2026 Little Hatteras Tournament

by Randy Whitman

September 10–12, 2026

Another tournament is in the books. As usual this early in the fall, there were not a lot of fish available. The scoring fish were mostly 12–17 inch bluefish, Spanish mackerel, roundhead, and a few croaker. The surprise this year was a few ribbonfish. A notable rule change was the elimination of the multiplier for fish over 20 inches. In the past, every inch past 20 scored 3 additional points. Overall the weather was good: no rain, and the wind was not terribly strong. We did have to deal with some grass around tide changes. The club fielded a strong team, even though there was not a lot of interest from members in being on one.

Our team members were:

• John Stout (Captain)

• Tom Morgan

• Patty Searby

• Randy Whitman

• Micci’s nephews from Sacramento, CA: John Cummings and Andrew Cummings

Friday morning started slow and did not get much better. John C. did catch one scoring roundhead to get us on the board. We were all catching small croaker, spot, roundhead, and pompano, but none met the 11-inch minimum. Several roundhead were in the 10–10.5 inch range, and we never figured out how to stretch them to 11. The afternoon session was dead slow. That was the case for almost all the teams, though a few managed a couple of scoring fish. We did have some excitement when Andrew hooked something big that was pulling drag and working him down the beach. He did a great job on the drag and got line back. When it finally reached the surf, it was a 32-inch stingray. No tournament points, but there was a prize category for the biggest ray or shark.

Saturday morning started with a bang. We were on our site early and liked the structure. There was bait in the water, but nothing really chasing it. Based on our prefishing and the bait, we started with metal. Tom, John C., and Randy all hooked up on their first cast. John C. had a 14-inch Spanish, Randy a 14-inch bluefish, and Tom a 30-inch ribbonfish. We hoped a blitz was on, but nobody had another strike after that first cast. We ground out the rest of the session, working the surfline, the close and middle water, and over the bar. A little past halfway, Randy and John each scored a roundhead. With time running out, Randy landed another scoring roundhead in the last minute. The first and last minutes can be critical.

Final team scoring:

• Tom Morgan: 1 fish, 20 points

• John Cummings: 3 fish, 8 points

• Randy Whitman: 3 fish, 6 points

With 34 points, the VBAC team finished 9th of 32 teams in the men’s/mixed division. The final scoring board is attached, and it is worth a look. Afternoon sessions were very low-scoring compared with the mornings. This year every team scored at least one fish except two, an improvement over last year, when about half the teams were shut out. Dropping the multiplier helped keep one big fish from putting a team out of reach. There may be more scoring changes next year that add options, but we will have to wait and see how that plays out.