Tournament Report: Surf Series Championship
Want another excuse to get down to the North Carolina coast for some surf fishing? This year Fisherman’s Post hosted the inaugural Surf Series Trail, a season-long competition that allowed surf anglers competing in any of the five surf fishing tournaments that Fisherman’s Post hosts every year a chance at additional prize earnings at the culmination of the season.
The rules are simple: fish any (or all) of the Fisherman’s Post surf tournaments through the year, including the Pleasure Island Team Challenge (April), Topsail Spring Surf & Pier Challenge (May), Hatteras Island Surf Challenge (September), Pleasure Island Fall Surf Challenge (October), and Topsail Fall Surf & Pier Challenge (November), and an angler’s five heaviest fish caught over the season are calculated as their points total.
This first year attracted 26 anglers from across the state to see who would finish atop the field after. Michael Atkinson, of Clayton, NC, was the 2023 Surf Series Trail champion with a five-fish total weight of 15.6 lbs. Atkinson landed a 7.1 lb. bluefish in Topsail’s spring event, and that bluefish would be the largest fish of the year among all Surf Series anglers. He had a small lead over the field going into the fifth event, where he added a 2.0 lb. black drum that solidified his Surf Series win. Atkinson’s other top fish included a 4.5 bluefish (Hatteras), a 1.4 bluefish (Pleasure Island Fall), and a 0.6 bluefish (Pleasure Island Team).
Michael Atkinson, from Clayton, NC, was the champion of the inaugural Surf Series Trail with a five-fish total weight of 15.6 lbs. He is shown here accepting the winning plaque in the Topsail Spring Surf & Pier Challenge for a 7.1 lb. black drum, the single heaviest of his five-fish aggregate.
Jarrett Rayfield, of Monroe, NC, was the second-place finisher with a five-fish weight of 15.0 lbs. He narrowly out fished his grandfather, and fellow leaderboard angler, Mark Clontz. Rayfield’s big fish in the year-long Series came at the Hatteras Island tournament, where he weighed a 5.3 lb. bluefish. He then solidified his spot near the top of the leaderboard with a great showing in the Topsail Fall event, weighing three fish (a 4.6 red drum, a 2.3 black drum, and a 1.4 sea mullet) that calculated into his final five-fish weight.
Mark Clontz, of Norwood, NC, finished in third place with a five-fish weight of 14.1 lbs. At the beginning of the year, Mark’s brother Jerry Clontz came to him with a request/challenge. Due to some health issues, he decided it was time they spent more time down at the coast and compete against each other in the Surf Series. They both made it to all five events, battling not only the field and each other, but against weather conditions, winds, times of slow fishing, and (most important for their family) cancer. Jerry made it long enough to see his brother lock up a top-three finish in the Surf Series, with Mark recording a 4.7 bluefish (Hatteras), a 4.5 red drum (Topsail Fall), a 1.8 black drum (Topsail Fall), a 1.7 sea mullet (Topsail Spring), and a 1.4 bluefish (Pleasure Island Team).
Jerrett Rayfield, of Monroe, NC, finished in a close second place in the 2023 Surf Series Trail. He is pictued here accepting the prize money for the third heaviest bluefish (5.3 lbs.) in the the Hatteras Island Surf Fishing Challenge. He also weighed in a 4.6 red drum, a 2.3 black drum, and a 1.4 sea mullet (all in the Topsail Fall event) and a 1.4 blue (Pleasure Island Team).
Andrew Butner, of High Point, NC, took fourth place with a total weight of 13.2 lbs. Butner figured the best chance to win the series was to target only the heavier species: red drum, black drum, and bluefish. He was catching a bunch of fish in the events, but most were over-slot red drum. His five heaviest fish included a 5.3 red drum (Hatteras), a 2.4 black drum (Topsail Fall), a 2.1 bluefish (Topsail Spring), a 1.9 bluefish (Pleasure Island Fall), and a 1.5 bluefish (Pleasure Island Team).
Douglas Harris, of Bear Creek, NC, finished in fifth-place with a weight of 12.3 lbs. For Harris, a 4.5 lb. black drum at the Hatteras event helped him put a strong finish in sight. His other four fish ultimately included a 3.3 bluefish (Pleasure Island Fall), a 2.1 bluefish (Topsail Fall), a 1.2 sea mullet (Topsail Spring), and a 1.2 sea mullet (Topsail Fall).
For more information on the 2024 Surf Series Trail, or to start planning out which individual surf fishing events to participate in next year, go to FishermansPost.com or visit their Facebook page. The 2024 Surf Series begins with the first surf event of the season, and Fisherman’s Post’s Pleasure Island Team Challenge, hosted out of The Lazy Pirate in Carolina Beach, will be held April 12-14, 2024.
