[joseywhales]

Hello.

I will travelling to OIB Sept. 15th. This will be my forth trip to OIB where I will spend the entire week surf fishing - catching mostly snapper Bluefish and Flounder. This year I bought a fly rod to fish Steelhead here in NE Ohio where I live. I plan on bringing all of my fly fishing gear and giving it a go at OIB. I am sure I will be able to catch at least Flounder in the surf.

Is anyone familiar with fly fishing around IOB or the Shallotte Inlet? Any pointers would be great. I have a 7wt I use for Steelhead, and I will bring a 10wt I got on a bargin. The 10wt is loaded with a RIO saltwater line.

Any help would be great.


Thanks,

Josey Whales

 

[LiveBait]

Welcome Josey! I take it either you or your parents are big "Outlaw Josey Whales" fans. Here, here! "The Outlaw Josey Whales" is my all time favorite movie!

Mark

 

[NCangler]

Ditto. One of my favorite movies too. Great Clint Eastwood line...when asked by Josey if he is a bounty hunter he replies, "its a way to make a living." Josey: "Dieing ain't no way to make a living boy." Great movie. Great username. Welcome aboard!

 

[sinker man]

Welcome aboard Josey. I'd suspect that anything that looked like a finger mullet would work pretty good. They are normally the most common baitfish in the surf at that time. Something along the lines of a weighted elk hair colored muddler (About a #2 I would guess) would probably be great. Most of the baitfish will be either green or bluish green above and a silvery white below. Some will be pale brown. (as are sand fleas.) Trout seem to be partial to loud colors like hot pink/white with silver flash/ hot pink, pink over green chartreuse, Red head dark green body and red head and white or yellow to name a few.
Clousers, Decievers and Seaducers are all good or you could get a little fancier and go with some patterns from Bob Popovic's Pop Flyes Patterns. Sizes (2-1/0 ) Wade out and cast up current. Try to pattern the zone where the bait is running. Watch and see what the baitfish are doing and you will know how to imitate them. You will probably have a blast if the water is clear and the finger mullet are cruising the beach. If the wind gets up you might need that ten weight and your bigger flies.

 

[backlash]

Welcome Josey,
I would try fishing the creeks around Tubb's Inlet and use Clousers with a sinking line to get down to the Flounder. There's also a deep hole around the Sunset beach Bridge that usaully holds flounder. Chartuese or Lt blue Clousers is a ggod choice and will match the bait, but I also like to use Red and White Clousers and Deceivers . Red/white just seems to work everywhere. You might want to have some shrimp and crab patterns to use wirth that 7wt in shallower water. Good Luck and be sure to let us know how you do.

 

[joseywhales]

Backlash,

I do not have sinking line, and was hoping not to spend $60 on a spool. I made up some sinking leaders out of lead-core line, one around 4Ft and the other around 5Ft, which i was hoping would work. Orvis sells a similar product, which is where I got the idea. I understand that the line connects to the sinking leader (both the line and the leader have loops), then the tippet connects to the sinking leader. I suppose this will make my WF line work like a sinking tip line?

How deep do you think I will need to go to get to the flatties?

thanks,

Joseph

 

[backlash]

I've never tried it that way but it sounds like it will do the job. I've caught flounder on the noerthern end in about 3 or 4 ft on water but the holes around the bridges will be arounfd 12 or 15 ft deep . I think if you give your fly a little more time to get down you should have no problem . Good Luck.

 

[Missed Again]

Mr. Whales,

Where on the Island will you be staying and typically surf fishing? I plan to be there some time during late September.

Missed Again

 

[joseywhales]

Missed Again,

We stay on the east end of the island and fish almost every day on the far eastern side of the island facing Holden Beach; we have always caught Flounder on this end, and lots of snapper Bluefish. I'll be the guy with a fishing cart, 2-3 surf rods and a fly rod.

Hope to see you there.

Josey Whales

 

[NCtrouter]

I'll be down there the weekend of the 28th with my 8wt and a couple spinning rigs, not sure if I'm taking the boat or not ( still broken ) up to now our focus has always been volleyball and margarita's with a low country boil thrown in for good measure but as we get a little older more sedate adventures have been beckoning. when you get back be sure to tell us all the secrets so we can amaze our friends with our intimate local knowledge

 

[joseywhales]

NCtrouter,

Friday the 28th will be my last day at the beach, as we head back to Ohio on Sat. the 29th. I would like to travel to OIB in October when the fishing is probably better, but my wife and five children like swimming a lot and the water and air is still very mild in late Sept. but not yet too cool.