Sheriff Ingram Flatfish Roundup
Brandon Sauls, Jeff Beck, and Steve Lanier–Team “Bonecrusher”–took first place in the Sheriff Ingraham Flatfish Roundup with a 5.62 lb. flounder that bit a live bait near the Jim Caudle Reef.
The crew wasn’t terribly confident in their fish as they headed to the scales, but the 5.62 lb. flounder the “Bone Crusher” team weighed in at the 3rd Annual Sheriff Ingram Flatfish Roundup beat out their competition and earned them the win.
Brandon Sauls, Jeff Beck, and Steve Lanier teamed up for the event, and had a hunch about where they might find a valuable fish on tournament day.
“We felt like with all the rain and fresh water we’d do better fishing down to the west,” Beck explained. “We were looking for salty, cleaner water, so we fished some nearshore reefs in the ocean.”
After trying a few other spots first, the anglers found a burst of action when they began dropping baits at the Jim Caudle Reef off Little River Inlet early in the afternoon.
“I can’t say for sure who caught our big one,” Beck explained. “I’m 90% sure Brandon did. We had a flurry of action around 12:30 and caught all our fish in about an hour and a half.”
Along with their big fish, the trio had four other fat flatfish and were excited about their five-fish aggregate weight (heaviest five fish earn the event’s third place check), but not necessarily their big one.
“To tell the truth I didn’t think our fish would hold up against those Southport guys,” Beck continued. “There’s a lot of good flounder fishermen in Southport, but I thought our five-fish was strong.”
As it turned out, their 5.62 lb. fish was indeed the event’s heaviest, and the “Bone Crusher” anglers took home the first place check instead.
Just behind the winners with a 5.45 lb. flounder were Fred Davis and the “Turnitup” crew, who took home second place. With the “Bone Crusher” out of the running for the five-fish aggregate, Brian Baker and team “Whompachomp” scaled a quintet of flounder weighing 15.74 lbs. to take home third place.
