Bay Creek Classic
Amy Carraway with the 7.71 lb. flounder that earned her and Stephen Lancaster the victory in the Fourth Annual Bay Creek Classic. The big flatfish fell for a live finger mullet at a dock in Bald Head Creek.
Posting a 7.7 lb. flounder to top the second place fish by more than two pounds, Southport’s Stephen Lancaster and Amy Carraway took first place in the Fourth Annual Bay Creek Classic, held September 11 out of the Wildlife Boat Landing in Southport.
“Amy’s never fished a flounder tournament before,” Lancaster reported. “My dad usually fishes with me, but he was out of town, and Amy said she was going to win it.”
After pre-fishing the day before, the anglers returned to a spot they’d identified as likely to hold a tournament winner.
“We were fishing in Bald Head Creek,” Lancaster said. “I wanted to fish somewhere there was going to be some pretty water and somewhere I knew—I’ve been fishing that creek for years.”
After catching and releasing a barely legal fish and losing a big speckled trout, Amy got the fateful bite at around 11:00 the morning of the event.
“She hooked that fish on a big, 6” finger mullet,” Lancaster continued. “We were kind of drifting by this dock, and I told her to cast right under it. She did and it bit.”
Carraway let the big flatfish eat for around 30 seconds before setting the hook.
“She pulled on the line and that fish pulled back and the fight was on,” Lancaster said.
Carraway fought the fish for several minutes before Lancaster got a glimpse of it.
“I saw it before she did and told her what she had,” he explained. “It got a little more intense after that, but she fought it like a pro.”
After Lancaster got a look at the big flounder, it surfaced around 15’ from the boat.
“As soon as it saw the boat,” he continued, “it thrashed almost completely out of the water and opened its mouth. I thought we were going to lose it right then, but it went back to the bottom.”
The next time Carraway was able to ply the flounder to the surface, Lancaster was ready and slid the landing net beneath it.
“We got excited,” said Lancaster, “but we had to hold it together. We didn’t want to get too loud and have anybody snake our spot.”
After placing the big flatfish in the livewell, the anglers continued fishing the creek, catching several slot-sized red drum before the tide began to fall.
“It gets shallow in the mouth of that creek,” Lancaster said, “so we decided to get out before we got stuck back there.”
After fishing the Southport waterfront in the early afternoon, the anglers headed for the scales, confident they’d be sitting in a good spot on the leader board.
“We knew with 48 boats that that fish would place high,” Lancaster said, “but there were guys fishing Snow’s Cut and a lot of big fish come out of there. We were sweating bullets as the weigh-in went on, but we held on.”
Not only did Carraway’s big fish hold onto the top spot on the leader board, it also earned her the event’s Top Lady Angler honors.
Ricky Evans, of Southport, scaled a 5.4 lb. flounder to secure second place in the Bay Creek Classic, and Wilmington’s Fred Davis was right behind him with a 5.2 lb. fish good for third.
A 2.2 lb. flounder earned the Top Junior Angler prize for Nelson Cobble, Jr.
The Bay Creek Classic is a benefit tournament put on to assist Brandon Matthews, a Southport native injured in a fall from a tree stand, with the astronomical costs associated with his recovery and treatment.
“We finally got a beautiful day to have the tournament,” Matthews said. “Amy was smiling from ear-to-ear at the party afterwards. It was very refreshing to see someone like her win instead of one of my friends and former competitors who would look at it as just another win.”
Matthews and his wife Kerry wished express their gratitude to the fishing community for making it another great year.
“We’d like to thank everyone from the sponsors down to the raffle ticket buyers,” he said. “Without such a generous and close-knit fishing community, this event could never exist.”
