Greeting from the Cape Fear Coast:
The surf is alive at Wrightsville Beach this past week. Here is a sample of some nice slot size (18"-27") drum that is cruising in the surf along with some super sized roe mullet. This nice surf red was right at 24" and was as pretty a fish as you would like. There have been some random schools of above slot reds but most of the schools have been slot fish. The wind was blowing all week but Monday through Wednesday it was W-NW and the surf bite was awesome. Two gentlemen, I was fishing near, were using sand fleas and crushing the Red Drum, Virginia Mullet, Black Drum and Pompano. They landed one Pompano right at 4 pounds and a mullet 2.5 pounds.
Sunday 11/01/08 Capt. Travis Dant and I went exploring some the nearby barrier islands near Wrightsville Beach to see if we could find some of those schools of reds cruising. There was light N-NE wind and there was some swell but it was still fish able. As we backed off the throttle there they were 5 mins and we had two slot reds and we looking for the school again.
This is combat fishing at it best. Cruising just outside the breakers with one set of eyes on the fish and the other set on the incoming sets of swell. Knee to waist high waves will flip your boat and getting slammed on a bar with a rising tide will make for a bad day, especially when the tide begins to fall and your boat is high and dry in the surf zone. We lost the school for a while and cruised the beach for a while to see if we could find a school of bigger fish. After an hour of looking and no luck we came back to the same spot and they were there again. So for two more hours we picked off one and two at a time on goldspoons and Calcutta Flashfoil Swimbaits.
We lost the schools for a while in a slough and even though we thought they were there we could not see them for sure. I had a 5" Zara Super Spook and said, "What the heck." Sure enough they were hiding and came out like a pack of wolves attacking that Spook. We ended up with four more fish caught on topwaters and had two hooks straightened out from these slot reds in the surf.
Sorry for the lack of proof but taking pictures, while fighting incoming swell and surf caught red, seemed not so important at the time.
More fish stories, Stripers are biting in the river along with specks, although I have not been yet trying to go this week. Stayed tuned for Cape Fear Striper Reports. There have been some nice schools of False Albacore in the five mile area and Kings are still in 18 mile areas (schoolhouse, etc.). Finding 67-68 degree water is probably a good place to start.
Still booking dates in November for inshore drum and trout, nearshore False albacore and River Stripers. Call me for available dates.
Get outside and See the Cape Fear Coast,
Capt. Danny Wrenn
96 Charter Company
Wilmington, N.C. 28403
910.619.2224
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