Seacoast Anglers Association Flounder Tournament 2009
Myrtle Beach's Jeff Chandler with the 5.64 lb. winning flounder in the 2009 Seacoast Anglers Association Flounder Tournament. The $1000 flatfish fell for a Carolina-rigged finger mullet near Coquina Harbor.
Most anglers fish tournaments for quite a while before ending up in the money, but Myrtle Beach’s Jeff Chandler took home the top spot in the first tournament he’s ever fished, the 2009 Seacoast Anglers Association Flounder Tournament, held May 8-9 out of Harbourgate Marina in North Myrtle Beach. The 5.64 lb. doormat Chandler hauled to the scales earned him not only the top honors in the event, but a check for $1000.
It didn’t come easy, though, as Chandler and his two teammates didn’t have a single fish in the box by 3:30 PM, and with the scales closing at 5:00, time was running short.
After releasing four short flounder over the course of the day, Chandler finally had a decent strike around 4:00 while fishing a cove off the ICW near Coquina Harbor. A Carolina-rigged mud minnow tempted the bite.
“He took it pretty quick,” Chandler explained. “It actually felt a lot like a snag, though, but he took off right after that. I said, ‘Get the net. It’s a big one.’ It was a good fight.”
Chandler was finally able to pry the fish off the bottom and lead it to the net, and things were looking up.
“I knew it might be a winner. Yeah, we got pretty excited,” Chandler continued.
The trio continued to fish near Coquina Harbor for a few more minutes, then made the short run to the scales where they found out that their fish had what it took to win.
A 5.22 lb. flounder earned Terry Hinshaw and Lynn Creech second place in the Seacoast Anglers tournament. The pair, fishing out of Holden Beach, targeted the area around the Lockwood Folly shrimp fleet.
After catching a 15″ flounder early on, the action slowed until lunchtime, when Creech got a strike on a Carolina-rigged finger mullet he cast in front of the shrimp boats.
“He waited a short period of time, then set the hook,” Hinshaw explained. “We fish a lot, and we pretty much knew what it was when Lynn hooked it.”
The flounder stayed deep while Creech cranked it towards the boat. When he finally got it close, he lifted the flatfish to the surface and Hinshaw’s waiting net.
“Yeah, we got pretty excited about it,” Hinshaw continued. “You’d have to know my buddy Lynn. He gets worked up.”
After landing the flounder, the friends fished Lockwood Folly for a short time longer, then decided to get their long run to Myrtle Beach and the scales underway.
“We stopped a couple times on the way and fished a little more,” said Hinshaw. “We caught one more smaller flounder.”
Ocean Isle’s Capt. Kyle Hughes, fishing with his father Nathaniel, took third place with a 4.17 lb. fish also caught in the Lockwood Folly River.
Hughes’ fish bit a Carolina-rigged peanut pogy fished near a hardbottom area on a channel bend far up the river.
Interestingly, he hooked the flounder in almost the exact spot where he caught a 4+ lb. flounder that earned second place in the 2007 Seacoast Tournament.
“I casted about that far from where I caught the fish two years ago,” Hughes said, holding his arms a scant 3′ apart.
The Seacoast Anglers Flounder Tournament is in its fourth year. The event benefits the Hook A Kid On Fishing Program, which offers underprivileged youth the opportunity to experience the joy of saltwater fishing and is expanding every year, taking 112 kids fishing in 2007 and 150 in 2008.
