2023 Surf Series Trail
New in 2023, Fisherman’s Post will be offering to its surf fishing anglers the Surf Series Trail, a season-long points competition. The Surf Series Trail is centered on the five surf fishing tournaments that Fisherman’s Post hosts every year, and the competition culminates with five big winners at the conclusion of the fifth event.
For years Fisherman’s Post has been offering an Inshore Tournament Trail for its red drum boat anglers, and finally they are offering a similar competition for those that fish from the beachfront. The goal is to give surf tournament anglers another way to compete against their peers, to reward surf anglers who produce over the course of a full season, and to encourage more people to make the effort to fish more of Fisherman’s Post’s surf fishing events in the chase to be one of the first ever champions of the Surf Series Trail.
In its inaugural year, the Surf Series Trail is made up of one division: the Aggregate Weight Division. This Aggregate Weight division adds up the total weight of up to five of an angler’s heaviest fish weighed in over the course of the five qualifying surf fishing events.
The “up to five fish” can be from any event’s leaderboard species (including TWT fish) weighed in during that event; however, no more than one of any one species in any one event can count towards Surf Series Trail points.
For example, if you weigh in more than one bluefish over the weekend in the Pleasure Island Fall Surf Fishing Challenge, only your single heaviest of those bluefish will count towards Surf Series Trail points, but you can have one bluefish, one sea mullet, and one pompano (etc.) from the Pleasure Island Fall Surf Fishing Challenge count towards Surf Series Trail points.
You can also have one bluefish count from multiple events (ex. one bluefish from Topsail Spring, one bluefish from Hatteras Surf, and one bluefish from Topsail Fall).
The five qualifying events in the Surf Series Trail are the Pleasure Island Team Surf Fishing Challenge (April 14-16), the Topsail Spring Surf & Pier Fishing Challenge (May 5-7), the Hatteras Island Surf Fishing Challenge (September 29-October 1), the Pleasure Island Fall Surf Fishing Challenge (October 20-22), and the Topsail Fall Surf & Pier Fishing Challenge (November 3-5).
Anglers don’t have to fish all five qualifying events. They can fish as many or as few of the five events that they wish. The more events an angler fishes, though, gives that angler a better chance at weighing in more fish and upgrading the weight total of their five heaviest fish over the season.
The Surf Series Trail will be paying out $4,000 in prize money (based on 50 anglers) to the top five anglers in the Surf Series Trail. That’s $4,000 in addition to all the prize money anglers can win from the leaderboards of the five individual surf fishing events.
Any angler—whether in the Surf Series Trail or not—can still fish any of the individual surf fishing events, as the five surf fishing tournaments that Fisherman’s Post hosts continue to be great stand-alone events, but anglers will need to enter the Surf Series Trail for the opportunity at the additional Surf Series Trail prize money.
Fisherman’s Post will be recording, updating, and posting each angler’s running Surf Series Trail points score at the conclusion of each of the five qualifying events, and those running points totals will be posted both online at www.FishermansPost.com and in Fisherman’s Post Newspaper.
There is no deadline for signing up for the Surf Series Trail, but none of an angler’s fish in an event can count towards Surf Series Trail points unless they have paid the Surf Series Trail entry fee prior to that qualifying event.
There are more details on the Surf Series Trail online at www.FishermansPost.com, including rules, payouts, FAQs, registration information, and more. Those interested are also welcome to call Fisherman’s Post at (910) 452-6378, send an email to surf@fishermanspost.com, or stop by the Registration of any of the five events.
