Topsail Angler

Kicking off 2009

2009-01-06T22:43:00Z

This past Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day. I hadn’t planned to fish but about mid-morning I could resist no longer. I headed out to some ledges about 8 miles out where I often find flounder this time of year. There was one other boat in the vicinity when I arrived, they said they hadn’t done much.

To target flounder in the ocean, I use a 2 ounce SPRO bucktail tipped with Berkley’s Gulp! strip bait. I prefer the green or chartreuse bucktails but have some luck witht he white ones as well. Color of the Gulp doesn’t matter, just make sure you have some on! Then I anchor up on a small ledge or some hard bottom in about 60 feet of water. I “bounce” the jighead off the bottom - here’s how: I let it touch the bottom then give the rod a sharp 10-15” jerk upward, letting it settle back to the bottom then jerking it up again. The fish usually hit it as it settles to the bottom so be prepared.

On this particular day I couldn’t manage to find the flounder. I did catch two octopi, one of which is in the picture. Or maybe I caught the same octupus twice...LOL. When I was on Guam I use to eat them at local festivals but haven’t had much luck in convincing the wife that they are good to eat, so back they went. I also caught two nice size puffers, one going over 2 pounds and few black bass. Believe it or not the toad puffers are good eating! The two strips of meat along the spine (the tenderloin) is a delicacy! After about 2 hours I had to head back due to other obligations but at least I was able to get out and stretch the legs so to speak.

Winding Down 2008

2008-12-25T01:55:00Z

As far as fishign goes, it’s been a good year in some ways but not a stellar year. The weather really was messed up this year. We might not have gotten a lot of “named” storms but we sure had a lot of stormy weather that kept small boats like mine out of the ocean. On the other hand I caught a lot of different fish - flounder, speckled trout, gray trout, Spanish mackerel, king mackerel, blues, Atlantic bonito, red drum, black drum, amber jack, black bass, grouper, tautog, white grunt, silver snapper, b-liners (vermillion snapper), stripers, dolphin (mahi) and false albacore. Plus of course about every “trash” fish found in the Atlantic it seemed. I was able to file for citations for three fish - a 32 pound King Mackerel, a 6 pound 4 ounce Spanish Mackerel and a 46” Red Drum!

Last week I got a call from my buddy Randy (owner of NCAngler.com & TackleMonkey.com) to come up and go striped bass fishing on Jordan lake. I had planned to go speck fishing that night at the jetty but never caught lake stripers before so now seemed like a good time.

We went out with Capt. Troy of Striper Sniper Charters, leaving the dock at O’dark thirty in the heaviest fog I have ever seen. We quickly caught some shad in our cast net and headed for the spot Troy had caught some the day before. There were three of us on the charter and we all caught fish, 5 all together with the largest being 8 pounds. I caught 2, one on live bait and the other messing around with a jig off the bottom. We had a blast!

On another note, it looks like the Jan - April grouper closure will not go into effect this year after all. YEAH! I wouldn’t mind it taking efect if they had the science to back it up but they don’t. It’s a guess - let’s try this and see what happens. Folk’s livelihood partly depends on this fishery. Mainly Charter crews and the other businesses frequented by their clients (hotels, restaurants, etc). Saving it is important (if it really even needs any help as this point which is part of the problem, Marine fisheries management really doesn’t know).

I hope everyone has a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Guest Fishing report

2008-12-06T20:23:00Z

This entry is from one of our registered members. If you would like to have a report published here, please use our contact form to submit your report for review.

Submitted by mcsacco:
On 12/3, my friend Dave and I went fishing in the ocean. The weather was perfect and there were no waves. We started at the Onslow Beach pier and fished for about 30 minutes with no luck. We decided to go to “bass rock”. Immediately we caught 2 small bass and chose to stay at that spot. all and all we caught about 30 fish, but kept only 5 really large spot porgies and 1 grunt. Three of the bass were a little over 12” but we put them back.

We had a GREAT DAY!

Specks

2008-11-27T01:02:00Z

I haven’t been out in a few weeks due to the weather and hunting so I was ready to FISH today! It was slow fishing but I did managed a limit of specks. I’d get a bite then it would be 30 minutes or more till the next one. But no complaints, was an enjoyable day! Biggest was about 3 pounds. I did see one fella catch one that had to be at least 5 pounds. I also caught one small slot sized puppy drum. I used a variety of artificial baits but the Gulp 3” Shrimp was the mosty effective. Caught one on a candy corn colored paddle tail and one on a silver/black Mirrolure. I launched from the USO ramp and fished mainly in SW creek.

Floundering for Specks

2008-11-07T22:44:00Z

It was a beautiful day, couldn’t resist putting the boat in for some afternoon fishing.

Left the dock a little after noon and set out to fish either side of high tide looking for specs. Right off the bat I found a school of barely slot sized drum, after catching a few of those I decided to move on - Specks is what I wanted.

Put out some x-raps and trolled for a while. Caught a 16” flounder while trolling. Following the rule: “Where there is one flounder there is usually more”, I stopped and through some gulp and caught another flounder. When I was sure there were no more in that spot, off I headed again. After all, its specks that I wanted.

I hit every single high water spot that I’ve caught specks int eh past, no luck. I talked to several other captains and watched several dozen boats - seems no one was catching specks.

Can’t really complain as I have some nice flounder dinners in the box and like they say..........There’s always TOMORROW!

More of the same, SWEET!

2008-11-01T19:29:00Z

Went out again today. Took my boat but I had no crew so rather than troll I decided to anchor and jig the bottom while keeping a “light line” out for kings.

Caught 2 grouper, 2 kings, 2 Fat Alberts, 1 amber jack and a mess of black sea bass and grunts. Left at 9am and was back on the hill by 2:30. Beautiful day, very little swell or wind and plenty of sunshine!

Man I love this place!

King Grouper

2008-10-31T23:42:00Z

It was chilly this morning but I hadn’t fished in 2 weeks and only once in the past four. Very unusual for me so I was determined to go today. We left the dock at about 8:30 after melting the ice off the boat (it was 29 degrees this morning). We were headed for 23 mile rock but stopped short of there after marking some bait.

We trolled for about an hour catching some kings and a fat albert, then got an engine alarm so we stopped trolling. Couldn’t find anything wrong with the engine. While we waited we put a few grouper in the boat. Even though the motor was running fine we decided not to chance it and headed home.

Finally tally was 3 kings, 3 gag groupers and one FA (kept for future bait).

Kings and a Spanish

2008-10-16T23:07:00Z

What a beautiful fall day! And good fishing to boot! I headed out his morning about 8’oclock with the idea to troll fro some kings and if that didn’t work out I’d just enjoy the day and flounder fish or something. My regular fishing buddy (Hunter’s Haven) couldn’t make it and it was too late to find a someone else so I went by myself.

Put lines in the water at 8:30 pulling dead cigar minnows. By 9:30 I had my limit of 3 kings plus a nice Spanish. Messed around for the rest of the morning - what a nice day to be on the water!

The kings weighed 15.5, 12.3 and 10.1 pounds. The Spanish tilted the scale right at 4 pounds.

Catching report - Oct 14th

2008-10-14T16:58:00Z

A quick trip to the beach this morning indicated that the bite was “on”. From the beach I could see the rails were packed with anglers. Up and down the beach I saw a good number of trucks and SUV’s on the beach with surf rods nearby. Classic fall fishing.

Anglers are catching plenty of spots from the pier and in boats near the beach but the “inside” spot bite still hasn’t materialized. Runs of spots are coming though allowing anglers pier to catch them two at a time, sometimes anyway. Blood worms are working best for the spots but some are being caught on shrimp as well. A few pompano are still being caught on shrimp and sand fleas but I expect most of the Pomps will be gone soon as the water cools.

The Spanish runs are tapering off but blues are still in strong. Speckled trout are being caught from the piers, in the surf and inside near the inlets. Live shrimp and mullet are working best but some folks are having success with soft plastics and gulp. Plenty of red drum are being caught, many are being taken on top water plugs as well as live bait and gulp. The flounder are chewing and most anglers are reporting they are “fat”, even the short ones seem heavy for their size.

The king mackerel bite has been hot this past week with the fish in close to the beach. The cool front due in here this week-end may start to change that but they should still be inside of 10 miles through the week-end. The Topsail Offshore King Mackerel Tournament is this week-end at Soundside Park in Surf City. Registration is Friday from 2 - 8pm and fishing is on Saturday from 7am - 5pm. Visit http://www.tofc.com for all the details.

Grouper are being caught in the 10 - 30 mile range but the nearer shore bite is starting to taper off. There have been a few reports of false albacore in the 3 -10 mile range this week. No news from the gulf stream this week as not many folks have been able to make it out there due to the winds.

Tight lines to all!

Catching report - Oct 8th

2008-10-08T12:10:00Z

The weather has cooled but the catching has heated up! Pictured here is my friend Alan from Sneads Ferry. He ventured into my neck of the woods (south Topsail) and went home with an inshore slam of trout, red drum and flounder! Way To Go!

Inside the trout bite is really picking up with some nice 20 inch fish being caught on live finger mullet. Flounder bite is still real good especially around the inlets, The reds are biting inside and on the beach with some nice “over the slot” sized fish coming from the surf on Lea Island. The action on the north end Topsail is hot in the river and creeks.

On the piers and in the surf they are catching plenty of spot with some being caught “two at a time” at times. Mullet, drum and a few pompano are being caught on the planks as well as some flounder and specks. The Spanish bite is still on but will be fading soon so hurry and get those last few of the season. Of course the bluefish continue to bite as well.

The grouper bite is still fairly close to shore with some keeper size fish being caught in the 10-15 mile range. Also have heard some reports of grunts and gray snapper in that range and of course black sea bass. Kings are chewing on the beach and at times the bite red HOT! Off shore plenty of nice wahoo have been caught and a few small tuna. Red grouper are being caught in the 35 mile range.

Here’s a few more pictures of Alan’s fish today (did I mention he called me at work 3 times to report his progress on the slam...lol)