Wildlife Flounder Tournament 2006
The Wildlife Bait and Tackle Flounder Tournament, held in Southport the weekend of September 8-9, didn’t produce the same high number of boats that it has in the past, but even with only 26 boats it still took an 8 pound class fish to win the first place prize money.
With less than 30 minutes until the close of scales on the second of two days of fishing, Adam Sellers, of Bolivia, carried up an 8.56 lb. flounder to win first place. Sellers is a regular top finisher in this event. Last year he took second place with an 8 pound class fish, and a couple of years before that he was the tournament winner.
Adam Sellers was fishing this year with Lynn Sellers and Wes Knox on the “Magic Stik,” an 18’ Flycraft with a 150 Yamaha Vmax.
Over the two days of fishing they worked the Cape Fear River and the Carolina Beach area. “We fished both but we caught fish in the river. Carolina Beach was nowhere near like the river this weekend,” said Sellers.
On Friday they landed about seven fish, with the heaviest weighing 4.48 lbs. On Saturday they found about nine keeper fish, with a 3 lb. fish the next heaviest behind their tournament winner.
Most of the fish came on live mullets, but a few hit bucktails.
Douglas Cutting, from New Bern, and Matt Copeland, from Charleston, SC, took second place with a 6.04 lb. flounder. They caught the flounder on Friday, and kept the lead until late Saturday when Sellers brought in his fish.
Cutting and Copeland were fishing on a 240 LTS Triton with a 225 Mercury Optimax supplied by Boats Unlimited in New Bern. Both days they were fishing up the river using live finger mullet.
In addition to the 6.04 lb. flounder, on Friday they also landed a 4.92 lb. fish. Saturday was a little slower for the team, as they put two keeper flounder in the boat—both in the 2 to 3 pound range.
Third place went to Jerry Harrison from Charlotte. He weighed in a 5.80 lb. flounder.
Fourth place went to Southport local Gene Lancaster and crew. Ken Lancaster landed their team’s 5.16 lb. flounder on live bait in the Carolina Beach area on Saturday. Also on board were Terry Charles and Stephen Lancaster.
The final top five spot went to Brandon Sauls. He weighed in a 4.52 lb. flounder.
