Tournament Report -7th Annual Chasin’ Tails Speckled Trout Challenge
“That was lucky,” Douglas McMullen said of his winning 7.79 lb. catch in the 7th Annual Chasin’ Tails Outdoors Speckled Trout Challenge. “It was mighty early in the season.”
Douglas McMullen with the 7.79 lb. speckled trout that earned him first place in the 7th Annual Chasin’ Tails Speckled Trout Challenge. The big speck fell for a Bomber Spook, Jr. McMullen was casting around a school of bait in the Neuse River.
McMullen landed the big fish on September 24, 2014, just three weeks in to the four-month long event. And while luck certainly played a role, it wasn’t McMullen’s first taste of success in the tournament, as he took home the top honors in the 6th Annual Speckled Trout Challenge as well.
After winning the previous year’s event while working a Zara Spook, Jr. topwater plug, McMullen stuck with that same bait in the 2014 contest, and the particular lure he was casting had an even further connection to the tournament.
“That was on not just the same lure, but the exact one I got for winning last year’s event,” the angler continued.
While a chrome-sided lure attracted the attentions of his first winning speck, this year’s fish bit a color McMullen refers to as the “voodoo.”
“We call that chrome one the silver bullet,” McMullen explained. “The voodoo’s got a black head and a yellow body and looks like voodoo coming at you through the water.”
McMullen resides between New Bern and Havelock, and he set his sights on the same stretch of Neuse River shoreline where he’d found success in the tournament a year prior.
“We were within 3-4 miles of where I caught the other one,” he said, “just along the shorelines of the Neuse around Slocum and Hancock creeks.”
McMullen and his fishing partners were already experiencing some excellent action in the area before his gator trout bit.
“We were catching a lot of trout, rock, and drum all together there,” he explained. “The drum were good-sized, too.”
Though the anglers had been working their topwater plugs along the shoreline, McMullen saw something a bit further off the bank that caught his eye.”
“I saw some bait working out off the shoreline and happened to cast out to it,” he went on. “That fish knocked the heck out of the plug.”
Despite the aggressive bite, McMullen didn’t realize he’d hooked a potential contender in the Trout Challenge at the outset of the fight.
“Most of the trout have been 2-3 pounders,” he explained. “When that fish hit I didn’t think he was the size he was. I was really surprised when we got him near the boat.”
After landing the fish and finishing up the day, the angler drove to Atlantic Beach to weigh his catch in at Chasin’ Tails.
“My only regret is that having to take him to Morehead meant I couldn’t keep him alive,” McMullen reported. “I turn 99% of my fish back in the water.”
After getting the official weight of 7.79 lbs. and taking the lead in the contest, McMullen had several months to watch the leaderboard and hope no one landed a bigger fish during October, November, and December, the traditional heart of the trophy trout season.
“I heard about some bigger fish up to 9-10 lbs. caught,” he explained, “but they weren’t in the Challenge. And you know how it goes, you can hear about an 8-pounder, but if you don’t see it you never know if it’s real.”
Fortunately for the two-time champion, no one was able to muster a larger fish through the close of the tournament on January 4, and the angler took home $2,430, a Star Plasma Rod, a Penn Conflict Reel, and a replica mount of his catch from Dog Island Art Works as his bounty.
Asked if he knew what lure he’d be casting in the 2015 Speckled Trout Challenge, McMullen didn’t hesitate.
“Oh yeah!” he exclaimed. “I’ve retired both those plugs and left them with the mounts at the store, but I might have to go back and get one!”
Jordan White nailed down second place in the Speckled Trout Challenge with a 7.23 lb. fish that earned him $1,215, a Fenwick/Penn rod and reel combo, and a Calcutta tackle bag. A 6.73 lb. trout secured third and $405 along with a tackle package for Tommy Williams. Finishing fourth and fifth in the event to also earn tackle packages were David Moore and Raymond Lozeau with 6.67 and 6.36 lb. specks.
More information on the Chasin’ Tails Speckled Trout Challenge and a full leaderboard can be found at www.chasintailsoutdoors.com.
