Tournament Report: Wrightsville Beach Inshore Challenge
Fisherman’s Post hosted their annual Wrightsville Beach Inshore Challenge over the weekend of July 22-23. The event featured a main leaderboard based on a boat’s single heaviest red drum, and then also offered a Single Red Drum TWT, a Two Red Drum TWT, and a Trash Fish TWT (based off of a boat’s single heaviest oyster toad or lizardfish).
Tournament fishing began at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday, with the weigh-in opening at Wrightsville Beach Marina at 1:00 p.m. and closing at 4:00 p.m.
At the close of scales, the tournament was won by Team Reeling In, captained by Adrian Doby. Adrian and his father, Keith Doby, caught a tournament-best 7.76 lb. red drum.
They started on Saturday by running to a flat that they had already scouted out before the tournament, only to find other anglers fishing the spot when they arrived. Just after noon and following some heavy rain, they were able to come back to the flat and finally started picking up bites on grass points in the area.
A. Doby stated, “We got really lucky that the weather pushed out when it did. The wind really kept the fish at bay early on, and it made fishing pretty tough until the afternoon. Sometimes you just get lucky and everything comes together, and that’s what happened.”
Adrien Doby and Keith Doby, of Team Reeling In, earned the win in the Wrightsville Beach Inshore Challenge with a 7.76 lb. red drum caught on a flat using a finger mullet. They also weighed in a 6.97 lb. fish to take the top spot in the Two Red Drum TWT.
Their big fish came off of a finger mullet.
Dodging afternoon storms, Team reeling In was able to put another good fish in the boat, one that weighed in at 6.97 lbs., and that two-fish aggregate was enough to bring the team the top spot in the Two Red Drum TWT as well.
Team R&T, led by Carter Pigford, took second place in the event with a 7.55 lb. red drum. Carter fished the tournament with his wife, Brittany Pigford, who landed the second-place fish for the team.
Team R&T, comprised of Carter and Brittany Pigford, finished in second place in the Wrightsville Beach event with a 7.55 lb. red drum caught using a mullet on a cork rig.
The two began the tournament by chasing mullet, and once they had a livewell full, they ran to some marsh banks that have regularly produced for them.
The bite was slow for the most part, with the winning fish coming in the afternoon after waiting out the noon showers. Their fish came from a mullet that was floated underneath a cork suspended off the bank.
Third place went to Team Dirty Oar, led by Barry Williams. The team secured third place in the tournament with a respectful weight of 6.98 lbs. Barry, fishing with Evan Taylor (his son), Van Fogleman (friend), and Cody Fogleman (friend’s son) had quite the morning on the water.
The team started by catching their live finger mullet for the day, and they fished the baits under corks and on drum rigs in holes that featured deep creek fallouts paired with good oyster beds. With this structure, the team stayed on top of fish steadily until 9:45 a.m. when they were temporarily taken off the water by inclement weather.
Barry had high praise for the tournament, stating, “This is one tournament that I look forward to every year. The environment is lively and being able to fish it with my kids is just always a fun thing to do.”
The Trash Fish TWT was won by Team Killin Time, with an oyster toad weighing 1.60 lbs. Cody Fogleman took home the title of Junior Angler Champion, David Powell was the top senior angler with a 6.34 lb. red drum, and Brittany Pigford was the Lady Angler Champion.
The Awards, as well as Registration, were hosted at Wild Wing Café, and the Captains’ Meeting, Weigh-In, and Awards Ceremony were all live streamed on the Fisherman’s Post Facebook page.
This tournament benefitted the Wilmington Elks, who continually invest in the local community by providing programs to help encourage kids to grow up drug free, while helping those in the community with unmet needs.
The next Fisherman’s Post event is the Southport Inshore Challenge over the weekend of August 19-20. Originally scheduled to be a two-flounder leaderboard, the event has transitioned to a two red drum event due to the shortened flounder season.
Then the Carolina Beach Inshore Challenge, a one flounder and one red drum split leaderboard, will be hosted out of Inlet Watch Marina on September 9-10.
More information on these tournaments, as well as a more complete leaderboard for the Wrightsville event, can be found at www.FishermansPost.com.
