Bay Creek Classic 2007
The inshore waters of Brunswick County have a long tradition of producing heavy flounder, and a legion of dedicated anglers pursue these fish with near-religious commitment. Consequently, the area’s many flounder tournaments are highly competitive events that usually feature familiar names atop the leader boards.
However, this was not so for the first annual Bay Creek Classic, held Saturday, September 30, out of Southport’s Wildlife Bait and Tackle, where relative newcomer to the sport Erica Watt weighed in the 8.44 lb. winning flounder, beating out a field of over 40 of the area’s top inshore anglers.
“That was only the fourth flounder I’ve ever caught,” Watt revealed after she and boyfriend Clay Evans, both of Southport, were declared the top team in the event. The couple, fishing together aboard Evan’s 18′ G3, found their money-winning flounder around the Southport waterfront towards the end of a somewhat slow fishing day.
“I’d caught a 1.5 lb. flounder early this morning, but we hadn’t really had any bites other than that,” Watt explained. At 4:00 Saturday afternoon when she and Evans were about to call it a day, the pair decided to fish one last spot, the old Bald Head Ferry mooring, before heading in.
Just after Watt cast a Carolina-rigged finger mullet to the right side of the dock, the big flatfish struck. “He didn’t even hit that hard,” Watt recalled. “I just felt some weight on it. I let it sit there for a minute, and when I picked the rod up, he was hooked.”
Once it was hooked, Watt worked the flounder to the boat quickly, but the fish was not yet ready to give in. “When I got him to the boat, he started ducking behind the boat and running,” she said.
The fish battled Watt near the boat for another minute or so before Evans was able to slide a net beneath it.
With the big flounder on the G3’s deck, the pair immediately headed for Wildlife Bait and Tackle’s scales, where their fish topped the second heaviest by over 2 lbs. After catching the winning fish in her first fishing tournament, Watt had another outdoor ambition on her agenda. “Now that I did this, my goal is to get a big buck this winter,” she said.
A 6.14 lb. flounder secured second place in the event for Brian Baker.
Third went to Ricky Bishop, who weighed in a 5.54 lb. fish.
While the first annual Bay Creek Classic provided another much-enjoyed venue for area flounder devotees to compete against one another, it also served a higher purpose-raising money to assist Brandon Matthews, a Southport outdoorsman injured in a fall from a tree stand last fall.
Tournament organizer Capt. Douglas Cutting saw an opportunity for the tournament when this year’s Wildlife Flounder Tournament was cancelled. “Brandon is a great friend of mine, one of the best fishermen in this part of the world, and as good a guy as you’ll ever meet,” he explained. “There’s been a tournament out of here for 13 years, and this is a great reason to bring it back.”
Turnout for the event exceeded Cutting’s expectations. “My goal was to have about 25 boats and I would have been really happy, and we got 43. It will be an annual event from here on.”
Matthews, whose birthday coincided with the tournament date, was on hand for the weigh-in and a post-awards ceremony cookout and birthday celebration. “I’d just like to say thanks to everyone that donated,” he said.
