Tournament Report: Topsail Fall Surf & Pier Fishing Challenge
The weather for the 2022 Topsail Fall Surf & Pier Fishing Challenge was greatly improved from 2021’s high winds, seas, and currents, and the comfortable forecast certainly aided in attracting 205 surf anglers and 88 pier anglers to compete in this year’s event.
After going through Registration at East Coast Sports on Friday, both surf and pier anglers headed to find their location prior to the official start of fishing at 11:59 pm on Friday. Pier anglers could choose between the island’s three piers—Surf City Pier, Seaview Pier, and Jolly Roger Pier—and surf anglers could select any beachfront on the island. The event ended at 12:00 noon on Sunday, offering 36 possible hours of fishing time, before meeting back at East Coast Sports for an Awards Dinner and Awards Ceremony.
In the Pier Division, Travis Priest, from Goldsboro, took the top spot in the Red Drum Category with a 6.0 lb. slot red (26.5”) caught Saturday afternoon. Priest was fishing middle way down the Surf City Pier using cut mullet on a two-hook rig. The 6-pounder, the only red drum he caught all weekend, also earned Priest the Pier Cup. The Pier Cup is a continuous trophy that now resides at Surf City Pier, until it will be defended during the 2023 Topsail Spring Surf & Pier event.
Travis Priest, from Goldsboro, won the Pier Red Drum Division with a 6.0 lb. slot red caught on cut mullet while fishing from Surf City Pier. The fish also earned Priest and Surf City Pier the Pier Cup trophy.
The event’s heaviest bluefish caught from a pier came from Steve Rochelle, from Jacksonville. Rochelle was fishing on Seaview Pier, and he was fishing for a drum on Saturday afternoon when he landed the 2.2 lb. blue using cut mullet right behind the breakers in the wash. While Rochelle landed a number of 1 lb. sea mullet over the weekend, he only caught the one bluefish.
Jean McGinty, from Angier, NC, won the Sea Mullet Division with a 1.4 lb. sea mullet hooked early morning on Sunday. She was fishing from Seaview Pier using cut shrimp in the suds on a two-hook rig.
There were no black drum weighed in from a pier angler.
The Trout TWT, where either gray or speckled trout can count, went to Stephen Edmonds, of Dobson, NC, who was fishing on Seaview Pier. Dobson landed several 11.5” trout prior to hooking the 0.6 lb. speck (13.5”) that finished in first place. The speck struck a Gotcha plug on a cast late on Saturday morning from where the ropes separate the end of the pier.
In the Surf Division, the heaviest bluefish weighed in at 6.6 lbs. and was caught by Lance Barnes, of Goldsboro. Barnes landed the big blue using cut mullet on a two-hook rig on Sunday morning. He was fishing the first walkover access on the north end once you turn off the island’s highway, and he was targeting an area just over a sandbar that fell off into a trough.
Lance Barnes, from Goldsboro, landed the heaviest bluefish caught from the surf. The 6.6 lb. blue was caught using cut mullet on a two-hook rig while fishing from the North Topsail beachfront.
There were no trout, speckled or gray, caught from the surf.
In the Black Drum Category, Mitchell Bellamy, of Sanford, took first place with a 3.4 lb. fish. He was fishing in North Topsail and landed the fish using cut mullet on a two-hook rig. With his bait sitting about 100’ off the beach just past the breakers, Bellamy caught the winning black drum on Sunday morning with about 20 minutes left of fishing time.
Jason Diggs, of Myrtle Beach, was the Sea Mullet Champion with a 1.8 lb. fish. He found the winning sea mullet about one mile south of Jolly Roger Pier using a fiddler crab on a Carolina rig. Diggs landed a bunch of 1 lb. sea mullet prior, as well as a number of flounder, before his big sea mullet hit on Sunday morning.
The biggest checks of the weekend come from the Red Drum TWT, and Britt Martin, of Durham, received the nearly $2000 payout this fall for first place. Martin was fishing a spot on the north end that has been good in year’s past, a place that has produced the winning red drum for him in a previous Topsail event. He was using a whiting rod with a hi-lo rig baited with shrimp, and when he turned to cut some mullet, the 6.5 lb. red drum (26.5”) slammed the shrimp. Martin thought it was a stingray at first, but then he saw the tail.
All of the fish weighed in in the Topsail Fall Surf & Pier Fishing Challenge go to NCDMF for study and data collection, and then go to First Fruit Ministries, a local food bank that uses the fish to feed those in need in surrounding communities.
More information on the Topsail Fall event, including a complete leaderboard, can be found at www.FishermansPost.com. Also on the website is information on the Topsail Spring Surf & Pier event, scheduled for May 5-7, 2023, and the inaugural Surf Series, a season long points competition that will run in the background of the five surf fishing tournaments that Fisherman’s Post will host in 2023.
