out the winner’s circle.
After the success of this year’s event, plans are already in the works for the 2016 Dean’s Dream Fish For a Cure event to be held the same weekend at Sears Landing. More information on the tournament and the cause can be found at www.deansdreamfish.com or the event’s Facebook page.
