NC Angler Fishing Blogs

This is NCangler member "yak4fish" (Philip) with a December 8, 2007 drum caught from kayak in the Haystacks area near Beaufort.

I met up with yak4fish and GanzAndere (Joel) in hopes of finding drum and/or trout. We found several reds in the 14-20" range to go along with this 7.25lb, 25+inch beauty, and one decent trout. We had good weather, light winds, good company and some fish - what more could you ask for on a December Saturday?

I made it a day trip from Raleigh. Alarm at 4:20. on the road before 5am. Coming through Havelock, I saw the "Open" sign at Lews Rod & Reel (NC Sponsor Angler - luremaker) on main street so I made a quick stop to meet Lew and pick up some darker plastics. I chose the Slurp 4" sea shads in what I think is their version of new penny - sort of a root beer underbelly, with a flaked green pumpkin topside. (I also picked up a few other necessities - snacks for today, crankbaits for another day!). The Slurp fished well - the absense of pinfish makes it hard to know if they're really any tougher than the gulp, but I managed to use one bait for multiple fish and most of a day of casting. Plus you get a little more action on steady retrieve or drop than with the shrimp shaped baits.

Meanwhile GanzAndere and yak4fish had launched at first light out of Beaufort, from the public ramp at Turner St and W. Beaufort Rd. They had fished their way through the first marsh immediately across the channel from the marina by the time I got into the water around 9:00am. They both had a variety of rods & baits, but were primarily fishing white Gulp 5" Jerk Shads rigged on jigheads and all of their fish came on that combination.

As I was paddling my way through that first marsh I spooked a school of puppies, and picked up this 15" fish pretty quickly. I think it was the first fish of the day for the group (my claim to fame today), and a good sign that there were fish in the area. I had cast up into a cut that dropped into a deeper pool - current pushing down the cut into the pool at me. Good Start for my day.

I hit a couple of dead ends trying to get through, but eventually met up with the other two around 10am and we headed across the larger ICW channel and on toward the haystacks.

On yak4fish's first cast he hooked up what I thought was a pretty nice fish in the 20" range, but he quickly released it before I could get a picture and mumbled that he had only gotten the "runt".

His next cast into the hole took him for a ride.

It took him a couple minutes to get it subdued, but what a fat, healthy looking fish (First picture above). I guess they all haven't moved out to the big water yet.


We continued moving in and around the area, and found a couple really nice low-tide trout holes, but most had boats parked in them. One group was catching trout - slowly and no real size, but consistently.

As we continued through to the far side of the haystacks, Philip caught our lone trout and GanzAndere caught a nice 20" Red, both on the Jerk Shads and both returned to the water without pictures. I got another small red on the dark slurp.

On the paddle back toward the ramp, I spotted (=ran over & spooked) a school of puppies in that first marsh. I stopped to try and get them from shore but they were just out of my range. By the time I got back in the kayak and pushed back to where they had gone, Joel had caught 3 of them on nearly consecutive casts and they were gone.

Long drive home. Rinsed the reels, dumped the sweaty, salty, gulp-drenched clothes into the wash (oh those Gulp Live tubs... I hardly even used any but still wound up soaked in it). Saved the rest of the cleanup for Sunday afternoon.

In total I'd estimate we paddled 5 miles to get from the launch through the haystacks. May have felt longer due to the current - we were going against it most of the day. There is a primitive launch at a pier that puts you closer to the Haystacks, but don't sell the little marsh directly across from the marina short - it had some pretty good holes and provided half our fish for the day (albeit the small half). We also came across another kayaker in there on our ride back with a nice trout on his stringer.

Last Thoughts:

• I'm still in my early learning stages about saltwater fish. One lesson that came through today was how much they are willing to stuff in their mouths. I had been thinking the 3" shrimp were plenty big for the mouths on these redfish, but both Joel and Phillip were throwing 5" Gulp Jerk Shads and catching more fish. Its not the first time either. As much as I hate to grow my gulp collection, it looks like I'm going to have to invest again.
• I picked up 2 new kayak clothing items this week - a dry-top and a pair of storm socks. I've dreaded the dry tops and their gaskets for a long time, but found one on sale and bit the bullet this week. It got pretty sauna-like over top of my farmer john wetsuit, but after some adjustment it worked pretty well. Looks like a keeper and looks like I'm on the path to the waders+drytop combo. The storm socks were definitely better than neoprene. I wore a pair of wool sock liners underneath, then you get the wicking layer of the storm sock, then the weatherproof (not waterproof) layer. We did a good bit of wading to drag across shallow areas and I was eventually saturated. Still not the complete answer - another indication that waders are inevitable.
• If you're anywhere in the vicinity, take a trip about 4 miles south of Vanceboro on Hwy 17 one night between now and Christmas. Its the best home Christmas lights display I can remember. They've got some room to pull off on the roadside where you can stop and take it all in. Made the long drive home worthwhile!