Topsail Angler's Fishing Blog
Gulf Stream Trip
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
We left out of New River Inlet this morning about 4:30 and hit a starting point for trolling right at sunrise. It was a smooth ride out but got pretty choppy and was down right lumpy by mid-morning.
We had 30 ballyhoo rigged but decided to start with some fast trolling lures we also had rigged. Within 10 minutes we had the first fish on which turned out to be a 20 something pound Wahoo! We landed him amongst high fives around the boat. Twenty minutes later the port long line goes off, then the starboard long, then the starboard mid line and then, you guessed it, the port mid-line. We had a quad hook up and it looked like a fire drill was in progress. We manged to land 3 of the 4 fish, 2 gaffer dolphin and a small Wahoo. We released the Wahoo.
Then things go quiet for a while. Our buddy boat was yet to hook up a single fish pulling ballyhoo, so we decided to stick to the high speed stuff and cover some ground. Then two reels go to singing at the same time, we landed both, a pair of blackfin tuna!
We had a couple of short strikes, then another tuna was boated. This repeated several times. Then we had a screaming rod, over 100 yards peeled off then the reel went silent - we’ll never know but it acted like a Wahoo. Then we boated 3 more tuna during a period of about an hour.
By noon it was getting snotty so and we had to head directly into the wind/seas to get home, so we started in. About halfway in the wind laid down a bit and we did some more trolling with no luck. then a bit of bottom fishing. We caught a few nice black sea bass on roscoe jigs. We are treated to watching a Navy carrier and some Marine Harrier Jets running ops, that was very cool. There were also some helicopters in the air and one buzzed us a few times checking us out but we kept a safe distance from the ship but was close enough to enjoy the view.
Great day on the water!
Mackerel
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
The marine forecast was looking great for today and my friend Mark from Sanford was down. So we decided to go out for a half day of fishing. We didn’t find any decent sized menhaden close by and didn’t want to spend all morning looking, so we headed out of the inlet around 7:30 with some nice ballyhoo.
Our first stop was the rocks off of South Topsail Beach. We hadn’t been trolling long when the starboard long line goes to singing, nice sized Spanish - about 5 pounds worth. Then a king takes the other long line. After a pause, we boated another Spanish, this one just under 6 pounds and then another king.
Low tide was at 9am and about 8:30 or so the bite just died - nothing between then and 9:45. So we decided to head offshore and fish for an hour or so - tried a couple of spots about 8 miles out with no luck. We needed to be finished around noon so we headed back for a few more trips around the South Topsail rocks. Nothing except one small shark (the only one for the day). We ended up with 2 Spanish and 2 kings - not stellar but we had a very enjoyable morning and are having fresh fish for dinner so no complaints here!
Invited a Red Drum to come home today!
Sunday, March 28, 2010
I had a chance to go fishing with Breadman and Breadman Jr. today. We fished on his end of Topsail Island in some skinny water . It was pretty windy, his famous last words when he called to invite me were “I’ll get us out of the wind, don’t worry”. Ha!
I’m happy to report he put us on some decent fish. I quit counting after 15 reds. All three of us boated a fair share of reds and few small flounder. I caught the big one of the day, measured 26 1/4 inches. I also caught a nice 24 inch fish that had a NCDMF tag.
Thanks for the invite Breadman!
Spring fishing nears
Friday, March 26, 2010
I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for some spring fishing! I just returned from a 3 week mission trip to Kenya and Tanzania so it has been awhile since I wet a line. I’ve been talking to my fishing buddies to get the latest fishing reports for Topsail Island and the surrounding waters. Now I hope to get out this week-end and do some fishing. Here’s what I have gleaned from the reports:
Plenty of slot sized red drum (18 - 27”) are schooled up and can be found in shallow water, usually less than a foot. They may be in small deeper holes that are protected from the channel by shallow water in between. They are hiding from the dolphin which can’t get in the skinny water. So check the back of the creeks of the ICW and use a rapidly moving bait over the flats. One buddy caught over 35 red fish in just a few hours one day this week. A few specks are also being caught, a few in the 3-5 pound range too. Late March and early April are great times to fine the big specks at the mouths of creeks off of the New River. A few nice size flounder have been caught but you have to be very patient right now, work you bait slowly or if you can find some live bait, that is the best option for flounder right now.
I have an unconfirmed report of Atlantic Bonito about 12 miles offshore. Another few weeks and they should be showing up inside of the 5 mile range. A few blues are being caught and some sea mullet. Offshore some nice size cobia and a few yellowfin tuna have been reported. Some nice African Pompano were caught earlier this week in the Gulf Stream off of Cape Fear.
I hope you are able to get out and catch some, be sure to post a report and some pictures in our forums when you do!
Wahooooooooooo!
Thursday, October 01, 2009
Man what a day, great weather, good friends and some very nice fish! Here is my latest fishing report from Topsail Island:
I headed out of New River Inlet this morning at 5:30 with my buddy Taylor and a couple he is friends with, Jerry & Carla. We were headed for the gulf stream and loaded for Wahoo. It was a little choppy on the way out but once the sun came up and warmed the air, the seas calmed down and were flat as a pancake.
We arrived at our spot near the Gulf Stream, about 65 miles from the inlet, and quickly deployed our spread of ballyhoo on a variety of rigs. Just as I put out the last of the lines one of them went to screaming. A few minutes later we had a 28.2 pound wahoo in the box! Great way to start.
Things were a bit slow after that for a while but about 90 minutes later the long line on the starboard side started screaming. Jerry fights this one with me coaching (this is his first wahoo and one of the few times he has been offshore fishing) him. Its a real rocket, nearly spooling a 50W reel, I’m yelling to Taylor to get the boat in gear and chase down the fish as I move Jerry to the front of the boat for the fight. Finally with just about 50 yards of line left we are gaining line back. After a long fight we land the first citation fish of the day, a 62.8 pound wahoo!
Another hour or so passes and the medium short line goes off. This time its Carla’s turn. She fights the fish to perfection but it comes unbuttoned right next to the boat - I was just about to grab the leader to position it for the gaff. We did a little bottom fishing without getting much but our hearts weren’t in it, we wanted to fight another Hoo. So we decided to go back to trolling and head toward a nice bottom fishing spot about 5 miles inshore of our current spot. Soon thereafter the starboard medium short line goes to screaming. Another greyhound for sure - line is peeling off FAST! then the fish finally slows down and Taylor begins to pump and reel. Then he says, the fish got off, no - its there but he can’t reel in line - the gears are SMOKED. The drag still works but the Okuma Gold Titus 30W 2 speed won’t reel in at all, handle spins but the spool doesn’t. The fish is starting to pull again. Thinking and acting quickly I grab one of the 50 wides we had cleared earlier, remove the bait and splice the line with the hoo on it to the other reel, clip the line and hand it back to Taylor to fight. My splice holds and after a long fight we land the second citation fish of the day, a 52.8 pound wahoo!
Wow! By now we are tired. The day is growing long so we head in with big smiles and a box full of fresh fish!
Oh yeah - 65 miles off the coast this bird (looks like some kind of finch or something) lands on our reel and begins to devour a bug it has in its mouth. It hitches a ride for a while, resting up then heads off again. Weird to see that kind of bird so far offshore.
