Eric Powell Redfish Tournament
Capt. Rob Koraly, of Sandbar Safari Charters, and Joey Cartwright with the pair of red drum they caught on Gulp baits weighing 12.18 lbs. that earned them first place in the Eric Powell Redfish Tournament.
Topping both the two-fish aggregate competition and the event’s Big Fish TWT, Capt. Rob Koraly, of Sandbar Safari Fishing Charters, and partner Joey Cartwright paired 6.78 and 5.60 lb. red drum to earn the top spot in the First Annual Eric Powell Redfish Tournament, held April 30 out of New River Marina.
After spending the morning fishing his home inshore waters around Swansboro and landing a number of fish, including the smaller one they weighed, Koraly made the call to go search for some larger fish in the ocean.
“We ran all the way from Bogue Inlet down to New River,” he explained at the event’s awards ceremony.
However, the anglers didn’t see what they were looking for on the inlet shoals or the beachfront, so they headed in New River Inlet to scout the local bays. After trying a few without any signs of fish, the anglers found what they were looking for.
“We came into a bay within sight of the marina,” Koraly continued. “Right there we saw a nice knot of eight or nine fish, but they disappeared.”
Figuring that the fish had moved further back toward where a creek fed the bay, Koraly and Cartwright pursued them.
“I saw one boil and we Power-Poled down,” Koraly said. “Then we lost them. I’d been scanning for fish from on top of the T-top a lot of the day and my eyes were about shot. I finally saw a flash and was able to make the school—all nice fish—and we started to get excited.”
After making a good cast and having a fish spit the bait out, Koraly thought they might have missed their shot at the school.
“I said ‘this is a crucial opportunity’ and got down from the top,” the captain reported. “I knew we had to try and fish those fish hard.”
Fortunately, around 15 minutes after the missed opportunity, Cartwright was able to hook one of the fish and bring it boatside.
Releasing the smaller red they had in the livewell created a commotion that pushed the school away from the boat, and Cartwright’s 6.78 lb. fish was the last they caught.
“Those fish were spooky,” Koraly said. “A seagull would fly over and the shadow would cross and they’d get nervous.”
Fortunately for the Sandbar Safari anglers, the rest of the 63 boat field had a tough time with the reds on tournament day, and their fish took the top spot on the leader board handily.
Adrian Tyndall and Dustin White teamed up to scale a 10.47 lb. pair of reds, earning second place in the event.
A 6.0 lb. red earned Danielle Norris the tournament’s Top Lady Angler honors, and Curtis Trexel scaled a 4.04 lb. red good for the tournament’s Top Junior Angler award. The pair was fishing with Jordan Norris, and their fish also earned them third place in the event.
The Eric Powell Redfish Tournament was born after Powell, the universally-liked manager of New River Marina, was stricken with ALS last year and his condition further deteriorated this spring. The now-annual event is a fundraiser that will help ease the financial burdens of his treatment on the Powell family and to further research on the incurable disease.
