Tidelines – September 27, 2012
September proved to be work-intensive for Fisherman’s Post. We finished the month by hosting back-to-back tournaments, the North Carolina Inshore Championship and the NewBridge Bank Wild King Classic, as well as getting our annual Pleasure Island Surf Fishing Challenge tournament booklet assembled, printed, and delivered.
By far the show stopper at the North Carolina Inshore Championship was the 11+ lb. flounder weighed in by the Fulfords. An 11 lb. doormat is impressive on any day, as its length and width are simply striking for those of us that often find the barely legal or barely under-legal flounders on a regular basis, but it’s even more awe-inspiring to find a fish like that on tournament day. Al and Teresa Fulford and Lynn and DeeDee Creech brought their double digit flatfish in alive, and since we had the UNCW aquaculture program on hand with a landing tank to hold the live flounder for transport back to their facility for research and breeding, everyone in the crowd got to not only view the fish hit the scales, but also see it settled in on top of other fish in the tank (and it was notable in itself to see a 7 lb. and an 8 lb. flounder made to look “small”).
And while Sam Daughtry won the Carolina Beach event’s Red Drum Division by bringing in the heaviest redfish we had weighed all season in the Trail, it was Scott Blevins that took home the Trail title for Red Drum by amassing the heaviest three-fish aggregate of the season. If you remember, I had knocked Scott a little in an earlier Tidelines article for making the run from Southport to Topsail in a jon boat, but winning the Trail and taking home the extra $1000 in prize money, I believe, means he gets the last laugh.
The NewBridge Bank Wild King Classic had a modest showing this year, as the move to make it exclusively a 23 and Under event might have kept more boats out than it pushed smaller boats in. Saturday of this past weekend was by far the better day on the water and the better day of fishing for king mackerel. Nine of the ten kings weighed came in on Saturday, and most that fished on Sunday complained about a much stronger wind than was forecasted back on Friday afternoon at Registration when anglers were deciding which day to fish.
I like to think that my over nine years in business, like anyone who is a business owner, has made me good at problem solving, but I can’t yet figure out how to tweak the NewBridge Bank Wild King Classic to get more boats in. I’m good on location—Wild Wing Café (festive) and Seapath Marina (convenient)—and we have the free food and drink and lots of prizes that participants appreciate. And one thing is for sure, I can’t blame the weather this year, as one foot swells every twelve seconds is hard to improve on.
Is it boundaries? Is it not limiting to 23 and Under but limiting it to single engine boats? Or maybe it’s just that it has been hard these past few years to feel confident that you can go out on any given day and catch any kings, let alone 20+ lb. tournament fish?
And now the crew at Fisherman’s Post gets focused on our next and last tournament of the year, the Pleasure Island Surf Fishing Challenge, to be held October 19-21 out of Carolina Beach, Kure Beach, and Fort Fisher. The last few years we’ve had 350+ anglers fish this event, and so far pre-registration numbers seem to support a similar showing this year.
Those that enjoy surf fishing and need a reason to spend a long weekend on the beach are a perfect fit for this event, as fishing starts at midnight on Friday and ends at noon on Sunday. There’s more information in that event’s ad copy (see page 2), or you can go online to www.FishermansPost.com, click on “Tournaments,” and then click on “Surf Fishing Challenge.”
And the weekend before the Surf Fishing Challenge, you can find the Fisherman’s Post crew fishing an event instead of hosting it. We’ll be entering the CCA Inside & Out Tournament that has named Charlie Brown as this year’s beneficiary. I don’t care how well we do, as it will be good to catch fish instead of weigh them.
