Pleasure Island Surf Fishing Challenge
The many winners of the 2011 Pleasure Island Surf Fishing Challenge pose for a photo after collecting their checks and prizes at the end of the 36-hour fishing marathon.
Attracting 340 anglers to the sands of Carolina Beach, Kure Beach, and Fort Fisher, the 2011 Fisherman’s Post Pleasure Island Surf Fishing Challenge, held October 14-16, presented a weekend full of friendly competition. With payouts for the five heaviest fish in six different categories and an optional Red Drum TWT, the event left a lot of smiling anglers walking away with checks and raised some big money for its beneficiaries, the Cape Fear Volunteer Center and Big Buddy Program.
Sampson County’s Austin Mooney topped the event’s highly competitive flounder division with a 3.1 lb. flatfish that earned him over $1,300. The big flounder also crowned him the event’s Top Junior Angler.
Mooney’s number was called mid-morning on Saturday, when the winning flounder struck a live finger mullet he was casting into the surf.
After reeling the fish in, his father and others urged him to take it immediately to the weigh station. It turned into a good decision, as another 3.1 lb. flounder was weighed in later in the event, but Austin’s was first to the scales and therefore first in the standings.
Tim Holt weighed in the second 3.1 lb. fish, and Kenny Wright secured third with a 2.9 lb. flounder.
A 7.0 lb. red drum he hooked five minutes after the start of the tournament gave Carolina Beach local William Radford the top spot in the Red Drum TWT, worth over $1,800.
Radford, also fishing with family and friends, returned to a slough near crossover three on the Fort Fisher beach where he’d had some luck with slot drum a few weeks prior to the event.
Casting a whole finger mullet, Radford got a hard strike. After a brief battle, he had the drum on the beach and hauled it alive (per the TWT’s rules) straight to the weigh station.
Jamie Britt took second place in the red drum competition with a 4.2 lb. drum, and Donald Peterson rounded out the TWT with a 3.6 lb. fish.
A 2.6 lb. bluefish earned the top spot on that leaderboard for Kelli Bagwell, who also walked away with over $1,300. Perry Powell’s 1.7 lb. blue earned second, and Allen Mungo scaled a 1.4 lb. fish to take third.
Cheryll Day, of Chapel Hill, NC, scaled a 2.8 lb. black drum to take home the over $650 at stake for first place in that category. Day’s big drum bit a piece of cut bait while she was fishing with friends on the Freeman Park drive-on beach at the north end ofCarolinaBeachat around 11:00 on Saturday morning. Mikey Hall put a 2.6 lb. black drum on the board to finish second, and Michael Tickle’s 0.9 lb. drum earned third.
Another tie took place in the whiting category, but Alex Sneed weighed his 1.8 lb. fish in first, knocking Kris Letendre’s identical whiting into second place. A 1.3 lb. fish secured third place for Guy Sexton.
Cody Davis’s .6 lb. pompano took the top spot in that category, as he scaled it before Jeff Leonard brought his .6 lb. fish to a weigh station. Kelli Bagwell added to her bluefish winnings with a .5 lb. pomp that finished third.
More information and a full leaderboard are available at www.fishermanspost.com.
