Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge
The 2024 Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge, the last of the five Inshore Challenge events that Fisherman’s Post hosts every year, saw the lowest number of boats entered, but it also saw the heaviest slot red drum of the year weighed in.
The Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge was structured like the other four events, with a single heaviest red drum leaderboard that included several TWTs—Single Big Red Drum TWT, Two Red Drum TWT, High Roller Single Big TWT, and “Trash Fish” TWT—as well as numerous secondary prizes, such as special weights, live release, Seatow, Mudpuppy Salt Stix, Marine Bean, and Pigford Custome Homes.Â
The tournament’s one day of fishing was Saturday, September 7, with weigh-in held at Inlet Watch Yacht Club from 2:00-4:00, and the first boat that weighed in ended the day atop the leaderboard.
Team Goof Off, whose crew included Scott Rivers, Deana Rivers, Trevor Rivers, and Jacob Frink, presented a 27” red drum at 2:00 that weighed 7.92 lbs., and then they weighed in a second red drum that weighed 7.57 lbs. Their two single fish, as well as their two-fish aggregate (15.49 lbs.), brought Goof Off the title of tournament champion, and they also took first place in all three red drum TWTs.
With bait that they had caught the day before, Goof Off took off early Saturday morning for their first spot. While they were headed down the waterway, they saw fish blowing up on some bait along the bank. They threw out some mullet and crabs, but after 15 or so minutes of no action, they kept heading down the waterway. They stopped at the same spot that produced the two fish that brought them a win earlier in the season at the Ocean Isle Inshore Challenge, a grass line between Sunset Beach and Ocean Isle with about 2’ of water and some submerged structure.
Deana Rivers, Trevor Rivers, Scott Rivers, and Jacob Frink, of Team Goof Off, won the 2024 Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge with a 7.92 lb. slot red drum caught on a live mullet along a grass bank. They also weighed in a 7.57 lb. red drum.
Phil Ivins, of Team Days Off, secured a second place finish in the 2024 Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge even though he fished alone (without his normal fishing partner). Ivins found a 7.27 lb. red drum off the point of an oyster rock in the Cape Fear River using a live mullet.The team’s first bite came on a Carolina-rigged crab, but the small red measured 12”. Their second bite came on a mullet, and this second fish would be the 7.92 lb. fish they would weigh in to win the event.
As they went to put the drum in the livewell, they noticed that the livewell had gone out, likely due to debris it picked up from the first stop in shallow water. They put another live mullet on the same rod that landed their first 27” fish, cast it out, and stuck it in a rod holder. While they were trying to troubleshoot the livewell, that same rod bent over, and line began to peel off.
This third bite would be the 7.57 lb. red drum (also measuring right at 27”) they would weigh in as their second fish. The team stopped fishing by 8:30 am, got the livewell working, slowly started heading north towards Inlet Watch, and weighed in two healthy fish that were released after weigh-in.
In addition to their top leaderboard finish and TWT success, Trevor Rivers won the Junior Angler title, Deana Rivers was the Lady Angler champion, and the team’s two 7+ lb. red drum were enough to help Team Goof Off finish as the champions of the Inshore Trail regular season with a three-fish aggregate of 22.58 lbs.Â
Phil Ivins, of Wrightsville Beach’s Team Days Off, normally fishes with Taylor Henley, but for this event, he was solo, as Henley had a commitment that kept him joining in. Days Off was the second boat to weigh in at the Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge, and Ivins finished the day in second place.
Phil Ivins, of Team Days Off, secured a second place finish in the 2024 Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge even though he fished alone (without his normal fishing partner). Ivins found a 7.27 lb. red drum off the point of an oyster rock in the Cape Fear River using a live mullet.
For this event, he put in at the Snow’s Cut boat ramp and headed south down the Cape Fear River, stopping at a handful of spots. He threw Vudu soft plastics under popping corks, but none of the areas he targeted early had anything to offer other than short fish. Ivins kept heading further downriver and stopped at a grass bank with oyster rocks nearby. His first fish at this location would be the fish that earned the second-place finish, a 7.27 lb. red drum that measured right at 27”.
The second-place fish came off the point of an oyster rock, and it bit on a live finger mullet.
Ivins had a gravity-fed Check It Stick on the boat, the same measuring stick the Inshore Trail uses at weigh in. He measured the fish four times, and then packed up and started heading north, scouting out spots along the way for the next day’s Inshore Trail Championship.
Seven of the eight fish that made the leaderboard in the Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge were released alive, and those release efforts are handled in every event by the Wilmington Elks, a local non-profit that invests in the community through programs that help children grow up healthy and drug-free, undertakes projects that address unmet need, and honors the service and sacrifice of our veterans.
For a complete leaderboard from the Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge, as well as information on all five Inshore Challenge events and the season-long Inshore Trail, please visit www.FishermansPost.com.
