Well, I am home after spending a little over a week down at Emerald Isle. Started off the vacation with a brush with a tropical storm so no fishing on this day....grrrr
The following morning the storm had pushed back up and off the coast but forgot to take its winds with it. With the winds being in the mid to upper 20's I decided to stick close to the isle and fish the sound and the channel edges and grass. I didn't get on the water until around 8am (fixed the wife breakfast, gave her a kiss, pat on the hiney and a See Ya Later then I diasappeared). Launched the boat from the Marina off of Mangrove Rd. and idled out to the first couple of islands and immediately spooked bait fish holding close to the points and wind breaks. Seeing and spooking the bait fish I decided on throwing a modified spinner bait (a super shortarm #4 hammered colorado blade with a chartreuse fluke instead of a skirt - guess you could call it a spinner bait red magic hybrid). Well, tossed the spinner parallel to the points and grass in about 2' water. Had several bumps which resulted in the flukes being bit in half just behind the hook. Kept with the spinner while fishing the wind and ended up with 3 puppy drum. Nothing overly worth mentioning, that was until I drift over what I thought was a grass bed. This grass bed turned out to be the largest school of rays I have ever seen outside of Destin Fl.
With the winds picking up and the bites slowing down I opted to head back to land and visit the local shops for some fishing advice. Should have stayed on the water. It surely would have been more productive. Ran into one guy at a shop in EI (Reel something..) who provided me with the same information I got from here 2 weeks prior. The guy behind the counter looked me dead in the eye and said "I don't have a boat so I can't tell you where the fishing is...Are you kidding me???? You work in a tackle shop!! Knuckle Head..lol
Didn't get to fish the next two days due to getting bad news..Wifes aunt passed away and we came back to Va. for the funeral. After 10hrs of driving, a sad funeral it was time to get back to vacation.
7am thursday....Sent the wife to the beach and off to the sound I went again. Found several Puppy drum hanging around the grass and edges of the channel. Had one strong fish on that peeled off about 30yards of line until is snapped the wire of my spinner bait. Never saw it, no clue what it was. Day was nice and decided to run down to the inlet area where I found a few nice reds. Fish seem to be relating to the drop-off along the ICW. Brough some cut bait, small squid, shrip and mullet. Would have been better off throwing them into a stirfry than using them as bait. I believe the pinfish ate better than I did this day. Ditched the cut bait and headed up in to the Oak to see what the Oak was all about. Rode around taking in the. sites and getting a plan together for tomorrow. Found out that the channel markers stop about 1/2 the way up the river. Ran back to the sound but stopped at the bridge (not sure the name but its the only one by that end of the sound). Dropped anchor, grabbed a cold drink and baited on rod with squid and one with shrimp. End result...Pinfish like shrimp and grouper (well 2 of them) like squid. With hunger setting in I called it a day.
Wife says today is last day of fishing....hmmmmmm Better make it a good one. Decided to head to the Neuse River. Ran up the river til it got skinny and pretty much just drifted back for the next 4 hours. Started off the morning with 2 nice Bass (3 - 4lbs range) in a creek mouth (Not sure of the name) on a prototype topwater bait. Picked up a few more smaller bass on a finese worm. Had a suprise when a red picked up my finese worm...5-6ish lbs on my finese gear...6 1/2' rod with 6lbs line... Not paying attention while playing this red I caught my trolling motor on a shoal and snapped the mount clamp and darn near lost the motor in the water. How the wife knew this was the last day of fishing I will never know. With the trolling motor out of service and me being sunburnt and hungry I called it a end to my fishing the vacation.
To my wifes suprise I rebooked us for the same place, for the same time, next year. I will be back. Have way too much fishing to do here. Great place, great time and potential for awesome fishing. Next time I am venturing to the inlet again and then heading to Oriental.
Thanks for all the information you folks have provided me. It was definitely appreciated!!!!! Should have some pictures posted in the next couple days.
The following morning the storm had pushed back up and off the coast but forgot to take its winds with it. With the winds being in the mid to upper 20's I decided to stick close to the isle and fish the sound and the channel edges and grass. I didn't get on the water until around 8am (fixed the wife breakfast, gave her a kiss, pat on the hiney and a See Ya Later then I diasappeared). Launched the boat from the Marina off of Mangrove Rd. and idled out to the first couple of islands and immediately spooked bait fish holding close to the points and wind breaks. Seeing and spooking the bait fish I decided on throwing a modified spinner bait (a super shortarm #4 hammered colorado blade with a chartreuse fluke instead of a skirt - guess you could call it a spinner bait red magic hybrid). Well, tossed the spinner parallel to the points and grass in about 2' water. Had several bumps which resulted in the flukes being bit in half just behind the hook. Kept with the spinner while fishing the wind and ended up with 3 puppy drum. Nothing overly worth mentioning, that was until I drift over what I thought was a grass bed. This grass bed turned out to be the largest school of rays I have ever seen outside of Destin Fl.
With the winds picking up and the bites slowing down I opted to head back to land and visit the local shops for some fishing advice. Should have stayed on the water. It surely would have been more productive. Ran into one guy at a shop in EI (Reel something..) who provided me with the same information I got from here 2 weeks prior. The guy behind the counter looked me dead in the eye and said "I don't have a boat so I can't tell you where the fishing is...Are you kidding me???? You work in a tackle shop!! Knuckle Head..lol
Didn't get to fish the next two days due to getting bad news..Wifes aunt passed away and we came back to Va. for the funeral. After 10hrs of driving, a sad funeral it was time to get back to vacation.
7am thursday....Sent the wife to the beach and off to the sound I went again. Found several Puppy drum hanging around the grass and edges of the channel. Had one strong fish on that peeled off about 30yards of line until is snapped the wire of my spinner bait. Never saw it, no clue what it was. Day was nice and decided to run down to the inlet area where I found a few nice reds. Fish seem to be relating to the drop-off along the ICW. Brough some cut bait, small squid, shrip and mullet. Would have been better off throwing them into a stirfry than using them as bait. I believe the pinfish ate better than I did this day. Ditched the cut bait and headed up in to the Oak to see what the Oak was all about. Rode around taking in the. sites and getting a plan together for tomorrow. Found out that the channel markers stop about 1/2 the way up the river. Ran back to the sound but stopped at the bridge (not sure the name but its the only one by that end of the sound). Dropped anchor, grabbed a cold drink and baited on rod with squid and one with shrimp. End result...Pinfish like shrimp and grouper (well 2 of them) like squid. With hunger setting in I called it a day.
Wife says today is last day of fishing....hmmmmmm Better make it a good one. Decided to head to the Neuse River. Ran up the river til it got skinny and pretty much just drifted back for the next 4 hours. Started off the morning with 2 nice Bass (3 - 4lbs range) in a creek mouth (Not sure of the name) on a prototype topwater bait. Picked up a few more smaller bass on a finese worm. Had a suprise when a red picked up my finese worm...5-6ish lbs on my finese gear...6 1/2' rod with 6lbs line... Not paying attention while playing this red I caught my trolling motor on a shoal and snapped the mount clamp and darn near lost the motor in the water. How the wife knew this was the last day of fishing I will never know. With the trolling motor out of service and me being sunburnt and hungry I called it a end to my fishing the vacation.
To my wifes suprise I rebooked us for the same place, for the same time, next year. I will be back. Have way too much fishing to do here. Great place, great time and potential for awesome fishing. Next time I am venturing to the inlet again and then heading to Oriental.
Thanks for all the information you folks have provided me. It was definitely appreciated!!!!! Should have some pictures posted in the next couple days.
