Wow, what a difference the wind makes. In last weeks post I commented on how the NE winds had improved the fishing conditions so much. As it turns out, they can just as easily work in a more negative direction. Starting with last Friday and continuing through this past Tuesday, the winds were predominately from the southerly directions. This put and effective halt on the good fishing we had been having. Luckily, on Tuesday the winds clocked back around to the North and have remained out of the North or NE ever since! This has brought about some really good fishing over the last couple of days.
PIER: One exciting event on the pier was the return of the king mackerel after an absence of several weeks. There was a 31lber caught on Tuesday afternoon, yesterday they had several strikes but no catches, and today there were two caught, a 16lber (only the head was brought back due to a hungry shark) and an 18lber. The tarpon are still coming by but none have been landed since my last report. The water was BEAutiful today and was absolutely FULL of bait. Finger mullet are still passing by in good numbers with an occasional school of the "corncobs" coming by. There are also lots and lots of glass minnows and 4-6" ballyhoo out there. Big (fat 2-4lb) blues are thick right now and have been biting very well in the mornings and afternoons. There are also lots of nice sized spanish out there but due to the extreme amount of bait in the area, they can be difficult to get to bite. In addition to the above action, there has been a decent smattering of pompano, puppy drum, trout, and flounder during the day, and some fair to good catches of mullet and spots late at night. We are still waiting on the big schools of spots to start moving. Other notable catches since Thursday include a 6lb flounder, and a 4lb speckled trout.
SURF: It seems that the main catch has been blues with nice puppy drum, mullet, and flounder mixed in. Most of the fish were reported to have been caught on fresh shrimp or live mullet minnows. One group reported to have caught 11 drum since Tuesday and another came in with good numbers of blues, mullet, and drum plus a nice flounder!
OFFSHORE: When the gail subsided on Tuesday, we were lucky enough to be able to slide offshore for a day of blue-water trolling in our 26' Jones Brothers. We found some nice temp breaks and a beautiful weed line in about 180-250' and caught all of our fish in this area. The end result for the day was 1 wahoo and 18 dolphin. Although none of the fish were hugh, all were nice sized and tasted great on the grill! The wahoo fishing has really picked up in the last 10 days with a few bonus blackfin tuna thrown in. A little closer to shore the fall king run seems to have finally begun. Those big leaping kings have moved into the beach and the hard-bottoms that are just off the beach; hopefully they are here to stay. I have also heard some good reports of kings coming from the 15mile range. Folks trolling up the beaches and around the inlets have reported good catches of nice spanish and blues.
Overall I think our fishing continues to improve with the day to day activity being dictated by wind direction and weather. Remember to look for those North to East winds when planning a fishing trip during the fall. (The marine forecast is calling for them through Monday.!!!)
Feel free to give us a call at the Jolly Roger for up to date fishing reports!
Happy Fishing!
Rob Orr
Jolly Roger Inn & Pier
803 Ocean Blvd.
Topsail Beach, NC
(910)-328-4616
Topsail Area Charter Boats
2009 NC Recreational Coastal Waters Guide
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