[Big Osh]

I was wondering if I could get a little help. I have read a few post about red fishing in NC. My problem is I have no idea where these places are. I grew up red fishing in Florida.(Titusville). I used to skip school to go fishing in Mosquito lagoon. I love red fishing. I tried the bass fishing thing and frankly I stink at it. So I thought that I would go back to what I know. So I was wondering where would be a good place to go? I do not have a boat. I do all my fishing from my yak. It is easier to sneek up on reds from a yak. Here are a couple of pic's from my 3 week fishing Vacation in Fl. This past month. There is also a pic of a fish that I am not sure what it is. This thing had some teeth. It was about 3 ft long, maybe 1.5 inches wide if that, and was as chrome as the bumper of a show car. It was dead. we found it floating on a sand bar in the lagoon. My brother n law wife is a Marine biologist and she is looking into to what type of fish it is. Well thanks for your time and help.

 

[speckhunter80]

Big Osh,
Are you in the Military? If so, thank you for your service to our Country. The mystery fish looks like a ribbon fish or a member of the same family(Trichiuridae). There are places all over our coast where you could catch some reds from a kayak. The marshes around Morehead, Swansboro, behind Topsail Island and areas south. Check out the kayak thread on this web-site or others.

 

[sandbar]

This poor misguided sole jump on my hook today due mostly to a post by Topsail Angler. His thread "What's for lunch" got me wondering where he caught those flounder and of course I didn't know but I thought of his boat tending duty and a marina came to mind. Since his post, I have caught trout, flounder, and this red in between boat slips inside the marina. The trout were caught on pink and white 4 inch curly tails, DOA shrimp, and live finger mullet the flounder and red on finger mullet. Maybe a good place to start?
Thanks for the tip TA.

 

[NCangler]

Hi Big Osh. I concur with speckhunter80. Looks like a ribbonfish. If you can catch a few of them and soak them in brine and freeze they are great for slow trolling for King Mackerel on downrigger lines. There are a number of spots along the coast back in the marshes, creeks and sounds where red drum and speckled trout will be plentiful this fall. I'm sure some guys will share more specific spots. We fish in the Oriental area whenever we can and there is some great kayaking water in the creeks down there with red drum and specs in good numbers at certain times of the year.

 

[Dave B.]

Ribbon fish Osh, like Randy said, good bait for king mackeral.

Thanx for the report and great pix!

 

[Topsail Angler]

This poor misguided sole jump on my hook today due mostly to a post by Topsail Angler. His thread "What's for lunch" got me wondering where he caught those flounder and of course I didn't know but I thought of his boat tending duty and a marina came to mind. Since his post, I have caught trout, flounder, and this red in between boat slips inside the marina. The trout were caught on pink and white 4 inch curly tails, DOA shrimp, and live finger mullet the flounder and red on finger mullet. Maybe a good place to start?
Thanks for the tip TA.

Guess my secret is out.....

good job on the catches - nice red!

 

[Topsail Angler]

Big Osh - nice pictures!

There are some fine drum fishing spots all along our coast as mentioned above. I don't have a kayak or I'd go with ya. Keep an eye out for Druminator or some of the other saltwater kayakers - they usually post dates and times they will be fishing and invite other to join.

 

[fojoloy]

Guess my secret is out.....

Topsail Angler is instant death to those "RAMP FOUNDER"

 

[skooteri]

Osh: I do not hold myself out to be an expert, but I do hump my kayak down to the coast looking for the trout, flounder and reds too. The places that I have been this summer inlcude Oriental, North Creek- near Bath NC, Topsail and Fort Fisher <yes I witnessed the great Lefty v. Leviathan brawl>.

What type of schedule do you have- would definitley look to hook up and go red hunting.

 

[Big Osh]

Thank you to all that have replied. Yes, I am in the military. I am stationed at Pope Air Force Base. I will have to get on goggle earth to look up these spots. I work an odd schedule. On an easy week I have Monday, Tuesday off. Then I work Wednesday and Thursday. Then I have Friday, Saturday and Sunday off. The following week it is just the opposite. I work the days that I was off the week before. Which when you thank about it I get 15 days off a month. The down side to this is the days that I do work the hours can be very long. 12-16 hr days sometimes. So if you would like to hook up let me know. I would need a couple of days notice so that I can work it in with my wifes schedule. Again thank you to all that have replied so far.

 

[sundrop]

Osh the nice thing is being off during the week when there are fewer people on the water!!!

 

[Topsail Angler]

Here's a some pictures of the ones I caught on my "lunch break" today. I caught a total of six drum today, all just over the slot with the biggest being 29 inches. Tried something new today - live bait (menhaden in this case) on a jig head. Worked great - easy to rig and all the drum were hooked in the corner of the mouth so release was easy and harmless.

I wanted some more of those flounder but couldn't get to them for the drum...lol

 

[sinker man]

That boat isn't parked beside the Vonda Kay is it?

 

[Topsail Angler]

That boat isn't parked beside the Vonda Kay is it?

LOL - hum...NO. Actually today I took an executive power lunch , you know one of those extended lunches. I launched my boat and took the dog fishing for two hours.

 

[sinker man]

Big Osh, You sure picked a good place to grow up. Just about any kind of fishing you want to do is right there. As for spots to fish... I'd be more concerned about where I parked. Every area I can think of produces plenty of fish if you know what to look for and are there at the right time. The main thing is to learn an area that you like and feel comfortable with. It's a long haul up to FOJOLOY's PARADISE. That might just be the best place to be fishing in a Kayak when the wind isn't blowing. It can get real nasty there though when the wind gets up. You still have some creeks to duck into up that way. I would think that the area around Topsail Sound and if you can access it the sounds on the East side of Camp Lejune would be pretty interesting for you. The closest thing to Florida flats I can think of would be behind the south end of Emerald Island. Any where you go you'll be ok fish wise.

 

[sinker man]

TA, I wouldn't seriously accuse you of fishing somebody else's chum line. LOL

 

[lefty]

If you're looking at the Topsail area, you oughtta ping "Fishin Topsail". He blogs over on FishinTopsail's Topsail Island Fishing Blog and has been known to paddle on more than one occasion.

 

[flyakker]

TA, how's the red fishing around Permuda Island and Stump Sound area? Is this a good area for kayak fishing? I have not paddled that area yet, so any advance information on water depths, usual boat traffic, etc. would be helpful.

 

[Topsail Angler]

I'm not a kayaker so my prospective is somewhat different (mainly cause I can cover a lot of ground quickly and currents, boat wakes, etc aren't as much of a problem) so I'm not the best guy to answer those questions.

However as to the fishing question - there's some fine fishing in that area. Lots of marsh & creeks.

Most of the Permuda Island area is very shallow but some parts can be reached by a kayak or flat bottom boat. The canals and nearby creeks just south of Permuda Island are very productive in the fall.

Because this area is in the center of Topsail's long length, the tidal currents are mild. Most of the area east of the ICW is shallow so boat traffic isn't an issue except in the channels.

On the mainland side, Becky's creek (1 mile south of the SC Bridge) and Batts Mill Creek (1.7 miles north of the SC Bridge) are also worthy of exploration.

Hope this helps.

 

[Big Osh]

Thanks again to all that have replied. I think next week end I will take the family on a road trip. I was told Fort Fisher has some rentals for the military. So I think I will check into it. Again thanks for the time and help.