Tournament Report – Topsail Fall Surf & Pier Challenge
The Fisherman’s Post Topsail Island Fall Surf & Pier Challenge was held November 6-8. This year’s schedule of events followed that of years past, with a 36-hour, round-the-clock fishing time from Friday midnight to Sunday noon.
This annual event showcases Topsail’s many miles of beachfront and three iconic fishing piers, a perfect setting for both pier and surf anglers.
Both categories—Surf and Pier—consisted of four subcategories. In the Surf division, the top five placing bluefish, sea mullet, trout, and black drum were paid out. In the Pier division, money went to the top three placing bluefish, sea mullet, red drum, and black drum.
Weighing in the heaviest bluefish and heaviest sea mullet caught in the Surf division was Jimmy Shoaf, of Salisbury, NC. Shoaf has fished the tournament since it originated in 2014. He caught the 1.8 lb. mullet that won him the first-place title midmorning on Saturday.
“I thought it was a trout while I was reeling it in,” said Shoaf.
Steve Rochelle, of Jacksonville, won the Pier Sea Mullet Division in the Topsail Surf & Pier Challenge by weighing in a 1.8 lb. sea mullet caught from Seaview Pier.
After the rather slow first day of fishing, he got an early start on Sunday morning using cut bait in hopes of hooking into a red drum. Something fell for his offering around 6:30 a.m. and at low tide. Reeling in what he thought was a red drum, Shoaf fought the fish into the breakers where he realized it was actually a big bluefish.
“When I was pulling it onshore, I knew I had to be quick with getting it since I hadn’t put any wire leaders on,” Shoaf said. “As soon as I grabbed it, the line snapped out of its mouth.”
Feeling satisfied that he had successfully pulled in the biggest blue, he ended his day early and headed to the scales. Shoaf added, “When my buddies found out I had caught the winning fish, they didn’t believe me and thought I must have bought it.”
The 2.4 lb. trout weighing in first in the Surf division was caught by Gregorio Almaguer, who also won the biggest cash prize of the weekend when he took the top spot in the Surf Red Drum TWT.
The heaviest black drum was pulled in out of the surf by Robert Carter, weighing in at 12.2 lbs.
In the Pier division, the heaviest bluefish was weighed in by Matthew Lovenshimer, from Durham, NC. Lovenshimer fished the Jolly Roger Pier all weekend with 1/4 oz. Gotcha plugs.
“When I got to the pier on Saturday morning, I noticed the blues and false albacore were running down the trough,” he described. He caught several small-ish bluefish before landing the one that won him the victory.
Lovenshimer said, “I was worried it wouldn’t hold the top spot. I almost didn’t even weigh it in.”
The heaviest red drum caught in the Pier division was weighed in by Willie Stewart, from Clemont, NC. Stewart is also a veteran tournament angler who’s fished the event since it began. He set up at 3:30 a.m. Saturday on Seaview Pier next to his brother, Howard Stewart. Immediately he was pulling in whiting left and right, but nothing that he thought would place on the leaderboard was biting. Around 5:00 a.m., his winning fish ate the Fishbites yellow shrimp on the end of his three-hook spot rig.
“It took off and ran down the length of the pier and then chased back towards me a few times before finally tiring out,” said Stewart. It was the first drum he had ever caught from a pier, and the red drum also earned Stewart and Seaview Pier the 2020 Pier Cup title.
Gregorio Almaguer weighed in the heaviest trout from the surf to win that division in the Topsail Fall Surf & Pier, and he also reeled in the heaviest red drum to win the Surf TWT.
The top placing black drum in the Pier division was reeled in by Darry Sloop, of Surf City, NC. Not only has Sloop fished all six years of the tournament, but he’s won first place five times now. He fished Saturday off Jolly Roger and managed to reel in a mullet that held first going into Saturday night, but was later knocked out of the lead. He got back to it on Sunday, but found the bite to be similar to the day before, with not much action until midmorning. He was using a bottom rig with shrimp and bloodworms, aiming for a large mullet.
“All of a sudden, everything started to hit,” Sloop recalled. He had a fish hooked up and fighting hard when an angler next to him threw his line out, which landed in a tangle with Sloop’s. He added, “It took a good ten minutes to get everything undone.”
With his son Josh Sloop manning the net, he hauled his black drum over the railing of the pier.
“It was never about the money for my son and I. He just wanted to beat his old man, but he didn’t get to,” said Sloop. His drum weighed in at 4.3 lbs., knocking his son’s 3.1 pounder out of the lead.
The first place Pier division sea mullet was landed by Steve Rochelle, of Soggy Bottom Bait and Tackle in Jacksonville, NC. He, too, has fished the tournament since its origin and won first for sea mullet in the first year as well.
Rochelle fished from Seaview Pier on and off throughout the duration of the weekend. On Saturday, he fished the limit on trout and held first on the Pier Trout TWT leaderboard until Joshua Sloop knocked him out of the money. While fishing in the wee hours of Sunday morning using live shrimp and his lucky Ricky Red rod, his hook was taken by the 1.8 lb. whiting that would earn him the first-place title.
Rochelle said, “That was my personal best sea mullet.”
For more information on this event or upcoming Fisherman’s Post tournaments, visit their website at www.fishermanspost.com.
