Topsail Inshore Challenge Welcome

June 28 – 29, 2024, at East Coast Sports (Registration) and Sloop Point Marina (Weigh In & Awards)

WELCOME

Welcome to the Topsail Inshore Challenge, a fun and competitive event that is a great way for area anglers to try their luck at red drum tournament fishing.

This will be a big money red drum tournament, but ours will look different from other red drum tournaments. Fisherman’s Post prefers a more casual format, offering anglers (1) the option to use live, dead, or artificial bait; (2) not requiring a live weigh-in; and (3) allowing teams to fish as many anglers on their boat as they prefer. Our hope is that these relaxed rules encourage more people to join in on the fun and excitement of red drum tournament fishing.

As in previous years, Surf City’s East Coast Sports will be the headquarters for our Friday Registration and Captains’ Meeting. East Coast Sports and the Medlin family are longtime supporters of bringing Fisherman’s Post events and their anglers to the island, and we thank them once again for making this event possible.

Another popular feature that remains the same is the location of weigh-in and awards—Sloop Point Marina (located at 579 Lewis Road beside the Wildlife boat ramp in Hampstead).

Sloop Point Marina is ready and excited once again to be the weigh-in and awards host, and they’ve graciously opened up their docks (located right behind the store) for tying up to weigh-in or to stay through dinner and awards. We will be using the sheltered area in the back of their store for setting up scales and tables for weigh-in, and then we head to the open field beside their store for our awards dinner and ceremony.

New this year, the Topsail event will be featuring a leaderboard based on only your single heaviest red drum, as we believe more anglers can be competitive in a search for one (instead of two) upper-slot red drum, and the red drum only leaderboard means bigger payouts, since red drum anglers won’t have to share any leaderboard money with other species.

For those anglers looking to enhance their winnings beyond the substantial cash on our main leaderboard, there are also optional Single Big Red Drum, Two Red Drum, and (new this year) High Roller Single Big Red Drum TWTs as a way to further fatten your winnings. And like we’ve done in recent years, we’ll also be offering a “Trash Fish” TWT. The “Trash Fish” TWT payouts will go to the boats that weigh in the heaviest oyster toad or lizardfish.

In addition, Fisherman’s Post will be awarding bonus cash payouts to all red drum making the leaderboard that are alive and in releasable condition. We feel this encourages live weigh-in without penalizing those anglers who don’t have the ability to keep an upper-slot red drum alive over the course of a full day of fishing.

We’re also continuing to encourage teams to bring the whole family out to fish by offering $50 bounties for the heaviest single red drum weighed in by crews with junior, lady, and/or senior anglers onboard.

More special prizes include an East Coast Sports gift certificate for the heaviest single red drum weighed in by a SeaTow member, the Mudpuppy Salt Stix Raffle (every boat that weighs in a fish is automatically entered for a chance at a custom rod), and the Intracoastal Angler Specialty Weight prizes ($50 gift cards, plus additional $25 gift cards if the fish is weighed in alive).

And just like all of our inshore events this year, we’ll be partnering with the Wilmington Elks for volunteer support and then donating proceeds from the event to their organization to aid their mission of helping children, enhancing communities, and honoring the service and sacrifices of our military veterans.

At Fisherman’s Post we pride ourselves on hosting relaxed, family-friendly events that are competitive and offer exciting cash and prize payouts, so please come out to share in the camaraderie of Friday’s Registration and Saturday’s fishing, weigh-in, and awards. We hope you decide to join us, and we look forward to seeing the red drum (and “trash fish”) that our anglers bring to the scales.

Gary Hurley / Tournament Director
(910) 452-6378
trail@fishermanspost.com