Tournament Reports – Fisherman’s Post Trail Championship

The Inshore Trail Championship event, the culmination of the Fisherman’s Post Inshore Trail, took place on Sunday, September 13, at Inlet Watch Marina in Carolina Beach, NC. Ten qualifying teams, based on their heaviest three-red drum aggregate from the five Inshore Challenge events, qualified to participate. For this one-day, invite-only tournament, anglers were looking for the single heaviest red drum to win Trail Championship honors, the $3000 in prize money, and the TWT payouts.

This year’s first place winner, topping the leaderboard with a stout 7.05 lb. red drum, was “Team Fowler” from Wallburg, NC. Cole, Barry, and Valerie Fowler set out from Snow’s Cut to the southeastern Cape Fear River in the early, overcast morning.

“It was much better weather than the day before. The wind had died down which gave us a chance,” C. Fowler remembered.

Their target destination was rocky oyster beds which make great hunting grounds for inshore predators. However, there were as many Carolina rigs lost to the sharp shells as there were fish caught. The winning fish took C. Fowler’s live mullet late in the morning.

“We thought it was either an over-slot drum or a ray,” he recounted, and the enormous red drum drug 50 yards of line out before C. Fowler even had a chance to start reeling. “I was worried it’d cut the line on the beds. At one point we thought about bringing up the anchor because it was taking so much line.”

Eventually, he hauled his fish in the boat and knew it had to be a top finisher. “All in all, it was a great day to catch a 7+ pounder,” stated C. Fowler.

Scoring second place with another heavy red drum was team “Kook Tacos” out of the Sunset Beach, Ocean Isle, and Holden Beach area. The team weighed in a 6.86 lb. red.

Tim Disano, Tripp Hooks, and Shane Britt headed out at 5:30 a.m. in search of live bait.

“It’s easy to find bait, but finding the right-sized minnow is where it gets hard,” Disano explained.

They picked up a nice bounty of 4-5 inch mullet near Sunset Beach. With good bait on board, the trio moved on to one of their favorite fishing spots, a place where they knew bull drum to be at a bend in a creek with an underwater ledge dropping the bottom from 4’ to 12’ deep.

They waited for the tide to fall low. Earlier in the week, they had fished the area and caught plenty of reds with live mullet. On his third cast of the day, Disano got a bite on his live bait and pulled up the second place redfish with little fight, one of the few fish they caught that day.

After snagging what they hoped would be a winner, they fished their way back up to Carolina Beach, stopping at a handful of spots, but none to any avail. Near Southport, they managed to catch some flounder (that made a nice meal that night after a day on the water).

Disano said, “The toughest part of fishing is being there when the fish are there. It’s all about the timing. The fun part of these tournaments is the strategy that you use. Last year we didn’t do well in the Trail, so this year was a great redemption for us.”

Third place was taken by team “Lunar Low” who weighed in a 5.09 lb. drum, and coming in fourth place was team “Chasin’ Tails Fishing Team” with a 4.53 pounder.

Fifth place in the Championship went to team “Marine Warehouse Center,” the big winner of the regular season title with a three-fish aggregate of 21.87 lbs., who brought their 4.43 lb. fish to the scales a mere five minutes prior to the sixth place team, “Wipe Your Feet,” who also weighed in a 4.43 lb. red.

For more information on the Inshore Trail Championship event, visit www.fishermanspost.com or follow their Facebook page. The dates of the events that will comprise the 2021 Inshore Tournament Trail and Tournament Trail Championship will be posted in December.

by Fish Post