Spring Inshore Challenge
Brandon Matthews and Douglas Cutting weigh in a flounder and red drum in the 2011 Fisherman’s Post Spring Inshore Challenge.
“I’d pre-fished for the past two weeks,” Wilmington’s Jake Scuorzo explained, “and I knew I was on some good fish.”
Little did he know that the 4.76 lb. flounder he and his brother Nick landed during the 2011 Fisherman’s Post Spring Inshore Challenge would be good enough to top the flatfish leader board and win over $3,000.
“I didn’t know what to think,” Scuorzo recalled of putting his big fish in the boat. “I knew it was early in the season and the bite hadn’t been that great, but with 88 boats, somebody could have a big one.”
Fortunately for Scuorzo, when the scales closed at Wrightsville Beach Marina, his fish reigned supreme.
After catching bait in the Carolina Beach boat basin on the morning of the event, the brothers set out in their 18’ Ranger into the Cape Fear River, first looking for a slot red drum fat enough to earn some money in that category.
“We made a few casts around one of the grass islands,” he explained. “Then we stopped messing with the drum. I’m more of a flounder fisherman anyway.”
After switching over, the anglers put a pair of 3 lb. flatfish in the boat for a solid start to the morning. They then hit up some docks on the banks of the Cape Fear looking for an even bigger fish, breaking one flounder off before heading to another spot.
“I hooked that big one in a little creekmouth about 10:00,” the winning angler recalled. “I’d just baited up a rod with a tiny finger mullet, thinking it would probably catch a little fish.”
Turning to bait another rod, Scuorzo got a surprise when he looked back.
“That rod with the finger mullet was doubled over like a drum was running with it,” he explained.”
After picking up the rod, the angler realized that instead of a drum, a healthy flatfish was on the other end, and he hustled to get it in the boat.
“We had a mishap the first time we tried to net it,” Scuorzo said, “but we got him the second time.”
The winning anglers continued fishing the Cape Fear for most of the rest of the day without much to show for it, making a final stop in Snow’s Cut in a last-ditch effort to put a doormat in the boat.
Capt. Wayne Crisco, of Last Resort Charters, with a 4.49 lb. flatfish good for second place in the 2011 Spring Inshore Challenge’s Flounder Division. His fish fell for a live menhaden underneath a Wrightsville Beach dock.
“There wasn’t too much happening the rest of the day,” he continued. “We messed around the cut a little bit right at the end, and then I dropped Nick off and headed to Wrightsville.”
As weigh-in closed, the 4.76 lb. fish held the top spot by over 1/4 lb., and Scuorzo earned the win.
Surf City’s Capt. Wayne Crisco, of Last Resort Charters, hauled in the number two flounder, a 4.49 lb. fish that earned himself and partners Donald and Kenneth Parker $1,888.50.
“I was happy to have a good fish to weigh,” Crisco commented, “but I didn’t think I would end up near the top of the board.”
He and the Parkers began their day in Southport, catching bait in Wildlife Creek. Like the winners, they started their day looking for a slot drum. After fishing a number of spots near Southport and breaking a few fish off in docks, the anglers decided it was time to focus on flounder.
Fishing their way towards Wrightsville, the trio landed six fish, including some in the 3 lb. class, but it wasn’t until their day was almost done that they connected with their big one.
“I had just turned and told the guys we had 18 minutes left,” said Crisco. “Then she bit.”
A live menhaden fooled the second place flounder beneath a Wrightsville Beach dock, and Crisco landed it quickly after waiting a moment for the fish to engulf his bait.
“We’d broken one off about 10 minutes before,” he explained. “When I caught that fish it still had the other leader hanging out of its mouth.”
Wilmington’s Bob Davis and J.J. Khoury with the 6.88 lb. red drum that secured second place in the Red Drum Divsion of the 2011 Spring Inshore Challenge.
After putting the fish in the boat, the anglers made the quick run to Wrightsville Beach Marina to weigh in their “buzzer fish.”
Squeaking in just behind the second place anglers was Karl Anderson, who weighed in a 4.48 lb. fish to finish third. Bill West’s 4.42 lb. flatfish earned him fourth, and Mark Armstrong rounded out the top five with a 4.39 lb. flounder.
Topping the tournament’s Red Drum leader board, Trinity, NC’s Barry Fowler and family scaled a 7.05 lb., 26.75” fish to take more than $2,600 back to the middle of the state, along with a host of other prizes including a custom Riley Rods redfish stick and a free mount of their winning fish from Hunter’s Haven Taxidermy.
Fowler, with his father M.C. (Top Senior Angler), daughter Valerie (Top Lady), brother Tim, and nephew Cole aboard a 22’ Sundance, headed for an area in the Cape Fear River where they’d experienced some success with the reds before.
“We hadn’t been down there in 3 weeks,” Fowler explained, “but those fish are in that spot 75% of the time.”
The spot, a hardbottom area on the bank of the Cape Fear River, was good to the Fowler family on tournament day, as they never left it, merely repositioning the boat a few times as the tide switched.
“We caught one right away,” Fowler explained. “The first line in the water had one before I even had time to get the second rod in the water.”
By 7:30 that morning, M.C. Fowler had already landed a fat mid-slot fish the anglers felt good about, but it wasn’t until slightly after lunch that their biggest red hit.
“It was right about 1:00,” Fowler said, “right as the tide started to fall.”
A live menhaden fooled the big red, and Valerie Fowler was the lucky angler.
Barry Fowler and the Fowler clan, of High Point and Trinity, NC, took first place in the 2011 Fisherman’s Post Spring Inshore Challenge’s Red Drum Division with a 7.05 lb. redfish. Valerie Fowler hooked the big red on a live menhaden in the Cape Fear River.
“That fish made a couple of good runs,” Barry Fowler continued. “It didn’t seem like he liked the boat for at first, but once he got under it, he sure wanted to stay there.”
When Valerie was finally able to coax the fish out from under the boat, Barry was ready with a large landing net.
“I’ve got a net the size of a Buick hood,” he explained. “I’m not about to lose a fish because of the net.”
With the fat red in the boat, the Fowlers spent a short time searching for a flatfish before deciding to tidy things up and head for the scales.
Scaling a 6.88 lb. red drum to take second place were Wilmington’s J.J. Khoury and Bob Davis. Fred Davis, fishing with his daughters Leah and Bethany, weighed in the 6.74 lb. red that earned third place, along with a 3.11 lb. flounder that earned them the event’s aggregate title.
Jeremy Cullen’s 6.19 lb. drum took fourth place, and Adam Sellers secured fifth with a 6.02 lb. fish.
With additional $20 payouts for fish weighed in alive, over 75% of the fish on the leader board were either returned to the water or went to UNCW’s Aquaculture program. More information and full a full rundown of the leader board are available at www.fishermanspost.com.
