First note – the speckled trout bite has begun and will get better with each passing day.
10/18 – This morning I had the pleasure of fishign with Dave and his friend Steve – both fly-anglers who wanted to go after some tailin’ reds back in the marsh. Using my fantastic, extremely shallow draft, skiff we went to a few beautiful little spots and within minutes we spotted our first fish. Over the next 2.5 hours, we would get legitimate shots at 12 fish that came within 15 feet of us – and if you’ve ever done this type of fishin, you will understand how incredible that is. However, tailin’ reds, to quote a good friend of mine, “is great fishing but not good catching.” Stalking these fish is unlike anything most people have ever done and it’s an incredible rush. Well, these guys had several tail on their flies and we broke off a massive 30+ inch fish…and we all left satisfied. We finished working a trout hole and caught a few small specks. What an awesome day.
Some good tailin’ photos:
10/17 – Today I had the absolute pleasure of taking out Chris and Andrew – both students at ECU. These guys live and breath fish and were some of the best anglers I’ve had aboard in ages. Chris is also a fisheries major and is doing his thesis on Striped Bass – I learned some amazing stuff about those fish talking to him throughout the day. With as much knowledge as he has, I really hope to see him working down this way in the future – we need people like him working in fisheries.
The goal was to go after some tailers at first light and then hit a trout hole and then hit the rising tide for some more reds. We started off poling through the grass and within 10 minutes we were in the middle of a school of tailers – probably 4 or 5 fish in a small break in the grass in probably 8-12″ of water. Over the two hours we fished for tailers, we saw probably a dozen and had shots at four. They did, however, hook up three of those fish – two of which “buck fever” set in and they pulled the hooks early. One of the fish though, a big high-slot fish, Andrew expertly hooked up and had it on for probably 10 seconds betore he wrapped us up and broke off.
After we left the flats, we headed down to top secret trout hole #381. It took the tide awhile to work to the point at which I wanted it to be. But once it started to flow, Andrew’s rod doubled over and out of the debths came a huge 4lb flounder! Honestly, one of the largest we’ve ever caught on an artificial on a WaterDog Charter. Soon afterwards, Andrew got his big speck – a beautiful 3.5lb fish that hit a rip lures flat chub. A few small specks later, Chris got his big speck – another 3.5lb fish on a riptide lures flat chub. In the next couple of hours, we managed some more specks and Chris lost a keeper flounder at the boat (we ended up a flounder short of a slam). Soon after that, Andrew got himself a little drum to complete his NC inshore slam!
AFter the tide slacked, we went back into a creek and cast netted a bunch of shrimp and then went and worked topwaters for some reds. OVer a few hours, we probably had a dozen great strikes. One of the funniest things happened today though – Andrew had a great strike and hooked a nice red that ended up breaking him off. So Chris cast in the same general area with a Nemire gold sppon – and instantly hooked up…and when he got it to the boat the fish had a mirrolure topdog in it’s mouth!!! It was the same fish – how thick can you get? Great day guys – I really hope to see you on the water down here again soon.
In the past few months – I’ve switched all my soft plastics over to Riptide Lures (made by Culprit) – serious high quality lures and their flats chub has an incredible action.
10/16 – I had a cancellation today so I Fished with my good buddy Captain Scott Crocker. We went out and looked for reds in the morning but the tide was so incredibly high it was hard to find the fish……so, we decided to go and hit a proven trout hole (thanks Gordo 😉 ). Once we got there, on his first cast, Scott hooked up with a 2lb speck!! We kept working the area, and caught a good number of smaller 11-13″ specks before we decided to move on. We went and hit a little creek where scott caught a nice little red on a topwater plug as well as a nice speck on a riptide shrimp. After we spooked a school of reds we called it a day and went home and ate some venison burgers – yum!!
10/15 – This morning I had the pleasure of fishing with Brant and his son Jim. Marsh fishing was the name of the game and we worked the waters hard. The tide was really high but not right for tailers (we didnt see any) so we worked the outgoing tide hard, picking away at some striked, before a big slot fish hammered Brant’s mirrolure and brought the fish aboard for a picture. We ended up finding a good little bite in a creek and floated some corks catching a good number of pretty low-slot reds!
Great day guys!! Can’t wait to hunt with you this January for some Ducks!!
