2025 Pleasure Island Team Surf Fishing Challenge
The 2025 Pleasure Island Team Surf Fishing Challenge is Fisherman’s Post’s first surf fishing event each year, bringing teams to Carolina Beach, Kure Beach, and Fort Fisher where up to four anglers per team compete.
The leaderboard species for this tournament are red drum, bluefish, black drum, and sea mullet, with winners based on a team’s three-fish aggregate for each species. The Pleasure Island Team tournament also offers a Team Aggregate TWT (based on the weight total of a team’s single heaviest fish from each of the four species), and a Hall of Fame Award (based off of a team’s total weight of all fish from all four species).
Scout’s Surf Crew, featuring anglers Scout Butner, Andrew Butner, Jason Rowell, and Skylar Gable from High Point and Kernersville, achieved an impressive triple crown this year by winning three major awards. They secured the Team Aggregate TWT with a combined weight of 13.40 lbs. from their single largest fish in each division, dominated the red drum division with a total of 15.60 lbs. from three fish, and earned the Hall of Fame Award with an event-record 32.7 lbs. of fish overall.
Scout’s Surf Crew won the red drum division unchallenged, being the only team to land any red drum. The first two red drum, weighing 4.20 lbs. and 4.60 lbs., were brought in by Scout and her father Andrew later in the afternoon on Saturday. The three-fish aggregate was completed in style later that day with a 6.80 lb. red drum landed by Jason Rowell.
Team Scout’s Surf Crew (Scout Butner, Andrew Butner, Jason Rowell, and Skylar Gable) took top honors in three categories in the 2025 Pleasure Island Team Surf Fishing Challenge, winning the Red Drum Division (three-fish aggregate of 15.6 lbs.), the Team Aggregate TWT (four-fish aggregate of 13.4 lbs.), and the Hall of Fame Award (32.7 lbs. total aggregate weight).
Scout Surf’s Crew’s won the Team Aggregate TWT with a 1.20 lb. bluefish, a 6.80 lb. red drum, a 4.30 lb. black drum, and a 1.10 lb. sea mullet, and the team completed the triple crown by winning the Hall of Fame Award, achieved by weighing in 3.3 lbs. of bluefish, 15.6 lbs. of red drum, 11.1 lbs. of black drum, and 2.7 lbs. of sea mullet.Â
They accredit their success to the strategy of remaining mobile throughout the weekend, hopping from Carolina Beach to Fort Fisher, allowing them to consistently position themselves where the fish were biting. Additionally, they utilized a solid spread of bait, including fresh shrimp, sand fleas, and Fish Bites.
Team Under Slot Again, hailing from North Topsail and featuring anglers Dale Traxler, Tommy Manning, David Rowland, and Jake Davidson, won both the Black Drum Division and the Sea Mullet Division.
Team Under Slot Again (Dale Traxler, Tommy Manning, David Rowland, and Jake Davidson) finished the 2025 Pleasure Island Team Surf Fishing Challenge atop of two leaderboard divisions. Their three-fish weight of 13.30 lbs. won the Black Drum Division, and a three-fish weight of 6.00 lbs. bested the field in the Sea Mullet Division.
Their total for the Black Drum Division was an aggregate weight of 13.30 lbs., with catches weighing 2.90 lbs., 5.30 lbs., and 5.10 lbs. They conquered the competitive Sea Mullet Division with a three-fish aggregate weight totaling 6.00 lbs., consisting of fish weighing 2.00 lbs., 2.10 lbs., and 1.90 lbs.Â
Primarily fishing at Kure Beach, Team Under Slot Again found success using sand fleas on bottom rigs. Their black drum catches started early on Saturday morning, with 5 lb. black drums landed at 5:30 am and noon.
Their success with sea mullet occurred throughout Saturday, as they consistently landed citation-size sea mullet all day. They submitted the three largest in their cooler and had many more citation-size sea mullet not entered.
Team El Presidente Gun Club won the Bluefish Division with a total weight of 4.40 lbs., consisting of fish weighing 1.80 lbs., 1.50 lbs., and 1.10 lbs. This team featured anglers Jim Meehan, Dan Meehan, Mike Freeman, and Kylie Barefoot, and they hail from various locations including Leland, Apex, and Southport.
El Presidente Gun Club has been participating in these tournaments together since 2020 and were pleasantly surprised to win the Bluefish Division, a feat often tricky to pull off due to the swarms of 2+ lb. bluefish that can typically occur this time of year.
Throughout the weekend, the team primarily fished at Kure Beach, where they enjoyed great success using cut mullet on bottom rigs. Despite the blowing and cold weather early Saturday morning, their most productive period for bluefish occurred between 6:30-9:00 am.
The Pleasure Island Team Surf Fishing Challenge is the first event in the Surf Series Trail, a season-long competition where anglers fish as many of the Fisherman’s Post surf fishing events as they wish, and then the top five anglers are decided after the fifth and final surf fishing event of the season. The winners are determined by their five heaviest fish over the course of the up-to-five surf fishing events.
In total, 45 teams entered this year’s Pleasure Island Team Surf Fishing Challenge, and as is the tradition, all of the fish weighed in are donated to First Fruit Ministries. First Fruit Ministries began in 1998, and it has grown to serve over 20,000 hot meals, provide emergency groceries to over 5,000 households, and shelter over 24 homeless women and families annually.
For a more complete leaderboard for the Pleasure Island Team event, as well as information on the Surf Series Trail and the remaining four surf fishing tournaments that Fisherman’s Post will host in 2025, please visit www.FishermansPost.com.
