Will you be the next big winner in The Fisherman’s ’24 Dream Boat Challenge?
Name another time when spending $30 bucks could change your life for the better. The Fisherman Magazine’s Dream Boat Challenge is free for all paid subscribers and – every year – we give away a boat that’s ready to leave the dock and lead you into the next era of your fishing life. In addition to this amazing grand prize, we also give away a pile of other prizes ranging from top end pliers, sunglasses and high-end reels to inflatable watercraft, fish mounts and coolers.
We don’t call it the Dream Boat Challenge for nothing. Winning this year-long event is a game of endurance, a fishing marathon, so to speak and it takes a high level of dedication, some real planning and, yes, even a healthy dose of luck to top our leaderboard that includes some of the finest amateur anglers throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions. Past winners all look back fondly on their championship runs, usually crediting the prospect of winning the big prize with pushing them back ‘out there’ day after day to find that magic combination of winning fish.
The Challenge
For those of you who may not know how the Dream Boat Challenge works, it is a season-long, multi-species, point-gathering fishing septathalon of epic proportions. We have seven species categories (weakfish, sea robin, fluke, black sea bass, porgy, bluefish and blackfish) that anglers can fish for all season long (as regulations allow, of course). The points are given based on the top 10 fish for each category, 10 points for the largest and 1 point for the smallest qualifying fish.
Scores are tallied based on the number of points gathered across all categories, and because of the nature of the leaderboard and points system, it is also possible to lose points and this happens many times throughout the course of the seven month event. The Dream Boat Challenge runs from May 1 through November 30 and is open 24 hours a day! You can find all of the official rules, including who can enter and geographic eligibility by visiting https://www.thefisherman.com/the-fisherman-2024-dream-boat-fishing-challenge-official-rules-2/
When you catch a fish that you’d like to enter into the Dream Boat Challenge, you must harvest that fish and bring it to one of our dozens of official weigh stations. Once at the weigh station, you will be required to fill out a weigh slip and have the weighmaster sign and date the slip. You will also need to take a photo of yourself with the fish, either while fishing or at the weigh station. Once these steps are completed, you can submit the entry through email with your weigh slip (take a photo of your slip or scan it) and fish photo attached (email to [email protected]) or through US Postal Mail by sending the slip and a printed copy or your fish photo to: Dream Boat Challenge, 116 Shore Road W, Mount Sinai, NY 11766.
We post a new leaderboard every week during the seven month challenge, as well as a weekly video recap in our Weekly Fishing Forecasts.
The Loot
There are 87 ways to win something in the Dream Boat Challenge, you have to love those odds.
Let’s start things off with the Big Kahuna, one lucky angler will take home this year’s grand prize, a Steiger Craft 21 Classic Center Console Boat with Yamaha 150 HP Outboard Motor; Hummingbird SOLIX 10 CHIRP MEGA SI+ G3; Minn Kota Riptide Terrova Quest 87” Shaft.
One second place winner will be whisked away for a 5 day/4 night stay at The Tropic Star Lodge in Panama for up to two people. Includes accommodations, and inshore fishing trips. See official rules for all the details of the dream fishing vacation prize. And a fish mount from Grays Taxidermy.
Our lucky third place winner will float home in his or her own Sea Eagle FishSkiff 16, a two-person inflatable watercraft complete with their Swivel Seat Package along with an Engel EN80 Cooler.
But wait, there’s more… the seven anglers that lead each of the species categories will also take home a pretty awesome prize package, including a pair of Visser 6.5-inch Pliers; a $200.00 Gift Card from Shurhold and a pair of FinNor Sunglasses.
Then we have our awesome Fish of the Month prizes, these are awarded to the anglers that catch the largest of these species in the corresponding month: May – weakfish, June – sea robin, July – fluke, August – black sea bass, September – porgy, October – bluefish and November – blackfish. These lucky winners will earn a Tsunami Salt-X II 4000 reel and a Dexter Dextreme 7-inch Dual Edge flexible fillet knife with sheath.
And name another tournament that gives you a prize just for making the leaderboard, all 70 finalists, landing in the top 10 for each species category will receive a package of Owner Hooks and a Tsunami lure.
The Drive to Compete
The great thing about the Dream Boat Challenge is you can take it as seriously as you’d like. You can set your sights on the big prize and go ‘all in’ for the 2024 season and see what you’re made of. Or, you can step back and focus on a Largest of Species win for a fish that you love to chase, those Visser Pliers, Fin-Nor shades and $200 gift card from Shurhold will feel pretty sweet when all you had to do was fish! Perhaps you’d like to see how many Fish of the Month wins you can notch in a single season? There’s no limit to how many you can win and those Salt-X II reels are awesome, so are the Dextreme Fillet Knives.
Tournament fishing is all about personal challenges, and it’s the possibility of winning something grand and the prestige that comes with a big win that drives most of us to stick out our necks and test our meddle against our angling peers. But even if you don’t make the top three or even crack the list of 70 finalists, keeping a tally of your own Dream Boat Seven (weakfish, sea robin, sea bass, fluke, porgy, bluefish and blackfish) will give you an idea of where you stand among your competitors and the pantheon of past winners, who have logged amazing catches to net their Grand Prize wins.
Most of all, the Dream Boat Challenge is about having fun and it’s a way for all of us here at The Fisherman Magazine, along with our amazing sponsors, to say ‘thank you’ for supporting the finest fishing publication on the East Coast with the most comprehensive fishing reports known to man. At the same time, we get to see the type of angler that subscribes to our magazine and, as we hear so often at the wintertime shows, The Fisherman is not just a subscription, it’s a membership to fishing history, we’ve been here for more than 50 years and we’re planning to be here for at least 50 more. Take the cue from us and all of the winners that came before you, the angler that wins the Dream Boat Challenge is in a category all his (or her) own, we don’t forget that. And neither should you.
SEE OFFICIAL RULES for details about who can enter, how to submit an entry, and geographic eligibility. Contest period: May 1, 2024 –November 30, 2024. Official Rules Available at: https://www.thefisherman.com/the-fisherman-2024-dream-boat-fishing-challenge-official-rules/ Good luck in 2024!
