After nearly three weeks of waiting, the weather and water temperatures have both made a hugh jump in the correct direction. In just five days last week, the water jumped from in the mid 50's to up above 60! It only took two days for the fish to follow. The virginia mullet fishing has steadily improved since Friday. I just received a picture on my phone of an extremely nice catch of large spring mullet that was brought off of the Jolly Roger this afternoon! This strong southwest wind has really helped things as well. Although the fishing has been much better at night, today marked the first time this year that a good daytime bite has occurred. Fresh or fresh frozen shrimp has been the best bait, with the orange clam fishbites coming in a close second. I have also heard reports that the bluefish and bonito are not far behind. I look for them to show up within the next week or so.
The surf fishermen are catching a few mullet, black drum, and puppy drum.
The ocean was absolutely beautiful this past weekend. Reports from the people fishing offshore have been mixed. Bonito fishing was good starting around 5 miles out, and black bass and beeliner fishing was very good a little farther offshore with nice sized fish reported. The cobia have moved into the offshore bottom areas, and should begin to move inshore as the water warms. In the Gulf Stream fishing was scattered. The main body of the stream has moved way offshore and caused for some mixed water conditions around the "break". There were some very nice wahoo landed, along with a few blackfin tuna and the first few dolphin of the year. I fished aboard the Pierless Friday, and although the meat-fishing was a little slow, we had an outstanding time and everyone left with sore arms! We went looking for tuna, and in the process, got attacked and cut off by several toothy wahoo. After switching over to wire, we managed to land one really nice wahoo. The trolling bite died down in the afternoon and we made the call to switch over and do a little offshore jigging. After getting on the "spot" we all dropped down and were immediately slammed by some large amberjack! For a solid hour 5 of us were hooked up non-stop! We also brought up some VERY nice grouper, but do to the season closure had to send them back down to the deep. We saw lots and lots of turtles, the first flying fish of the year, and an approximately 900-1000 hammerhead cruising along the surface; what a sight! I couldn't have asked for a prettier day on the ocean!
Things should only improve from here on out as the water continues to warm. With lots of sun and southerly winds in the forecast, it should be a great week of fishing on the mullet. I hope to get out there and get a few for the fryer as soon as my schedule allows!
Hope to see you soon!
Capt. Rob Orr
Jolly Roger Pier
803 Ocean Blvd.
Topsail Beach, NC
(910)-328-4616
Topsail Area Charter Boats
2009 NC Recreational Coastal Waters Guide
I can hear the water calling now...
ReplyDeleteGreat report Capt Rob! Thanks for posting.
ReplyDeleteJohnny aka Fishin'Topsail