Pleasure Island Surf Fishing Challenge
On October 18-20, Fisherman’s Post hosted the Pleasure Island Surf Fishing Challenge, one of the biggest surf fishing tournaments on the east coast. This year saw 470 anglers sign up for the 36-hour surf fishing competition, with anglers of all ages hitting the sand starting on Friday at midnight and able to fish as many of the 36 hours as they wish until noon on Sunday.
On Sunday as tournament anglers gathered for the complimentary Awards Dinner & Ceremony, as well as the popular Island Tackle & Hardware raffle/giveaway, the fish that everyone was talking about was the big black drum weighed in by Tony Pendergrass.
- Pendergrass, from Wilmington, weighed in a 17.9 lb. black drum on Saturday to take and hold first place in that division. He was fishing between #25 and #26 on the South End when the big fish hit a little piece of cut bait on a #2 hook on a double-hook rig and connected to 15 lb. line. The fight lasted about 15 minutes.
Pendergrass had the bait in the slough before the sandbar, and the tide was falling when the fish bit at around 1:00, shortly after lunch. The big black drum was the only black drum he hooked all weekend.
“It about took my rod out of the rod holder,” Pendergrass remembered.
In addition to the Black Drum title, Pendergrass also took the top spot in the Slot Red Drum TWT with a 7.2 lb. slot red drum (measuring 26 7/8”). He was fishing the same location, but the tide was higher because it was earlier in the day on that same Saturday.
Pendergrass used a long cast to get a big piece of cut bait up on top of the sandbar, and at first he didn’t know what he had on the end of the line.
“I thought it might be a skate,” said Pendergrass, “but I relaxed and got the fish in in about five minutes.”
The Red Drum TWT win brought him close to $4000 in prize money, and the Black Drum win added another near $2000 to his weekend purse.
Tony Pendergrass, from Wilmington, took home approximately $6000 in the 2024 Pleasure Island Surf Fishing Challenge. He won the Black Drum division with a 17.9 lb. drum and took the top spot in the Red Drum TWT with a 7.2 lb. slot red drum.
Christiam Swaim, from Greensboro, took first place in the popular Pompano Division. He was fishing on the North End on Saturday morning when the 1.5 lb. winning pompano struck close to 9:00 am. The fish hit a piece of Fishbites on a pompano rig during the high tide. Swaim had sent the cast as far as he could throw to try and get across the sand bar.
While Swaim and his crew landed several pompano over the course of the weekend, none of the other fish came close to the winning 1.5 lb. fish.
The heaviest trout of the weekend came in the last hour of competition. Jeff Palmer, from Whiteville, landed a 3.1 lb. speckled trout at 11:00 am on Sunday, leaving just enough time to run it down the beach to the North End weigh station.
Palmer hooked the trout with a piece of cut cob mullet on a triple-drop rig. He had the bait close to shore in the slough, and the tide was near dead high. While the 3-pound class trout was his only trout of the weekend, he and his fishing buddies landed several smaller red drum over the weekend.
In the competitive Bluefish Division, Jacob Bridges, from Walkertown, NC, finished at the top of the leaderboard with a 3.3 lb. blue. Early on Saturday, Bridges weighed in a 2.4 lb. bluefish, and after the morning weigh-in update, that 2.4 lb. bluefish sat in first place. He then upgraded later in the morning to the 3.3 lb. bluefish, and that bluefish stayed in the top spot for the rest of the weekend.
Jeff Palmer, from Whiteville, NC, won the Trout Division title with a 3.1 lb. speckled trout caught on the North End on Sunday using a piece of cut mullet on a triple-drop rig.
Bridges was fishing the North End, close to the No Driving signs, and the winning bluefish hit a piece of cut mullet on a fish finder rig. The bite came close to 12:00 noon with a mid-rising tide, and his cast had been sitting closer to shore than the break.
Johnny Buffum, from Carolina Beach, took home the Sea Mullet Division title for his 2.0 lb. sea mullet. Buffum was fishing cut shrimp on the bottom and right in the wash, and he found the winning fish about two hours into an incoming tide. He landed about 60 sea mullet over the course of the weekend, but other than the 2.0 lb. winner, all were a 1-pound class of fish.
The event’s Junior Angler champion was Cole Somers with a 1.8 lb. black drum, the Lady Angler winner was Pat Holt with a 2.9 lb. bluefish, and the Senior Anger prize went to Tony Pendergrass for his 17.9 lb. black drum.
A more complete leaderboard can be found at www.FishermansPost.com. Also on the website is more information on the event, including next year’s dates of October 17-19, 2025.
