Friday, November 07, 2008
Floundering for Specks
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!
Saturday, November 01, 2008
More of the same, SWEET!
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!
Friday, October 31, 2008
King Grouper
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).
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Kings and a Spanish
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.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Catching report - Oct 14th
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.
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Catching report - Oct 8th
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.
