White Oak & SWansboro Report

[ParrotHead]

10/20 - 10/23 Spent some time on the White Oak, a couple miles down from the Stella Bridge, and even ventured down river to the Swansboro Bridges area.

The water was so fresh upriver that we were catching catfish and eels (SLIMY!) and we were watching the gars cut thru the pogie schools. I think I managed to "tie" my mother-in-law for the family record flounder out of the river. Of course, I lost one that was even bigger! That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. The bite was pretty strange when it did come. My six year old caught a catfish and then a small balck drum in the same spot.

Headed downriver and drifted on the edge of the ICW and got some decent hits, but nothing in the boat before we anchored near the bridges. The flatfish were biting, but hard to land. I pulled in several mullet heads . It seems the amount of time you wait to set the hook is always only half the time you should have waited. I did see some other folks pull in some nice flounder and heard reports of a couple specks (3-4 lbs'ers) and some happy with the spot haul (up to 80 in one afternoon trip).

Anyway, it was a great time and I burned up some gas re-learing the river and waterway where I grew up. I'll try to post a pic of the near-record flounder if my mom-in-law lets her husband release it.

PH