The first annual fall surf fishing tournament for Topsail Island kicked off the weekend of November 16-17 with participants fishing for Speckled Trout, Whiting, Black Drum, and Flounder. East Coast Sports and Coastal Angler Magazine joined together to bring a fall surf fishing tournament to Topsail Island. In this tournament participants fish for fun and compete for a variety of cash and prizes. This competitive fishing event will be repeated each year in early November.
This inaugural year the fishing for whiting and black drum was solid and nearly everyone fishing was in catching mode for these fish. It was hard to catch larger fish but black drum and whiting were plentiful and the competition was close. The times the fish were weighed made a difference in the participants’ placements on the leader board.
The speckled trout fishing was started out by Derek King weighing with a 2.2 lb spec. Then a non participant showing off his skills came by and weighed in four trout caught out of the surf weighing in at over 4 pounds each. This was Chuck of East Coast sports showing how it can be done. The speckled trout division ended up leaving room for two more winners as anglers ended up catching fish to short to weigh-in an only Derek King and Jeff Harvey were able to best the field to land on the leader board. The competition also had 75% of the field fishing in the red drum TWT (tournament within a tournament) for slot sized red drum. In the end though only a participant who opted not to fish the TWT ended up catching redfish that would have made the leader board. Guess what? He said he will be definitely be entering that division next year.
Thanks to all who participated. Below is a posting of the tournament results:
In the Speckled Trout Division:
1st place Derek King 2.2 lbs
2nd place Jeff Harvey 1.8 lbs
In the Whiting Division:
1st place Luke Moser 1.3 lbs
2nd place Jeremy Fisher 1 lb
3rd place Max Dayton 1 lb
4th place Drew Caison 0.8 lbs
In the Black Drum Division:
1st place Luke Moser 1.7 lbs
2nd place Cory Doby 0.8lbs
3rd place Denys Vielkanowietz 0.8 lbs
4th place Elliott Morton 0.8 lbs
There were no Flounder or Red Drum weighed in.
Eddie Hardgrove CAM Co-Publisher