Tournament Report: Hatteras Island Surf Fishing Challenge
A big swell coming in from Hurricane Fiona paired with a front moving in from the east threatened to make conditions unfishable for the 2022 Hatteras Island Surf Fishing Challenge over the weekend of September 23-25. However, the seas subsided and the winds of the front were followed by cooler temperatures and sunshine, thus creating favorable conditions, except for the strong current along the beachfront that took longer to lessen.
Despite all of the Fiona headlines and concerns over potential Highway 12 washouts, there were 131 anglers that fished this year’s event, all in search of the heaviest bluefish, spanish, pompano, sea mullet, and slot red drum. After checking in at Tournament HQ at the Camp Hatteras Conference Center in Rodanthe, anglers hit the sands to fish as many hours as they wished starting at 11:59 pm on Friday and lasting until 12:00 noon on Sunday.
When everyone gathered together on Sunday for Awards and the Hatteras Jack/Century Rods Awards Dinner, there were plenty of strong fish on the leaderboard.
The top bluefish was brought to the scales by Darr Barshis. He landed a 10.2 lb. blue (29.5”) while fishing Ramp 32 just before the turtle closure. The bite came around 3:00 pm on Saturday on a cut finger mullet sent out far on a big cast. Prior to his 10-pounder, Barshis had landed two 7-pounders.
Barshis commented, “I had fluorocarbon leaders, and all I knew was I had to get him in quick before it bit through.”
The only spanish weighed in over the entire weekend came from Dale Traxler, from Greensboro. He caught the 0.9 lb. spanish (roughly 16”) on Sunday morning around 9:30 am using a 2 oz. silver casting spoon.
“Someone told me to go try the jetty by the old lighthouse,” Traxler said. “Said they’d been catching them out there.”
In the highly contested sea mullet division, Chloe Lombardo took the win with a 1.7 lb. sea mullet. The fish led Lombardo (age 9) to the Junior Angler title as well, a title she also won in the 2021 Hatteras Island Surf Fishing Challenge.
Lombardo was fishing between ramps 48 and 49 using bloodworms. She put her cast in the breakers, and the winning fish bit around 9:30 am on Sunday morning.
The pompano weighed in over the weekend were all small and similar in weight. First place was decided on time, with Charles Durren, from Charlottesville, VA, weighing in his 0.6 lb. pompano before both Willie Stewart and John VanWagner, both of whom also weighed in 0.6 lb. pompanos.
Durren landed 20-25 slightly smaller pompano (0.5 lbs.) before landing the one he weighed in. All his pompano came off of sand fleas on a two-hook rig off of Ramp 38. The bite lasted from 6:30 am on Saturday until noon, and Durren recalled, “When I left, they were still biting.”
The biggest single check of the weekend is always the Red Drum TWT winner, going to the heaviest red drum in the slot (18-27”). Shane Chandler, from Fredericksburg, VA, enjoyed the $1000+ payday this year for his stout 8.2 lb. red drum.
He landed the fish about 9:30 on Saturday morning near Ramp 30 on a mullet head.
When asked about how he decided on where to fish, Chandler replied, “We were looking for good water. This area was wide open, really deep, and with breakers on both sides, and we just fished it all weekend.”
All of the fish weighed in at the five weigh stations up and down the island—Hatteras Jack, Frank & Fran’s, Hatteras Style Custom Rods & Tackle, Frisco Bait, and Teach’s Lair—were carted and sold to Jeffrey’s Seafood, with all of the proceeds from the sale of fish going to the non-profit Hatteras Island Meals.
Next year’s Hatteras Island Surf Fishing Challenge is scheduled for September 29-October 1. More information on next year’s event, as well as a full leaderboard of results from the 2022 event, can be found at www.FishermansPost.com.
