Boyscout Flounder Tournament
Matt Davis and Todd Eason, of Wilmington, wih the 5.5 and 6.78 lb. second and first place flounder in the Boy Scout Flounder Tournament. They hooked the fish on live pogies at a rockpile in the Cape Fear River.
Blowing away the rest of the field, Wilmington cousins Todd Eason and Matt Davis scaled 6.78 and 5.50 lb. flounder to finish first and second, respectively, at the fourth annual Boy Scout Flounder Tournament, held September 11 out of Bridge Tender Marina at Wrightsville Beach.
The pair fished the Cape Fear River, and after catching pogies at the Dredge Hole, bounced around to a number of spots before finding a hot flatfish bite in the early afternoon.
“It was actually our first stop, but it didn’t really pay off until the afternoon when we came back and the tide had gotten right,” Davis explained. “We ran around to a few more spots, and I told Todd the fish weren’t there before we went right back to where we started.”
Just after noon, as the pair returned to the area, a rockpile in 7’ of water south of Snow’s Cut, the bite turned.
“We’d been fishing a rising tide all day and just when it started falling, we went back there,” Davis continued.
The bite was on when they returned, and after catching some 15-16” fish, the anglers started putting some quality flatties in the boat.
“They were biting great,” Davis said. “We were letting them eat the pogies for a little while, but most of them were hooked in the throat. It wasn’t just a little weight on the line. When they thumped it, you knew you had a good fish.”
After catching successively larger flounder until they landed the 5.50 lb. fish, the anglers finally got a bite from their big fish of the day around 1:45.
“The big one was our last one,” Davis explained. “That fish picked Todd’s pogie up and ran off the rockpile toward deeper water. I thought it was a drum and didn’t even get the net until it came up and thrashed about 10’ from the boat and Todd told me to grab it.”
When Eason worked the fish back to the boat, Davis was ready, and he swung the winning fish aboard.
“Our only problem was that we thought the weigh-in was at 4:00 instead of 5:00,” Davis recalled. “We ran up there early and had to wait. We definitely didn’t leave those fish because they weren’t biting. They were biting for sure.”
When the scales did open up, Davis and Eason not only had the winning fish, they had another pair of fish between 4-5 lbs. that would’ve taken the top two spots in the event as well.
Weston Williams finished third in the Boy Scout tournament with a 3.97 lb. flounder. Travis Williams was hot on his heels with a 3.95 lb. fish that earned fourth, and David Clem rounded out the top five with a 2.56 lb. flatfish.
Tournament Director Andrew Zeldin wished to thank all the participating anglers and the sponsors—Charter Lakes Marine Insurance, Intracoastal Angler, Pleasure Island Insurance, SeaTow, and Fisherman’s Post—for making the event a success.
