2025 Topsail Spring Surf & Pier Fishing Challenge
The 2025 Topsail Spring Surf & Pier Fishing Challenge brought together a total of 222 participants, with 131 anglers in the Surf Division and 91 in the Pier Division. In this event, pier anglers only compete against other pier anglers, and surf anglers only compete against other surf anglers.
The Pier Division’s leaderboard this spring featured bluefish, sea mullet, and black drum, with spanish mackerel moved from a leaderboard species over to a Spanish Mackerel TWT (replacing the normal Trout TWT due to the trout closure), and the Surf Division’s leaderboard offered bluefish, sea mullet, and black drum (no trout due to the closure), with a Red Drum TWT.
Robert Smith, of Jacksonville, topped the Surf Bluefish leaderboard with a 9.7 lb. fish landed around 1:00 a.m. Saturday near Seaview Pier. He caught the fish using a 6” sea mullet on a fish finder rig. Smith’s fish held the lead through the entire weekend, outlasting a competitive field.
The Surf Black Drum division was won by Gannon Monteith, of Cary, NC, who weighed in a massive 16.8 lb. black drum. Monteith was fishing with half a blue crab on a homemade bottom rig and was wading out into the surf south of Surf City Pier.
Gannon Monteith, of Cary, landed this 16.8 lb. black drum from the surf south of Surf City Pier using a blue crab. His catch earned him first place in the Surf Black Drum division of the 2025 Topsail Spring Surf & Pier Fishing Challenge.
In the Surf Sea Mullet category, James Stuedemann, of Holly Ridge, took top honors with a 1.8 lb. fish. He landed the winning mullet around 7:00 a.m. on Saturday off of the Surf City beachfront using fresh shrimp.
The Surf Red Drum TWT was claimed by Manuel Cumbee, of Wilmington, NC, who weighed in the only red drum of the tournament at 5.5 lbs. The fish was caught south of Seaview Pier using fresh shrimp on a bottom rig. Cumbee noted that the drum was holding in close, right in the trough of the beach.
In the Pier Division, the bluefish category and Pier Cup title went to Joshua Sloop, of Holly Ridge, NC, who weighed in a 9.3 lb. bluefish caught off Jolly Roger Pier. Sloop was fishing a single rod slide rig with a live mullet. His catch not only topped the Pier Bluefish leaderboard, but as the heaviest fish weighed in from the pier, it earned him and Jolly Roger Pier the prestigious Pier Cup title (until it must be defended again in the fall).
The black drum category in the Pier Division was won by Sean Simpson, of Sneads Ferry, who weighed in an impressive 5.4 lb. fish caught off Seaview Pier using head-on shrimp on a bottom rig.
In the Pier Sea Mullet category, Robert McHone, of Sneads Ferry, brought in the heaviest fish—a 1.4 lb. sea mullet that was caught off Seaview Pier using fresh shrimp on a bottom rig.
Joshua Sloop, of Holly Ridge, won the Pier Bluefish division with a 9.3 lb. bluefish that fell for fresh shrimp on a bottom rig. He was fishing from Jolly Roger Pier and earned himself and the pier the traditional Pier Cup honors.
The Spanish Mackerel TWT was won by Jacquelyn Pierson who weighed in a 0.7 lb. spanish mackerel that was caught off of Seaview Pier. The recent rain had turned off the spanish bite, as the rainwater dirtied up the ocean, making this catch even more impressive as spanish were few and far between all weekend.
The Topsail Spring Surf & Pier Fishing Challenge donates all of the tournament fish weighed in to First Fruit Ministries, a Wilmington food bank that provides thousands of meals annually to those in need in the community. The event finishes with an Awards Dinner, provided by East Coast Sports and the Medlin family, who bring in the local Boy Scout Troop 777 to prepare a BBQ meal for all participants.
To see the complete leaderboard from the 2025 spring event, and to find out more about the upcoming Topsail Fall Surf & Pier Fishing Challenge on November 7-9, 2025, go to FishermansPost.com.
