i'll be doing the inshore thing somewhere within a short ride (by truck or boat) of bayboro/vandemere

[Edited on May 17, 2011 at 9:27 PM. Reason : this weekend]

5/17/2011 9:27:16 PM

im gonna be in charleston SC for memorial day weekend

anyone know any good fresh/saltwater fishing opportunities?

5/17/2011 9:31:50 PM

.....just sayin'....

5/17/2011 9:33:19 PM

spanish are pretty boring unless you get them casting some light spinning tackle. meat fishing is not my thing.

5/18/2011 7:06:39 AM

i read this as the 2011 fisting thread

5/18/2011 2:21:00 PM

I decided to try and learn Harris Lake this weekend and had a decent time. Caught several early on top water frogs and pop-r's and then several on a lip less CB and a few dinks on a shakey head. That place was a zoo by 10 am. There were bass boats on every point. Im hoping to hit it again a few times after work this week and try some new spots.

Also heading to the New River this weekend for a 3 day float trip. I havent done much river fishing or smallmouth fishing before, so it should be a learning experience.

Anybody have some pointers for smallmouth fishing the new?

5/23/2011 9:39:05 AM

fished the bay river saturday. caught a speck on my 2nd or 3rd cast and then nothing the rest of the day.

5/23/2011 9:43:37 AM

is anyone having trouble finding bass, as far as non-boating anglers?

i hooked up with one bass yesterday at the eno, but that was the first bass ive hooked up with all year in a river. Seems like all my club colleagues have had trouble locating feeding bass as well.

the roanoke bass are hitting hard though

^hah dont you just love those kinda days

specialkay use crawfish type lures/flies or chartreuse and green colors, they like somewhat clearwaters of reasonable depth and some flow, fish around the bubble line (where the bubbles from the current meet with relatively slack water) near deep pools and near rocky areas and shelves

I went for smallmouth on the french broad and got skunked because i did none of those things :p, like you said learning experience



[Edited on May 23, 2011 at 9:55 AM. Reason : d]

5/23/2011 9:51:34 AM

i need to take some pics but we have been bow fishing lately. stickin some carp is a win.

5/23/2011 8:12:25 PM

I wanna go Kite fishing.

5/23/2011 8:54:53 PM

3 bluegill and about 7 or 8 small bass about a week ago in some ponds.

5 bluefish and 1 ray yesterday in Oregon Inlet.

5/23/2011 9:21:45 PM

are the cicadas still in raleigh? they make excellent bait.

5/23/2011 9:26:54 PM

Cicadas are still all over Raleigh. They were all over the water out at harris. you would see them hit the water and flutter, and then get gulped under by a fish.

Had some good luck yesterday on a texas rigged worm. Caught about 10 with the best one going 20" and 5 lbs. I lost a bigger one right beside the boat.







[Edited on May 24, 2011 at 7:53 AM. Reason : ]

[Edited on May 24, 2011 at 7:54 AM. Reason : ]

5/24/2011 7:49:51 AM

I'm e-fishing. Just watched a guy land an 8-10lb chopper blue down at oak island on webcam.

5/24/2011 9:21:57 AM

the fish on the eno arent responding as much to live cicadas or patterns that look like cicadas, other than the smallest of sunfish

i think that the fish have pretty much been eating their fill, which is the point to the reproductive strategy of cicadas.

in fact there was very little feeding activity at all on the eno, which normally is NOT the case

anyway im goin to charleston SC, hoping to get into a little redfish action on the flats at high tide, gonna stop at a few fly shops and get the lowdown

Today at around 4 or 5 im going to lake crabtree wade fishing, anyone wanna team up on some bass and crappie?

[Edited on May 24, 2011 at 12:07 PM. Reason : g]

5/24/2011 11:56:31 AM

any tips on surf/pier fishin around the topsail area? Been reading that mackerel have been biting, but i'm a noob saltwater fisher...what bait should i be using? I'd also like to catch some flounder.

5/27/2011 10:28:26 AM

if you're a noob you're not gonna catch any king mackerel from the pier/surf. try a Gotcha plug on light tackle for spanish mackerel and blues near the end of the pier. a standard flounder rig (carolina rig w/ a 1-2 oz egg weight) with live mudminnows, finger mullet, or a cut strip bait may catch flounder off the pier or surf. know your size and creel limits. best bet is just print the page off the ncdmf website and stick it in your tackle box or something. you will need your NC CRFL for surf fishing. piers usually buy a big license to cover all patrons.

5/27/2011 10:56:11 AM

I've been saltwater fishing a fair amount of times, but I still consider myself a noob compared to my thousands of times freshwater fishing...i.e. I don't really know the patterns, optimal baits for each species etc... the way I know freshwater.

I generally just get the 10 day permit, for a couple of bucks, when i'm going saltwater. and I usually carry the reg book with me incase i need it.

5/27/2011 11:05:31 AM

what i'm saying is you probably don't have the tackle for kings. you said "mackerel" and that can mean a lot of things. spanish and flounder taste better anyway.

if by "reg book" you mean the NCWRC Regulations Digest, then that is totally useless in coastal waters and you need literature from the NCDMF.

[Edited on May 27, 2011 at 11:11 AM. Reason : af]

[Edited on May 27, 2011 at 11:12 AM. Reason : just don't want you to get a ticket]

5/27/2011 11:10:29 AM

Quote :

"what i'm saying is you probably don't have the tackle for kings."

yeah, that's sort of what I was asking about...just read that mackerel (kings and spanish) were being caught right now.

Ideally, i'd like to target flounder, but from what I understand, the hot season is still a few months away and they're hit or miss now.

plus, i have a limited range, not having a boat and all, so i want to get an idea of where to go to have the best chances...whatever species i may be trying for.

5/27/2011 11:34:13 AM

caught this nice little bass at my favorite spot in Durham last weekend

5/27/2011 11:50:38 AM

Quote :

"yeah, that's sort of what I was asking about...just read that mackerel (kings and spanish) were being caught right now."

The tackle you have kind of determines what you should fish for. Kings require more specialized and larger tackle on a pier. A citation-sized king was caught off the beach in Surf City by someone who kayaked a live spot out for shark fishing but not anything lately up that way. Seems that 8-10lb chopper/hatteras blues are all over the place and in large numbers. Some caught on Gotchas but most were on live baits by those king fishing. Looks like it's been windy as fuck this week so that's probably slowed things down a bit but should slack off this weekend. Gotchas and gold hook rigs are probably your best bet from the pier. Bottom fishing seems to be hit/miss but fresh shrimp or fish bites should work.

5/27/2011 11:56:58 AM

if you were going somewhere further north like the MHC area (and it wasn't Mem Day weekend) i'd be tempted to take you out on the boat for gas money. i'm sure i could manage some keeper flounder if i fell back on live bait.

5/27/2011 12:14:51 PM

^^thx for the info

^yeah, i'm sort of wary about the holiday crowds too, but I figure i'll give it a shot

is a spoon a decent option off the pier (I have various sizes/colors), or should I stick to strickly live bait?

5/27/2011 12:18:37 PM

Nice one, bassjunkie.

5/27/2011 12:20:08 PM

what kind of spoon? a hopkins or kastmaster spoon can catch several species off the pier. i've even seen guys fish a clark spoon on a long leader behind a egg weight and fish it fast just under the surface for spanish.

pttyndal's gold hook rig suggestion was a good one. it's cheap to make, easy to fish, and catches fish.

[Edited on May 27, 2011 at 12:24 PM. Reason : adfs]

5/27/2011 12:22:39 PM

going to a friends pond today... gonna try some sun baked mackeral (if I can find some in a can) for cat fish. any other good recommendations for some good stinky bait?


and I'm gonna give a carolina rig a try for the first time- he says that's what his bass like the most, so I figure no time like the present to try and learn how to use it


I'll also probably get some small red worms to fish for bream, because I know my other two plans are going to fail miserable and I will have to catch something to make up for my short comings

5/28/2011 8:53:04 AM

i'm heading down tomorrow. gonna be there through wednesday. gotta install the new sonar/gps and then fish my ass off. just gonna be me and pops this time. we haven't been fishing together since new years day when we caught those rock on page 1.

6/2/2011 9:48:20 PM

Nice, enjoy, should be a good weekend and the bite is really turning on down there. I love getting out and fishing with my Dad, hope we get to enjoy it for many more years.

Went out to Harris yesterday after work. Caught 3 nice bass in about an hour and a half before i had to head home.

6/3/2011 7:24:35 AM

yeah, weather's looking good and we've got 4 or 5 days to work on them. should be able to get a pattern figured out.

[Edited on June 3, 2011 at 9:07 AM. Reason : leaving work at lunch. morning is draaaaaagging. ]

6/3/2011 9:05:42 AM

man fuck LGM bass im fishin for carp.

6/3/2011 11:22:30 AM

Fishing for catfish over Memorial Day weekend. We usually use live bluegill, but my dad happened to catch this 12lb 12oz catfish on an earthworm.





[Edited on June 3, 2011 at 5:35 PM. Reason : fix picture link]

[Edited on June 3, 2011 at 5:36 PM. Reason : ]

6/3/2011 5:32:25 PM

Head to OI after I work; first offshore trip in almost a year

6/4/2011 4:49:42 AM

The plan was to troll for Spanish today off Shack and AB. Caught a small one in the first 30 minutes and then nothing for the next 3.5hrs. We had put all the trolling rods up and we're getting ready to head to the Cape when we saw a bait school and some Spanish jumping. So we casted into them and the water was clear enough you could see the fishing chasing the bait about 15ft below the surface, one of the neatest things I've seen in awhile.

Caught a couple this way but it seems like everyone was seeing the fish they just weren't biting.

Went to the Cape for awhile, then went to a buddies place in Gloucester and got a handful of clams so we're gonna have fried Spanish and clam stew for an appetizer for dinner.

6/4/2011 7:12:58 PM

Went out for a few hours this evening. One 16" flounder and nothing else. Headed back in the morning.

6/4/2011 10:38:46 PM

Caught Spanish and sea bass out of mbi yesterday. It's still pretty dead 10-20 miles with kings

6/5/2011 9:07:15 AM

Few specks this morning. Coastal waters so nothing for the pan. Came back due to rain.

6/5/2011 11:09:29 AM

going deep sea fishing on the carolina princess Thurs June 30th w/ my sis, leaving from Raleigh, free ride there and back if anyone wants to go

6/7/2011 8:00:19 PM

between me and my neighbor, we caught about 10 largemouth and 15 whites/hybrids on falls yesterday evening.

6/8/2011 8:42:30 AM

another flounder and couple trout sunday evening. nothing but 1 rockfish on monday. few trout on tuesday. ended up keeping enough for me and my dad to fry tuesday evening. was nice to relax for 5 days.

[Edited on June 8, 2011 at 6:00 PM. Reason : interested to see what the new regs for specks will be on the 15th]

6/8/2011 5:59:09 PM

looks like starting june 16th at midnight we can keep 6/person/day at at least 14 inches with only 2 of the 6 being over 24 inches. commercials can't set nets on the weekend.

that's better than what i figured. rumor was that it'd be 2/person/day at 14".

the fishery won't recover until they stop netting them. support House Bill 353 for gamefish status for reds, specks, and rockfish in NC

6/8/2011 8:51:53 PM

Shot a 70lb cobia last week while spearfishing. Lots of spanish starting to show up and a few inshore Kings. Black Sea Bass have been thick on every trip since the season opened.....

6/8/2011 8:53:30 PM

was the cobia at the bottom or on top or what?

6/8/2011 8:54:17 PM

got fed up with not catching largemouth bass on the rivers lately, and with carp completely ignoring my flies....decided to make a trip to one of my favorite car dealerships with the ol baitcaster for some heavy top water fishing






these and a few other smaller bass caught on zara puppies and my favorite go-to lure....the floating worm, if you dont have a floating worm in your tackle box, you're wrong. all these were between 1.5 and 2 pounds

went to great outdoor provisions to restock on flies, this is their projective hatch chart for the upcoming months, so all you fly fishers and tyers here are some patterns to get your hands on





[Edited on June 8, 2011 at 11:17 PM. Reason : h]

6/8/2011 11:13:38 PM

Nice fish BHS. My dad just gave me a fly rod that he bought 20 years ago and never really used. I have never fly fished before, but im hoping to get out and try here in the next few weeks. It is a 7 wt, and i have read that you have to match your line, tippets and flies to the size of the rod. I was hoping to just go out and catch some bream with it, would a rod this big work or would it be overkill? Also what are some basic flies that i can go pick up that a noob could have decent success casting and catching?

I have been practicing in the yard with a piece of yarn as the fly and im fairly confident in my casts that are inside about 20-30 feet, but outside of that it gets dicey.

I think im going to go back out to Shearon Harris this afternoon. I have been having some great luck out there lately. It seems like every time i have fished there in the past 3 weeks i have caught a few fish over 3 lbs and several little buck bass. Im just hoping that this pattern will sustain as this weather heats up.

6/9/2011 12:43:35 PM

Went fishing for the first time since high school this am in Texas. I guess it was cheating because it was a stocked pond and I was using hot dogs.

Caught...

1lb bass
3lb bass
3lb catfish
5lb catfish

All in 30 minutes. I finally decided to take a picture on the last one I caught. The 1lber of course.

Buddy caught a 13lb catfish there yesterday morning. It was almost as big as his 2 year old daughter.

6/9/2011 1:23:52 PM

^^for the 7wt it will be more than fine, but givent he area youre gonna want to switch to the bigger bass bugs, so you might want to buy a spool of 8wt fly line to fling the larger bass bugs


typically with an alteration in casting you can fit a line size lower and higher than the rod wt you are using.

7wt should fling a decent bass popper, but as far as rabbit strip and larger wooly buggers you migh struggle. but at the same time you have a more finessed presentation with your smaller flies and that counts for a lot


no it is not overkill, youll get crappie and roanoke bass thatll put a good bent in that 7 wt, what is the rod length?

you wont need to cast more than 30 feet most of the time unless you are really uncomfortable with disturbing a large portion of water you know fish are feeding. id suggest work on shooting line and the double haul. a good tip for the basic cast is to actually turn your guides to the side as you finish the cast, it will result in less resistance from the guides and increase your distance by 10 or so feet on a good shoot without putting any other effort into your cast

[Edited on June 9, 2011 at 1:36 PM. Reason : d]

6/9/2011 1:33:57 PM

i had to go do some work bt to continue the post as far as tippet, id go no lower than a 5x tippet. when u start getting down to 6x and 7x almost anything can break that line, even an average bream is its teeth scrape it right or you set the hook to hard. Plus you always want to be prepared for a bass or pickerel that might intercept, even catfish will breach to engulf a fly

your leader and tippet need be no longer than 7 feet, you can probably get away with 5 feet of leader and tippet section fishing warmwater. Id say buy a 3x leader personally and if you feel the need for a less clumsy presentation tie on a foot or so of 5x tippet material, or even like a 2-4lb normal fishing line, if you are primarily fishing dry flies id avoid flourocarbon

and back to casting, the reason it gets dicey past 30 feet is because thats just the nature of the fly line and casting. many factors such having more line out on your backcasts and frontstroke to control a loop with, increased effect of wind on the line and the fly itself, and you most likely are crossing more currents. Instead of worry about distance so much work on being able to cast around obstacles and with slack in your fly line so that your fly has a chance to remain where you want it. if you can do this inside of 20-30 feet you should be golden in most cases, because a lot of time youre gonna want to keep a majority of your line off the water if dry fly fishing, even in relatively still water.

good flies to start off with for the surface are a parachute adams, they look like most any insect youll find active in warmwater and you can see the fly pretty well, small poppers for bream are killers, even large poppers and bass bugs will land you bream, make sure that if you purchase the fly that the hook the bassbug is tied on is not too large, or you will miss many bites because he hook literally wont fit in the fish's mouth even though the popper itself would. The fly should be tied with the bend of the hook right underneath the body, not sticking out way past. seems trivial but it will save you a day of frustration. "Sneaky Petes" which are like bass poppers but with a pointed nose that kinda dives on the retrieve,

streamers, id get some small rabbit strip flies, too big and they absorb too much water and become hard to cast, woolly buggers are a must of all colors, definitely white and black ones with bead heads...if you can find an epoxy spoon fly get one of those, crayfish imitations, and clouser minnows. clousers and wooly buggers are great to start with, if they are not too large or weighted they are easy to cast and catch a lot of fish, avoid clousers with weighted barbel eyes until you get used to your fly rod and casting

for the bottom, my number one fly is a damn san juan worm. by far i have had the most success nymph fishing those. also any caddis or midge fly larva imitation, midges are a prime warmwater forage

sometimes to cheat or when i am tired of catching the smaller bream i like to sink my panfish poppers with a little weight so they sink beneath the surface so that i get a chance to present them to some larger sunfish

6/9/2011 3:36:54 PM

Thanks a ton, that is some awesome information. I think ill hit Dick's on the way back from the lake tonight and pick up some supplies. Hopefully by next March i will be competent enough on a fly rod to go after some striper up at Weldon, or at least that is the plan. Im hoping to learn it and teach my dad, as he has taught me so much about fishing, but has never really gotten into fly fishing.

Thanks again for the awesome advice.

tight lines

6/9/2011 3:48:06 PM

awesome man, you can also find stripers at jordan if you really wanna test the backbone of that rod

6/9/2011 3:53:14 PM