Tournament Report – Hatteras Island Surf Fishing Challenge
This past weekend marked the first annual Hatteras Island Surf Fishing Challenge. The event attracted 55 anglers that hit the beaches from Milo Beach down to Hatteras Inlet in search of spanish, sea mullet, flounder, bluefish, and red drum, and although no spanish were landed, the rest of the species cooperated.
Stephen Perlot, of Kill Devil Hills, hooked the winning bluefish. “I mainly fish between Salvo and Avon, but the water was dirty and the surf was rough and we struggled there Saturday morning. There was debris on the lines, so we kept heading south,” he explained.
“I was down at Ramp 55 when I caught the winning fish,” said Perlot, who used a homemade rig and cut mullet to land the fish, which weighed in at 2.1 lbs.
Second place in the Bluefish division went to Dale Traxler with a 1.2 lb. fish, and A. Gaskins came in third with a 1.1 lb. blue.
Susan McClanahan, of Harbinger, NC, not only landed the winning flounder, but she also took home the prize for lady angler. “I was jigging for flounder all morning, but I was only catching smaller, under-sized ones, so I changed strategies,” said McClanahan. Using a double rig, hand-tied, with finger mullet, she hooked the 1.3 lb. fish north of Ramp 43. “It’s been hard to find keeper fish, so when I measured it and it was legal, I threw it in the cooler,” she added.
Dale Traxler, of Sophia, with a 6.4 lb. red drum caught on a bottom rig with cut mullet from the Frisco beach. The fish earned him second place in the Slot Red Drum TWT during the Hatteras Island Surf Fishing Challenge.
Smith weighed in the only other flounder over the weekend to take second place. His 1.3 lb. fish was weighed in only three minutes after McClanahan’s.
Ken Smith, of Stafford, VA, decided to fish down south on Ramp 30 for sea mullet, and sand fleas on a double bottom sand flea rig with small hooks did the trick, landing a 1.4 lb. mullet for the win. “I fished closed to shore,” said Smith. “We caught several sea mullet, but that one was the biggest. I actually thought I had a small drum on the line, but when I didn’t see spots, I thought I had a good chance.”
A 1.1 lb. sea mullet brought home second place for Kim Klingenberg, and third went to a 0.9 lb. mullet weighed in by Bob Klingenberg.
Going into Sunday morning, the three leaderboard slots for the Slot Red Drum TWT remained empty, but they were filled by noon. Chris Worthington, of Sanford, took the top spot, with a 6.7 lb. red drum. “I only caught one drum over the weekend, and a few sea mullet. Once I measured the drum, I thought it would be a winner,” said Worthington. The fish was landed using cut finger mullet on a cannonball rig.
Dale Taxler weighed in the second place slot red drum at 6.4 lbs., and Z. Swisher came in third with a 6.2 lb. fish.
For a full leaderboard and more information on the Hatteras Island Surf Fishing Challenge and all Fisherman’s Post’s events, visit www.fishermanspost.com.
