Outer Banks Surf Fishing Tournaments: 2026 Dates and How to Enter

Eight surf fishing tournaments are fished from Outer Banks beaches every year, and they cluster in the fall drum run. Three are invitation-only club events with waiting lists: the Cape Hatteras Anglers Club Invitational in Buxton, the Nags Head Surf Fishing Club Invitational and the Ocracoke Invitational. The rest take anyone who registers, and the next ones up for 2026 are the Capital City Four Wheelers tournament on October 17–18, the NCBBA Red Drum Tournament on October 21–24, which takes walk-up entries at the Avon firehouse on the 21st, and the Bob Bernard Open on November 7, which needs pre-registration. The Hatteras Island Surf Fishing Challenge, also open to anyone, was canceled for 2026. There is also a pier tournament for blind and visually impaired anglers, a kids’ tournament at Jennette’s Pier, and a year-round state citation program that costs nothing to enter.

Dates and entry details checked on each organizer’s own site, most recently October 16, 2026. Tournaments change dates and rules from year to year, so confirm with the organizer before you book a week around one. Club and tournament logos belong to their organizers and link to their own pages.

Every event above is fished from the sand or a pier. The offshore boat tournaments (Hatteras Village Offshore Open, the billfish events) are a different sport and are not on this page.

Hatteras Island Surf Fishing Challenge (canceled for 2026)

Canceled for 2026. Fisherman’s Post posted the cancellation on the tournament page (details on their social media) after the late-September nor’easter closed North Carolina Highway 12 and put Hatteras Island under a state of emergency the same week the event was set for, September 25–27. In a normal year it is the easiest way for a visitor to fish a real Outer Banks surf event: run out of the Camp Hatteras Conference Center on the sound side of North Carolina Highway 12 in Rodanthe, an individual tournament rather than a team event, with four divisions — bluefish, black drum, sea mullet and pompano — plus an optional slot red drum side pot for another $25. Entry for 2026 was $75 per angler through September 14 and $85 after that, with over $12,000 in cash and prizes based on 200 entries. Watch the Fisherman’s Post page for the 2027 dates.

The rule that matters: you must fish from a Hatteras Island beach, anywhere from Rodanthe down to Hatteras Village. No boats, no piers, no sound side. Registration is online through the tournament page, or by printed entry form. If you have never fished a tournament, this is the one to start with when it returns — there is no station draw, no team to assemble and no invitation to wait for.

Nags Head Surf Fishing Club Invitational (October 14–16)

The Nags Head Surf Fishing Club has run its invitational since 1952; 2026 is the 73rd, October 14–16, the Wednesday through Friday after Columbus Day, which is now its regular slot. It is a big one: the club expects over 600 people, with teams of up to six anglers fishing assigned stations on the Nags Head beaches and volunteer judges covering 80 stations. Fishing runs two sessions a day on Thursday and Friday, a morning session and an afternoon session.

Scoring is by length: one point per inch up to 20 inches, then three points for every inch after that, on a list of scorable species with minimums (red drum 18 inches, black drum 14, bluefish 11, king mackerel 24 fork length among them). Surf or spinning tackle only, two hooks, artificial lures allowed, live bait limited to worms and sand fleas. Teams get Nags Head beach-driving permits at registration, so this is fished from vehicles on the town beaches during the fall driving season.

Entry is by invitation and the registration deadline for 2026 was June 30, so this year is full. The rules page has the full species list and station rules; contact the club through its site to ask about future years.

NCBBA Red Drum Tournament (October 21–24)

The North Carolina Beach Buggy Association’s 17th annual Red Drum Tournament is the one to fish if you want the bull drum run itself to be the contest. Fishing opens Wednesday, October 21 at 6:01 p.m. and closes Saturday, October 24 at 6:00 a.m., so the nights are in play. Check-in is at the Avon firehouse on Harbor Road; awards are at the Lighthouse Assembly of God in Buxton.

It is an individual tournament with a team component (teams of three to six), and there are no assigned stations — you fish where you want on the Hatteras Island beaches between Ramp 23 and, most years, Ramp 45 at South Beach. Red drum are scored by length. There are side contests for bluefish (16 inch minimum) and sea mullet (14 inch minimum). Over $14,000 in cash and prizes, with $2,000 for first and $1,000 for second.

Anyone can enter. Online registration closes October 16, 2026 (mail-in entries closed October 1), and after that you can still sign up in person: walk-up registration runs 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, October 21 at the Avon firehouse, and if you can’t make it by 6 you can register at Frank & Fran’s in Avon after 7 a.m. the next morning. Fish caught before you register don’t count. You need a current National Park Service ORV permit and a North Carolina Coastal Recreational Fishing License to fish it; see the ORV permit guide and the license guide.

Cape Hatteras Anglers Club Invitational (November 4–7) and the Bob Bernard Open

The oldest of them. The Cape Hatteras Anglers Club in Buxton has held its invitational every November since 1958. Up to 120 teams of no more than six anglers fish assigned beach zones in morning and afternoon sessions on Thursday and Friday; the club confirms the 2026 dates as November 4–7, and its rule is durable: the invitational is always the first Wednesday through Friday of November, with the open tournament on the Saturday. Entry is $450 per team. For scale, the 2025 field caught 912 fish for 3,617 points, and the club handed out over $60,000 in prizes on Friday’s Brag and Award Night.

Getting in is the hard part. Invitations go to the previous year’s 120 teams, who keep their spot by returning the application and fee by the deadline; the club keeps a waiting list, and it was about 33 teams long when this was checked. Call the clubhouse at (252) 995-4253 to ask about the list or about judging — volunteer judges are how a lot of people get their first look at the tournament from the inside.

The Bob Bernard Open: the Saturday anyone can fish

The Saturday after the invitational, the club runs the Bob Bernard Open, an individual tournament open to the general public; pre-registration is required. It is named for the club’s longtime weighmaster, winners are decided by weight for each eligible species, every potential winner has to be weighed at the clubhouse in Buxton, and the plaques come from Frank & Fran’s in Avon. In past years it has run from 8 a.m. to noon, fished only from the surf of Hatteras Island from Ramp 23 south to within half a mile of Hatteras Inlet, with an entry fee of $10 for adults and free for anglers 16 and under, and around 100 anglers fishing it. The club’s page for the open does not yet list this year’s hours or fee, so call the clubhouse to confirm before you drive down.

The other fall events: Capital City Four Wheelers and the Lions VIP tournament

Capital City Four Wheelers Surf Fishing Tournament is a 24-hour surf fishing tournament run out of the Fessenden Center in Buxton on the third full weekend of October — October 17–18 in 2026. It was in its 39th year in 2024. Entry details go through the Fessenden Center at (252) 475-5650; the organizer does not publish them anywhere we could verify, so call.

NC Lions VIP Fishing Tournament, listed for October 19–21, 2026, is not a competition you enter as a surf angler — it is a three-day event for blind and visually impaired anglers, fished from the Avalon, Nags Head, Jennette’s and Kitty Hawk piers and two head boats, and the local Lions clubs call it the largest service project of its kind in the world. Roughly 350 visually impaired anglers, 130 sighted guests and 300 volunteers take part. If you are on the beach that week and have a morning free, they take volunteers.

Spring and summer: Ocracoke, Hatteras Village and the kids’ tournament

Ocracoke Invitational Surf Fishing Tournament opens the season. Established in 1983, it is an invitation-only team event of 77 teams fishing two days on the Ocracoke beaches — in 2026 that was April 29 to May 1, with registration pickup at the community center on Wednesday, fishing Thursday and Friday from 8 to 11 and 1:30 to 4, and a barbecue and awards Friday night. Proceeds go to island nonprofits and to scholarships for Ocracoke School seniors. The tournament site says 2027 registration is coming; that is where the dates will post.

Hatteras Village Invitational Surf Fishing Tournament is the Hatteras Village Civic Association’s September event, with over 90 teams. Despite the name it is open to anyone who pre-registers. It ran September 12 in 2026; the association posts the next year’s details on its Facebook page.

Fritz Boyden Memorial Youth Fishing Tournament is the Nags Head Surf Fishing Club’s kids’ event at Jennette’s Pier, a Wednesday in June (June 10 in 2026), with age groups of 4 to 9 and 10 to 16. In recent years every kid who registered got a T-shirt, Fishbites and a tackle-shop gift card. Details and results are on the club’s youth page.

The NC citation program: a tournament that runs all year

If you cannot make a tournament week, the state runs one for you. The North Carolina Saltwater Fishing Tournament awards a citation — a framed-size certificate — for any qualifying fish caught on hook and line between January 1 and December 31. There is no fee and no registration. A harvested fish is weighed at one of nearly 100 official weigh stations along the coast; a released fish gets a release citation on the honor system with a witness signature, no photo required. Applications have to be in by January 15 of the following year.

The 2026 minimums for the fish you will meet in the surf, by weight for a weighed fish or by length for a release citation:

• Red drum: release only, 43 inches. This is the one most Outer Banks surf citations are written for.
• Black drum: 30 pounds, or 40 inches released.
• Bluefish: 15 pounds, or 34 inches released.
• Speckled trout: 6 pounds, or 26 inches released.
• Flounder: 6 pounds, or 24 inches released.
• Spanish mackerel: 6 pounds, or 25 inches released.
• Sheepshead: 8 pounds, or 23 inches released.
• Pompano: 2 pounds, or 17 inches released.
• Sea mullet: 1½ pounds, or 15 inches released.
• Spot: 1 pound, or 12 inches released.

Striped bass is not on the state list. The weigh-station list is on the state tournament page linked above; ask at the tackle shop when you buy bait, since many of them are on it.

How to get into an invitational

The three invitationals have waiting lists. What works: fish the open events first (the Hatteras Island challenge, the NCBBA drum tournament, the Bob Bernard Open) and meet the people who run the clubs; volunteer as a judge, which every one of these tournaments needs and which puts you on the beach for the whole event; and join a club — Nags Head Surf Fishing Club dues are $15 a year, and both clubs run member tournaments through the year. A team that has fished the tournament keeps its spot by re-entering on time, so once you are on a team, stay on it.

Getting on the sand for a tournament

Every beach tournament on this list is fished from vehicles. The Hatteras Island events need a National Park Service ORV permit ($50 for 10 days or $120 for the year) and the required gear in the truck — a shovel, a jack with a support board and a low-pressure tire gauge; the Nags Head tournament issues its own town beach permits at registration. Tournament weeks are also the weeks the mailed decal takes longest to arrive, so buy the permit early. Details in the ORV permit guide, and where the ramps are in the where-to-fish guide.

If you are coming for the drum run without a truck, the October and November month guides cover what the tournaments are built around, and the red drum guide covers the fish.

Tournament questions

Do I need an invitation to fish an Outer Banks surf fishing tournament?

Only for three of them: the Cape Hatteras Anglers Club Invitational, the Nags Head Surf Fishing Club Invitational and the Ocracoke Invitational, which invite back the previous year’s teams and keep waiting lists. The Hatteras Island Surf Fishing Challenge, the NCBBA Red Drum Tournament, the Bob Bernard Open and the Hatteras Village tournament take anyone who registers.

Which Outer Banks fishing tournaments are still open for 2026?

As of October 16, 2026: the NCBBA Red Drum Tournament (October 21–24), where online entry closes October 16 but walk-up entry runs October 21 at the Avon firehouse, and the Bob Bernard Open on November 7, which is open to the public with pre-registration through the Cape Hatteras Anglers Club. For the Capital City Four Wheelers tournament on October 17–18, call the Fessenden Center in Buxton. The Hatteras Island Surf Fishing Challenge was canceled for 2026.

Do I need a 4x4 to fish a surf tournament on the Outer Banks?

For the Hatteras Island and Nags Head events, yes in practice: the fishing zones and stations are on drive-on beaches, and the NCBBA tournament requires a current NPS ORV permit to enter. The pier events and the Ocracoke tournament are the exceptions.

What license and permits do I need?

A North Carolina Coastal Recreational Fishing License for anyone 16 or older, and a National Park Service ORV permit ($50 for 10 days, $120 for a year) to drive on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore beaches. The Nags Head club issues town beach permits to its teams at registration.

What is a North Carolina citation?

A certificate from the state’s year-round Saltwater Fishing Tournament for a fish over the minimum for its species — for red drum, a released fish of 43 inches or more. It costs nothing; weigh a kept fish at an official weigh station or have a witness sign for a released one.