Carousel Center Flounder Tournament
DeWayne Kirby, of Shallotte, holds the 5.65 lb. flounder that earned him first place in the 2010 Carousel Center Flounder Tournament. Kirby hooked the flatfish near a dock in the Cape Fear River and took home $1000 and a Bluewater Copper Works flatfish trophy.
“We’d been catching better fish than that,” said Dewayne Kirby, whose 5.50 lb. flounder earned him first place in the 2010 Carousel Center Flounder Tournament, held June 19 out of Carolina Beach’s Inlet Watch Marina. “I never though this fish would be a winner.”
As the scales closed, Kirby was proven wrong, and he and teammates Craig Fields and Blake Stone aboard the “Letter Soak” took home the event’s $1000 guaranteed first place money.
The Shallotte-based anglers targeted the Cape Fear River, where they’d been catching some quality fish over the past few weeks, in their search for a winning fish.
“We’d been catching better fish than that,” Kirby said. Still, their choice of venue was proven solid early on tournament morning when the winning angler got a solid strike around 7:00 a.m. while anchored up in front of riverfront dock.
“I waited her out,” Kirby explained. “Oh yeah, it’s just like the boat name: Let her soak.”
When the wait was over, Kirby set the hook and knew he had a solid flatfish.
“I actually thought he was better than that,” Kirby still explained. “It felt like a real good one.”
After a short battle, Kirby had the citation flounder boatside and the team netted it and put the thousand-dollar fish in the boat.
John Theodorakis, of Carolina Beach, landed the 5.35 lb. flounder that earned second place and $500 in the Carousel Center Flounder Tournament on a live pogy near a grass bank in Snow's Cut.
Carolina Beach’s John Theodorakis nabbed $500 and second place in the Carousel Center event with a 5.35 lb. fish.
Theodorakis, fishing with Devin and Karl Anderson aboard the “Slayin’ Cuda,” also put his money fish in the boat early on the morning of the event. In fact his fish bit at almost exactly the same time.
“We were fishing one of the grass banks in Snow’s Cut,” the second place angler explained, “the same place we caught our fish in the Fisherman’s Post tournament. And that fish bit right at 7:00.”
The similarities between the winner and second continued to the bait, as a live pogy was the fish’s last meal.
“When he bit, he was right between me and the anchor line,” Theodorakis continued. “I said, ‘If he goes that way, were going to have the lift up the anchor. This is the biggest fish we’re going to get today’.”
After he waited for the flatfish to finish its meal and set the hook, the fish saved him some drama by swimming away from the anchor line.
There was a brief battle, and then Karl Anderson slid a landing net beneath it.
A 4.9 lb. flatfish earned Mike Accattato the $250 third place bounty. Matt Davis, of Marine Copper Design, who sponsored the second place copper flounder trophy, finished fourth with a 4.2 lb. fish. And Mark Armstrong’s 4.0 pounder rounded out the top five.
The Carousel Center Flounder tournament is an annual event benefitting, as the name suggests, the Carousel Center, a regional non-profit organization committed to providing assistance to victims of child abuse in 15 southeast NC counties. Including donations, this year’s event raised approximately $15,000 for the Center.
Carousel Center Director April Pickett wished to express her gratitude to Tournament Director Tom Banks along with the 94 registered anglers for making the event another success in 2010. She also wished to express the organization’s gratitude to sponsors Tex’s Tackle, the Carolina Beach tackle shops, Matt Davis, and Haynes Hoffman for their roles in making the tournament possible.
