Spring Inshore Challenge 2008
With 78 boats fishing nearly a 100 mile swath of the Carolina coast, one might expect that the top-placing fish in the fifth annual Fisherman’s Post Spring Inshore Challenge would come from a diverse spread of fishing areas. However, after watching the boat next to them land what turned out to be the second place fish, it only took a few minutes for Teresa and John Lomas, fishing aboard the 17′ Scout “NYCYN’s,” to hook up with the 5.55 lb. flounder that won them the tournament, earning the couple a cash payout of over $3,000.
The event offered participants a wide variety of ways to win money, as the superlatives that helped make up the total winner’s purse indicate. The big flounder earned the Carolina Beach anglers not only first place in the flatfish competition, but they also took home the top spot in the Flounder TWT, Top Lady Angler, as well as the largest fish weighed in by a Bob King customer, SeaTow member, and Got-Em-On Live Bait Club member. To top that off, this was the Lomas’ second trip to the Inshore Challenge winner’s podium, as Teresa weighed in a 7.3 lb. flounder to take first in the 2006 event.
“I was just sitting there watching the other boat,” Teresa explained, “because they’d just pulled that one in and they got really excited. Then I felt a thump.”
Feeling it impolite to rush a fish in eating, Teresa waited as the big flatfish mouthed the Carolina-rigged peanut pogy she’d cast towards the west bank of the Cape Fear River.
“I just sat there for a little while,” she recalled, “and I felt him again. I lifted the rod up, and it dropped back down. That’s when I knew I had him, and I thought I’d just let him eat, but he took off.”
Thinking she’d hooked a drum due to the abrupt run, Teresa began fighting the fish. “He was a good fighter. He ran and took line, and I was all over the boat trying to get that fish in.”
“Rarely do I raise the motor completely out of the water,” John Lomas added, “but he was fighting all around the transom, so I did.”
After Teresa had worked the fish for around 5 minutes, the anglers were finally able to see that they had a sizeable flounder, and John slid the landing net beneath the fish.
After just having watched the other boat anchored nearby celebrate a fat flounder, the Lomas’s knew they had a larger fish and began rejoicing on their own. The big flounder, which they put in the boat at 10:10 on tournament morning, was the sixth keeper they landed (including another over 4 lbs. that Teresa caught). Feeling secure that they had a leaderboard-worthy fish in the boat, the anglers soon left their spot and went searching for a speckled trout, the other fish eligible for prize money in the event.
“From there we went straight to try and find a trout for the aggregate category, but we couldn’t do it,” John Lomas explained.
Around 1:00 they made the strategic decision to head for the scales, since a tie in fish weight would be broken by which fish was weighed in first. The strategy worked, and “NYCYN’s” was the first boat to the scales. However, the Lomas’ had to wait out the final two hours of the weigh-in, watching nearly 30 teams weigh fish, hoping no larger flounder came in.
When the final boat had weighed, the Lomas’ fish stood strong, topping the second place flounder by over one pound. Though they never found the speckled trout that likely would have earned them additional money in the one flounder/one trout aggregate category, the couple managed to fish themselves into the tournament’s top spot for the second time in three years-no small feat.
One of the Inshore Challenge’s main objectives is to promote conservation of the area’s invaluable marine resources, and to that end, a $20 bonus prize is offered for the heaviest 15 flounder and 10 trout weighed in alive. Like four of the event’s top five flounder, the Lomas’ fish was weighed in live, and was donated alive to UNCW’s Aquaculture research facility after the scales closed.
Speckled trout are the tournament’s other eligible fish, and the “Speckled Specialist” team of Larry Hill and Capt. Ricky Kellum, from Jacksonville, took first place in the trout competition with a 5.85 lb. fish weighed in alive to earn them over $1,500 in prize money.
Like the flounder winners, the “Speckled Specialist” crew also topped several of the event’s prize categories. In addition to first place trout, the fish earned them the number one spot in the Trout TWT, top Senior Angler honors, and the trout paired with a 1.80 lb. flounder gave them the 7.65 lb. aggregate weight that won that division.
Fishing some structure in 15′ of water in the New River, the aptly named “Speckled Specialist” crew didn’t have to wait too long before putting their big trout in the livewell.
“We actually had a 4 lb. fish eat a finger mullet on a rod in the rod holder first thing,” Kellum recalled at the awards ceremony. “So that was kind of a freebie. Then Larry hooked one and broke it off, and then I hooked the big one.”
The lucrative speck fell for a live shrimp fished on a sliding-float rig of Kellum’s own design. After his float sank, Kellum fought the fish for a few tense minutes before Hill was able to slide the landing net beneath it.
“We caught a few more small ones,” he explained, “but we were done trout fishing by 7:00 that morning.”
Confident their fish would place high, the “Speckled Specialist” fishermen did the opposite of the Lomas’, electing to move in search of a flounder. They headed out New River Inlet to the Keypost, a live bottom area in around 50′ of water four miles off the beach.
After catching a number of nuisance sharks, Hill got a slightly different strike on a Carolina-rigged finger mullet. However, after trying to set the hook, he got snagged.
“I got hung up, but I kept jigging it and jigging it, and he came out and up,” Hill said.
“That fish sure was a pretty sight to see,” Kellum added.
After putting the flatfish in the boat around 11:00, the anglers fished the Keypost for a short time longer, then headed inshore and joined a crowd of boats fishing near the Surf City Bridge for a final effort before gunning it for the scales.
Anchored next to the Lomas’ and fishing the same spot near Orton Plantation on the Cape Fear’s west bank, “Team JB” members Chris Jackson, Nathan Lingerfelt, and Marvin Watkins, from Wilmington, caught the 4.35 lb. second place flounder and were able to pair it up with a 2.15 lb. trout for the 6.50 lb. aggregate that earned them third place in that category.
“Team JB” anglers began catching trout early. “We started catching trout about 7:00,” Jackson said, “and we caught six of them.”
The team’s trout fell for MirrOlures and DOA shrimp as the rising tide reached its apex.
“We caught that flounder right as the tide was beginning to fall,” Jackson recalled.
A peanut pogy on a Carolina rig fooled the second place flatfish, and Lingerfelt brought it to the boat. Jackson was ready with the net and scooped the fish aboard the team’s 22′ Jones Brothers.
After putting the flounder in the boat, the anglers tried a few more spots in the river; however, all were crowded with other boats, so they returned to the Orton area.
The “Team JB” anglers’ pair of fish earned them a total check of over $1300. Jackson wished to express his gratitude to team captain Will Parham, who was unable to fish the event, but volunteered his boat for the crew to use.
A 3.85 lb. flatfish earned third place and over $1000 in the flounder category for Wilmington anglers R. Neil Clark and Allen Fields, fishing aboard the “Bling Bling.”
Clark landed a flounder just slightly smaller than the one they weighed earlier in the day, but Fields landed the third place fish just after 1:00 Saturday afternoon. It fell for a peanut pogy on a Carolina rig as the anglers were anchored up and fishing some shallow water in Carolina Beach Inlet.
The fish put up a brief but feisty struggle before Fields was able to lead it to the net Clark had waiting. The third place fish was one of 8 flounder they landed over the course of the day.
The “Bling Bling” anglers would like to thanks sponsors All Comfort Heating and Air and Negative G’s Trucking for making it possible for them to fish and succeed in the tournament.
The tournament’s second place trout was a 5.15 lb. speck landed by Wilmington’s “Celtic Lure” team of Scott, Sean, and Patrick Meyers and Steve West. The NC-citation trout also earned Patrick second place in the event’s Senior Angler category, and it garnered the anglers over $400.
The “Celtic Lure” anglers were fishing some rocky structure near a Southport-area creek mouth when the big fish bit. Steve West was on the rod when the speck inhaled a live shrimp around 10:00 in the morning. Allowing a float rig to drift with his bail open, the bait was a long way from the boat when the big trout struck.
Fortunately for West, the speck was cooperative, and it came to the boat fairly easily for a fish of its size. Once West had the fish within range, Scott Meyers netted it and brought it aboard.
The team stayed in the area until around 12:15 when they worked their way back towards the Wrightsville Beach weigh-in, stopping first at the Carolina Beach boat basin, then the Lollipop before heading to the scales.
A 4.25 lb. speck took third place in the trout competition for Jacksonville’s Richard Angel and Jason Houston. The pair pocketed $296.
“We actually had two trout that were identical,” Angel said. “Mine was alive, and his died, so we knew which one to weigh.”
The twin trout were two of 11 the anglers caught Saturday while fishing live shrimp beneath float rigs near the Surf City swing bridge and other structure in the ICW. They also landed an estimated 20 red drum.
Second place in the aggregate category went to Will Hardgrove, of Wilmington, aboard the “Goodwill Fishing,” for a 6.75 lb. weight made up of a 3.75 lb. flounder (also the fourth place flatfish) and a 3.00 lb. trout. Hardgrove fished with his brother Eddie and aunt Laura Jolliff (third place Lady Angler), and the family team went home with over $600.
Fishing a point on the west bank of the Cape Fear, the anglers had action early, as Laura hooked the crew’s trout around 6:45. Like most of the others weighed in the event, the speck fell for a live shrimp fished beneath a float. When Laura worked the fish close, Will Hardgrove was ready with the net and brought the fish aboard.
After fishing the spot for a while longer with little activity, the anglers tried a few more areas before heading for the Bald Head ferry channel, where Eddie hooked the team’s flounder on a Carolina-rigged peanut pogy on his first cast. When he got the flatfish boatside, Will performed the netting duties yet again.
Jason McDowell, aboard the “Uncle Jake,” took fifth in the flounder competition with a 3.15 lb. flattie.
A 3.95 lb. speckled trout secured fourth place for Capt. Bruce Fields, aboard the “Flat Dawg,” and also earned Christina Boston second place Lady Angler. Brent Banks weighed in the 3.80 lb. trout that locked up fifth.
Wilmington’s Cran Davis, fishing aboard the “Bing Duby,” was the event’s Top Junior Angler, weighing in a 3.05 lb. flounder to earn $75 and a custom inshore spinning combo from Riley Rods. Hunter Andrews, of Hampstead, was the number two Junior Angler, earning $25 and another Riley Rods custom combo.
“Fisherman’s Post Newspaper loves putting on this tournament every year,” said Gary Hurley, Tournament Director and Publisher of Fisherman’s Post. “A big thank you goes out to our participants for choosing to fish the tournament, our sponsors for making it an event-filled weekend, and our volunteers who made it all possible.”
Hurley also announced that Fisherman’s Post Newspaper will be hosting a fall flounder tournament, the North Carolina Flatfish Championship to be held September 19-20 out of Joyner Marina in Carolina Beach. The fall beneficiary will be the NC Coastal Land Trust.
The 2008 Fisherman’s Post Spring Inshore Challenge was held out of Wrightsville Beach Marina and the Wild Wing Cafe on May 16-17. The tournament is in its fifth year, and in keeping with the event’s commitment to marine conservation, 21 out of 25 flounder and 20 out of the 24 speckled trout weighed in were weighed alive. The fish were released or donated to UNCW’s Harbor Island Aquaculture Facility.
The event also functioned as a fundraiser for Cape Fear Community College’s Sea Devil Club. The Sea Devil Club functions as a fundraising organization for CFCC’s athlet
