CFBW Battle of the Beaches 2007
Carolina and Wrightsville Beach anglers have long had a friendly (usually) rivalry based on which group are the more talented anglers. The Cape Fear Blue Water Fishing Club’s annual Battle of the Beaches Tournament, held October 5-7 this year, gives the fishermen a chance to prove themselves each year, with the tagline: “Who are the mightier fishermen, the gentlemen of Wrightsville Beach or the rough and tumble Carolina Beach boys?”
This year, the gentlemen of Wrightsville Beach reclaimed the trophy, though by a narrow margin. This even features four fishing categories-Offshore, Nearshore, Inshore, and Bottom Fishing, and the beach that takes the most categories earns the title. Since rough weather limited entrants to the Offshore and Nearshore categories this year, with Wrightsville topping the offshore competition, and Carolina taking the inshore championship, the event had to fall back on the tie-breaking criteria of which group earned the most TWT money.
The $450 that Wrightsville Beach’s “Fish Tales” crew took for winning the offshore TWT pulled the victory firmly into gentleman’s corner. The event’s format awards the win to the team weighing in the heaviest three fish aggregate of any combination of tuna, wahoo, and dolphin. Three wahoo, weighing 49.6, 32.6, and 25.9 lbs., made up the “Fish Tales” winning weight, earning them $420 in regular competition in addition to their TWT money.
Despite the forecasted high winds, the “Fish Tales” crew, made up of anglers from Connecticut and Virginia fishing with Capt. Don Delray aboard a 33′ Hydra Sport, found good sea conditions out in the Gulf Stream. “It was beautiful out there,” Delray reported.
Saturday the crew fished near the Steeples and landed two wahoo while also tallying a sailfish release. Sunday they returned to the same area and put four wahoo in the boat, added another sailfish release, and caught plenty of small dolphin. Medium ballyhoo under blue/white skirts were the team’s hot baits during the event.
Carolina’ Beach’s “Desperado” crew, captained by Ken Coffer, took second place in the offshore competition, weighing in a 34.5 lb. wahoo.
The heaviest aggregate weight of any combination of three red or black drum, gray or speckled trout, or flounder determines the nearshore category’s champion, and a 10.9 lb. total made up of one red drum, one gray trout, and one flounder earned the victory and $700 for Carolina Beach’s Ray Dixon.
Dixon fished the event with friend Jamie Moser aboard his 18′ Neptune, but they had a disappointing first day of fishing on Saturday.
“I fished inshore yesterday, and didn’t catch a thing,” Dixon explained at Sunday night’s awards ceremony, “so we decided to head offshore today.”
The decision turned out to be a good one, as Dixon and Moser caught all three of the winning fish from the same spot, a hard bottom area half a mile off Masonboro Island.
“We caught the trout first,” reported Dixon, “then caught the drum. We had to go back in and get more bait after that because the trout were so thick, but then we came back out and caught the flounder.”
All of Dixon and Moser’s fish fell for live finger mullet fished on Carolina rigs. In addition to the fish they weighed, the pair released two citation-sized bull reds on Sunday.
Dixon wished to express his gratitude to Capt. Owen Sewell for showing him the spot where he and Moser caught the winning fish.
Dennis Rood, fishing with his sons, took second in the nearshore competition with an 8.32 lb. aggregate weight made up of a red drum and two flounder.
For the past year, the Battle of the Beaches trophy has resided in Carolina Beach’s Sea Witch Café, but it will soon be making the short trip up the ICW to Wrightsville, where it will be on display at Bluewater Grill until at least next October, when the rough and tumble Carolina Beach crew will have their next chance to dethrone the gentlemen of Wrightsville.
