Pleasure Island Surf Fishing Challenge
Pleasure Island Surf Challenge Winners
Finally blessed with a decent forecast for the weekend, the 4th Annual Pleasure Island Surf Fishing Challenge attracted 325 hopeful anglers to the strand’s sands in a quest to haul money-winning bottom feeders from the breakers. Featuring competition for seven different species, the event surpassed the previous year’s attendance by over 50 fishermen.
Sanford, NC’s Brian Apple topped the tournament’s highly competitive slot red drum TWT, scaling a 26 7/8”, 6.9 lb. red drum that earned him a check for $1,755. Fishing with a local friend, Apple set up between crossovers 4-5 on the drive-on beach at the south end of Fort Fisher. After releasing a 44” citation drum the night before the tournament began, the angler knew there were reds in the area, but he needed one under the 27” maximum NC limit to qualify for the tournament.
A third of the way through the 36-hour fishing marathon, Apple got a bite on a finger mullet around noon on Saturday, just as the tide was beginning to rise.
“He hit it pretty hard and actually jumped out of the water while I was fighting him,” Apple said. “I knew he’d be at the top of the slot or right above it.”
Apple put the fish on the beach shortly thereafter, measuring it at just under 27”, a figure that a passing park ranger confirmed.
Since all reds weighed in the TWT have to be weighed in alive, Apple placed the fish in a cooler of water and headed back for the south end weigh-station at crossover 1.
At the scales, the fish was confirmed to be inside the slot and took the lead from a 6.8 lb. fish weighed on the previous evening.
The 6.8 lb. red, landed by Jeff McCubbins was good for second place, and Kristina Letendre filled out the three-place red drum leader board with a 6.7 lb. fish.
Weighing in the first citation flatfish of his angling career, Tom Pendergrass, from Wilmington, took home the $1,295 first-place flounder check with a 6.2 lb. fish.
Pendergrass chose to fish the rocky area just north of the Fort Fisher monument.
His big bite came around 1:00 Saturday afternoon nearly at his feet.
“That fish was about 5’ in front of me in 3’ of water,” Pendergrass explained.
A live finger mullet fooled the big flattie, and, though it was close at hand, the angler still struggled a bit to put the fish on the beach.
Wilmington's Tom Perdergrass holds the 6.2 lb. flounder that earned him first place in the flounder competition at the Pleasure Island Surf Fishing Challenge and a check for $1,295. He hooked the big flatty near Fort Fisher on a live finger mullet.
“After I got him to the top,” Pendergrass continued, “I got him up on a rock, but he flipped back in the water again. I got him up again, and this time a wave hit him just right and helped me out.”
After beaching the fish, Pendgrass celebrated a bit before putting it into his cooler and heading for the scales.
“You could’ve heard me yell a quarter-mile up the beach,” he said.
A 4.8 lb. flatfish earned second in that category for Chas Wallen. Third went to Denys Vielkanowitz for a 4.3 lb. fish, and Mikey Hall and Josh Allred’s twin 3.5 lb. flounder finished fourth and fifth, respectively, based on the time they were weighed in.
Capturing the win in perhaps the most challenging of the event’s seven categories, the speckled trout competition, was Carolina Beach’s Dwayne Utsman with a 3.2 lb. fish worth $1,295.
Utsman, fishing with friends behind the Sea Ranch Motel, had a leader board-worthy bluefish on his mind when the trout struck.
“We’d been catching some nice blues there the week before,” he said, “so we were hoping to get into them.”
Fishing with live finger mullet, Utsman had caught several small flounder and thought that’s what he’d hooked again when the speck bit.
“The line had just gone slack like when those undersized flounder bit,” he explained, “so that’s what I though it was at first.”
Reeling in his line, the angler was pleasantly surprised to see a trout, and he soon headed for the scales at Island Tackle and Hardware to weigh it in.
A 2.6 lb. speck earned second place for Patrick Rymer, and third went to Jared Beard for a 1.4 lb. trout. Since only three specks were weighed in over the event, the fourth and fifth place money was donated to the tournament’s beneficiaries, the Big Buddy Program and the Cape Fear Volunteer Center.
Jay Ely captured the top bluefish in the tournament, a 2.7 lb. fish worth $1,295. William Radford’s 2.4 and Vick Radford’s 2.0 were second and third, and a two way tie for fourth and fifth between 1.9 lb. fish weighed in by Josh Russ and Tony Theodorakis was broken based on time.
Dwayne Utsman, of Carolina Beach, with the 3.2 lb.speckled trout that topped that division at the 2010 Pleasure Island Surf Fishing Challenge and earned him $1,295. Utsman hooked the speck on a finger mullet behind the Sea Ranch Motel.
Kelly Minton, from Trinity, NC, weighed in the event’s heaviest black drum, a 4.3 lb. fish earning her $647.50 and the event’s Top Lady Angler honors. Fishing with her fiancé, Barry Fowler, and family on the drive-on beach at the island’s south end, Minton’s fish bit soon after the competition started at midnight on Friday.
“We’d just started fishing,” Fowler explained, “and that fish bit about 12:45.”
Fresh shrimp struck the big drum’s fancy.
“That rod just bent on over,” Fowler continued, “and she grabbed it and set the hook and it was on.”
Between 5-10 minutes later, Minton had the fish in the breakers.
“I had to shine a light out there so she could time the waves to get it in,” Fowler said. Jimmy Perkins scaled a 2.9 lb. black drum to take home second place, and a .5 lb. fish earned Marshall Francis third. Like the speckled trout category, the fourth and fifth place prizes went to the tournament’s beneficiary.
Scaling a 1.7 lb. whiting to top that category, Wilmington’s Donald McLamb took home $647.50.
A whiting specialist, McLamb chose a hole near Tennessee Ave. to fish the event. He was rewarded on Sunday morning when the big whiting took an interest in a sand flea pinned to his homemade bottom rig.
“I fish 8 lb. test and 10 lb. leader with gold hooks,” McLamb said. “I’d looked up the beach for a second, and when I looked back that pole was bent double. You have to be careful and take it easy with them on that gear.”
After several strong runs, the angler finally had the big whiting to the sand and wasted little time heading for the scales.
“I’d paid $10 to park there and my uncle said I was going to lose my parking place,” McLamb recalled, “but I wasn’t too worried about it at that point.”
Michael Christie finished a close second in the whiting category with a 1.6 lb. fish. A trio of 1.5 lb. fish earned Terrell Rogers, Weyman Deemer, and Terry Payne third, fourth, and fifth respectively.
Blowing away her competition, Michelle Brianne, from Elizabethtown, NC, landed a 2.9 lb. pompano to take home the $647.50 first prize. Steven Hall’s 1.0 pounder took second, and Justin Exum finished third with a .4 lb. fish. Hunter Andrews and Tyler Ericson weighed in twin. 3 lb. pomps to finish fourth and fifth, respectively.
Weighing in a 3.0 lb. flounder earned Joe Butts the tournament’s Senior Angler title, and a 2.5 lb. flounder bestowed Top Junior Angler honors on Hunter Andrews.
