Joined
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19 Posts
Well, last week went by way too quick as all vacations do. First I would like to again thank everyone on these forums for some fantastic insight and advice as I only get to indulge in NC surf fishing once, maybe twice, a year. My family has been going to Topsail for the last 15 years and the area is full of great people and great fishing....not much more that anyone could ask for in life.
Anyways, here is my report:
Stayed on beach in the first stretch of New River Inlet Rd about a 1/2 mile North of the bridge between the 2 primary public access beaches during week of 8/23 - 8/30. First half of week the surf was quite big but still fished it during dawn and dusk hours. My son managed to land a few small blues and a couple pin fish on some fresh shrimp and frozen finger mullet in the first slough around 6:00am the first two days.
Snafu #1 - I was staring at 2 Rods I brought, one of which was a cheap $50 deal I picked up the year before
. I was trying to decide which one to set up for shark. Like the idiot I am, I went with the cheap rod and put my rig on it along with a fresh fish head and tossed it just outside the sand bar at the second slough. An hour into this my reel starts to scream and while setting the hook something very bad happened to the reel. It literally sounded like gears stripping themselves apart. Needless to say, that was the end of that adventure.....I can only imagine what was on it.
Second half of the week, when the surf calmed down it was just plain fun! Catching blues left and right just on the backside of the sand bar where it dropped off into the second slough. Prior to the blues I landed two nice mullet that turned into my bait (nothing like fresh bait) which likely contributed to the blue fish feast. Also landed a small sharpnose shark.
The majority of the fish were landed in the morning hours at the end of the week when low tide passed and tide was coming in just enough that the first and second sloughs were both fishable from shore. The fresh mullet strips were definitely the preferred food!
I was fortunate that I had two nice deep sloughs in front of our house that I think may have been created by the heavy surf. There was a stretch of surf just north of the first public access point with no entry and no homes where I noticed a few very nice structures to fish from the beach but I never ended up going down to fish them.
I attached a photo of the larger of the small blues we were catching and I replaced the junk rod I burned out with a nice Penn from East Coast sports.
Lesson #1 learned - You get what you put into your equipment - don't use junk!
Lesson #2 learned - fish like to eat good stuff too - the fish killed fresh bait when I started using it!
Anyways, here is my report:
Stayed on beach in the first stretch of New River Inlet Rd about a 1/2 mile North of the bridge between the 2 primary public access beaches during week of 8/23 - 8/30. First half of week the surf was quite big but still fished it during dawn and dusk hours. My son managed to land a few small blues and a couple pin fish on some fresh shrimp and frozen finger mullet in the first slough around 6:00am the first two days.
Snafu #1 - I was staring at 2 Rods I brought, one of which was a cheap $50 deal I picked up the year before
. I was trying to decide which one to set up for shark. Like the idiot I am, I went with the cheap rod and put my rig on it along with a fresh fish head and tossed it just outside the sand bar at the second slough. An hour into this my reel starts to scream and while setting the hook something very bad happened to the reel. It literally sounded like gears stripping themselves apart. Needless to say, that was the end of that adventure.....I can only imagine what was on it. Second half of the week, when the surf calmed down it was just plain fun! Catching blues left and right just on the backside of the sand bar where it dropped off into the second slough. Prior to the blues I landed two nice mullet that turned into my bait (nothing like fresh bait) which likely contributed to the blue fish feast. Also landed a small sharpnose shark.
The majority of the fish were landed in the morning hours at the end of the week when low tide passed and tide was coming in just enough that the first and second sloughs were both fishable from shore. The fresh mullet strips were definitely the preferred food!
I was fortunate that I had two nice deep sloughs in front of our house that I think may have been created by the heavy surf. There was a stretch of surf just north of the first public access point with no entry and no homes where I noticed a few very nice structures to fish from the beach but I never ended up going down to fish them.
I attached a photo of the larger of the small blues we were catching and I replaced the junk rod I burned out with a nice Penn from East Coast sports.
Lesson #1 learned - You get what you put into your equipment - don't use junk!
Lesson #2 learned - fish like to eat good stuff too - the fish killed fresh bait when I started using it!
