Southport Inshore Challenge
Robert and Jimmy Strickland with the 4.01 and 8.03 lb. flounders that carried the “3 Stricklands” to First Place Flounder at the Fisherman’s Post Southport Inshore Challenge. They and father Jim Strickland caught their flatfish on live menhaden around some rocky structure in 2′ of water near Southport.
Blasting past their competition by over 3 lbs., Jim Strickland and the “3 Stricklands” fishing team scaled a pair of flounder weighing 12.04 lbs. to take home the top spot on the flounder leaderboard at the Fisherman’s Post Southport Inshore Challenge, held June 21 out of Southport Marina.
Strickland and his sons Jimmy and Robert traveled from Fayetteville to fish the event aboard their 24’ Bay Rider skiff and anchored their winning weight with a fat 8.03 lb. flatfish.
The trio fished the Lockwood Folly River on the morning of the event and found a few flounder but no tournament-quality fish before deciding to head back towards Southport as midday drew near.
The move soon proved fortuitous, as the anglers found a steady bite of larger fish while casting to some rocky structure in 2’of water near Southport.
“We had a couple fish around three pounds in the boat pretty quickly,” Strickland reported.
A few minutes after landing those fish, Jimmy Strickland got another bite on a live 5” menhaden.
“He was standing on the front of the boat,” Strickland continued, “and Robert was at the back. Jimmy asked Robert if he’d bumped his line but then said ‘No, it’s a bite.’”
When the angler set the hook, the team knew they’d hooked a quality fish.
“It came up and made a big splash,” Strickland explained.
Jimmy Strickland was able to reel the flounder to the boat relatively quickly, but once close the doormat began to put up a struggle.
Travis Overman and Ashley Oakley scaled a 7.43 lb. red drum to earn First Place Red Drum for they and Justin Eddins–the “Bazen Custom Rods” team–in the Southport Inshore Challenge. Their big red struck a live menhaden under a float on a marsh flat near Southport.
“He’d come up some and then go back down over and over,” Strickland said. “It probably went on for 30-40 seconds. When I saw the size of the fish I asked Robert for the net.”
The next time the flatfish appeared, Strickland was ready to end the tension and put it in the boat. “I leaned way out one-handed and got him a long way from the boat,” he explained.
With a two-fish aggregate of over 10 lbs. in the boat, the anglers knew they’d stand a shot at a high finish in the event but kept casting as the tide rose.
A few minutes later, they hooked the 4.01 lb. fish that further upgraded their weight.
“We stayed put about two hours and it just seemed like fish were pulling in there on that incoming tide,” Strickland added.
After landing their second-heaviest fish, the team felt confident enough to go look for a red drum to get onto the event’s other leaderboard.
“We knew from past tournament results we’d be on the board somewhere,” Strickland said.
Though their drum quest proved unsuccessful, their heavy pair of flounder topped not only the leaderboard but also the event’s Single Big Flounder and Two Flounder TWT’s.
Capt. James Gauldin and the “Whatevers Chewin” crew earned second place on the flounder board with a pair of fish weighing 8.72 lbs. Capt. Jason Dail and “Silverspoon” rounded out the top three with 8.26 lbs. of flatfish.
Also securing victory by a handy margin, Southport’s Travis Overman and the “Bazen Custom Rods” crew weighed in a 7.43 lb. red drum to earn first place in that category.
Overman, fishing with Justin Eddins and Ashley Oakley on a 16’ Hewes Redfisher, had confidence he’d be able to find a solid red drum on the day of competition from fun fishing in the weeks leading up to the event.
“I had some fish dialed in over the last couple weeks,” he explained.
Heading for a marsh flat south of Southport in their quest for a near-27” red, the trio began casting topwater plugs around exposed oyster rocks and marsh points early on the morning of the tournament.
“We were on a pretty good bite early,” Overman said. “We found a couple schools of fish and had several mid-slots in there.”
They continued catching fish as the tide fell, but were forced to abandon the reds as the water got truly skinny.
“We stayed on them for a couple hours of the fall but had to leave when it got really low,” Overman reported.
When the tide began to rise in the late morning, the “Bazen Custom Rods” crew decided to get back into the productive area as soon as they had enough water.
“We’d had 23, 24, 25, and 26 inch reds,” Overman said, “but not that big one we were looking for.”
As the anglers continued to work topwater plugs around noon, Eddins tossed out a live menhaden under a float near a grass line. It wasn’t long before his reel was squealing, and the crew soon put a larger fish in the boat; however, they weren’t sure it would fall under the state’s 27” maximum limit for reds.
“Whenever you catch a big one like that you always assume it’s over,” Overman said. “We got real excited to see that it wasn’t.”
With the just-under 27” red in the livewell, the anglers decided to go search for a flounder. They hooked several while casting menhaden to docks on the Southport waterfront and added a 2.61 lb. flatfish to their drum to capture the event’s flounder/drum aggregate prize as well.
Cynthia Cranson, fishing on the “Wake and Bait,” secured second place on the red drum leaderboard with a 6.22 lb. red. The “Shore Bet” and Greg Durham earned third with a 5.99 lb. red.
To see a full leaderboard and learn more about the Southport Inshore Challenge and all of Fisherman’s Post’s Inshore Tournament Trail events, visit www.fishermanspost.com.
