Bay Creek Classic
Bethany, Leah, and Fred Davis--the "Turnitup" crew--accept the first place trophy in the Bay Creek Classic. They scaled a 5.8 lb. flounder that bit a live finger mullet in Snow's Cut to take the title.
“You have to love catching them on tournament day,” Wilmington’s Fred Davis said of the 5.8 lb. flounder that slid he and his daughters into first place in the Sixth Annual Bay Creek Classic, held September 1 out of Southport’s Wildlife Boat Ramp.
Davis, fishing with his daughters Leah and Bethany aboard the 19 Triton “Turnitup,” had done a little pre-fishing before the event and reported catching a few flounder, but nothing tremendous.
“We stuck to our same old routine,” Davis said. “We start out in Snow’s Cut, and then head out to the river if nothing’s happening.”
This wasn’t the first time that “same old routine” earned the Davis clan the top spot on a flounder tournament leaderboard, but it did take a while to produce after the family crew caught bait in Carolina Beach Inlet on the morning of the event.
“There wasn’t anything going on in the Cut early,” Davis continued, “so we headed out to fish some grass in the river.”
Casting live finger mullet to grass islands and banks in the river, the anglers began picking away at the flatfish.
“We started catching some of those typical river fish,” explained Davis, “cookie-cutter 2-3 pounders.”
The tournament features a 5-fish aggregate TWT, and while the cookie-cutters weren’t potential winners, the “Turnitup” crew was well on their way to a solid aggregate when they decided to go back in Snow’s Cut and look for a trophy fish around 2:30 on the afternoon of the event.
After setting up on a grass bank with a slight point extending from it, Davis got a strike on his first cast.
“That fish was out a little bit from the bank,” he explained, “in about 14-15 feet of water.”
Another live mullet fooled this fish, and the angler didn’t think he’d hooked anything too significant at first.
“He didn’t really feel big,” Davis continued. “I got him up and saw him and told the girls I needed the net.”
The big flatfish remained cooperative, and Bethany soon slid a landing net under it and brought it over the Triton’s gunnel.
“I really didn’t think that fish would be a winner,” Davis said, “but we were excited. It was the biggest one we’ve had in the past few tournaments, and I knew it would help out our five fish.”
As it turned out, the 5.8 lb. fish was just big enough for the win, easing past a 5.7 lb. flounder to take first place overall in the event, and it carried them into second place in the 5-fish TWT.
Capt. Wayne Crisco, of Last Resort Charters, landed the 5.7 lb. second place flatfish, and Jeff Taylor wasn’t far behind, scaling a 5.5 lb. flounder to earn third place.
Al Fulford and the “Flounder Nuts” crew took first place in the 5-fish TWT with a quintet of flounder with an aggregate weight of 17.7 lbs.
The Bay Creek Classic is an annual flounder tournament held to benefit much-loved Southport outdoorsman Brandon Matthews, who suffered a severe spinal injury in a 30’ fall from a tree stand in 2006. Proceeds generated by the event go to assist the Matthews family with the considerable expenses of his treatment and recovery from the injury.
