After a hard couple of months of non-stop guiding for false albacore on the fly, I decided to take a day for myself and do some fun fishing. It was the first week of December. I had called my good friend Capt Rob Lepree, who lives in the Beaufort area, and told him that I was going fishing and did he want to come. Well of course he said yes. We got a nice start that morning with a good breakfast at my favorite diner, the 4Corners in Atlantic Beach. “Boat gassed up?” Took care of that and we were on our way. We had decided to start the day off by flyfishing for albacore. We ran out of Beaufort Inlet and were immediately greeted by diving gulls and jumping albies. I gave Rob the first shot and it did not take long for him to hook up. The fish took a a Circle Hook Baitfish pattern. Little tunny are known for their blistering speed and this one was no different. After running all of Rob’s flyline and most of the backing off his reel the fish began to tire. Since the fly was tied on a barbless circle hook, it was square in the corner of the mouth and I popped it out quickly and put him back in the water. Next was my turn and with so many busting albies around the boat, my fly was a cupcake at a birthday party.
The action on the albies slowed after a couple of hours. We had each released a number of these speed demons and were about ready for a change of pace. We decided to hit the rocks for some speckled trout. First stop was the Cape Lookout Jetty. There were already a number of boats there waiting for us. We merely needed to pick out a spot that looked good to us. Since I wanted to flyfish we looked for a spot near the shore end of the jetty in about 8 feet of water. Rob was going to try some mullet that he had netted off the end of his dock earlier that week. I was using a chartreuse and white Clouser Minnow and Rob had his bait in the water. He got a trout almost right away. He had merely tied a size 1/0 O’Shaughnessy hook on the end of his line and crimped a couple of split shot about 18 inches from there. After tossing the rig out near the rocks he would retrieve his line at the same speed as current swept it along the jetty. I watched Rob box a couple of nice trout and then it was my turn. Things came tight and I pulled with my line hand and set the hook. After a spirited struggle the fish came to the boat. It was a nice fish of around 16 inches. I find that an intermediate flyline on a seven or eight weight rod is right for trout fishing at the Cape Lookout Jetty. Combine this with a leader testing 8 or ten pounds of about 8 feet and you will be in business.
An hour or two later we decided to head over to the Fort Macon jetty. Fishing a fly at the Fort is a bit difficult due to the strong and convoluted currents. So I decided to fish with the mullet. We got a couple more trout there and then went to the Beaufort Channel Jetty and had a repeat performance. We were fishing on the inside of the rocks, out of the main current. The boat was anchored on a drop off that goes from 12 - 20 feet of water very quickly. We would cast our mullet towards the rocks and simply wait for a bite, which was not often long in coming.
At this point we noticed that the tide was getting to the point where we would want to try some creeks for puppy drum. This necessitated a change of boats. We were in my standard center console that is good for light tackle inshore fishing around the inlets. Where we were going, only a shallow draft skiff would take us. It just so happens that I also have an ultimate shallow water boat. It can run it on full plane in less than 6 inches of water. That’s what you need to fish for reds in the creeks. So after switching our gear to the other boat, and a quick snack, we headed off. Some fancy navigating through extremely shallow water was required. It was about an hour or so to low tide and it was also about three days after the new moon so the water was pretty skinny. When we reached the mouth of the creek we shut off the motor and I proceeded to the poling platform. Rob began casting with a gold Johnson spoon. We saw fish almost immediately. Old Rob wanted to stake the skiff off and do a little bait fishing. I picked up a rod and baited up with a lively finger mullet. After the cast I turned to Rob to mention to him that I just saw a fish swim by. It was then that I noticed that something was pulling my rodtip around and trying to take the rod out of my hands. One cast and about 30 seconds of fishing time and we had a fish on, not too bad. We had a few more fish on the minnows but I really felt that we needed to try to get a fish or two on fly. We already had a keeper in the box and decided to go for it.
This time I was in the bow and Rob was the poler. It did not take long for us to see puppies pushing minnows and shrimp in the shallows. Unfortunately they could see us also. The first ones we approached were spooked before I could even cast. I felt the need to get my fly in the water anyway. I was using a spoon fly. There are many varieties available. I tie one made out of gold craft ribbon. The tying instructions are on the flytying page of my site. I had a follow on my first cast. On the next cast I hooked up with a nice 17 inch red puppy. There were still fish around so I got it into the boat quickly. Two casts later I hooked a better fish that would not be brought to the boat as quickly. It was a nice keeper sized fish. The thing that was making Rob lose his mind on the platform was the 30 inch plus fish that was trying to eat my fly out of the hooked fishes mouth. If we had an extra rod ready we could have easily hooked that fish because it was very aggressive. But I was more concerned with landing the fish I had on and the big one swam off to haunt our sleep. Now it was Rob’s turn and his success mirrored mine and we had a great time for the next couple of hours. We saw a bunch of fish and spooked a bunch more. It was very nice to watch one fish follow Rob’s fly right to the boat 3 times before taking. But now it was time to go. The only thing really wrong with fishing this late in year is that it gets dark so soon.
When we got back to the dock we heard that some offshore boats had scored on bluefins and king mackerel and gray trout were caught by deep jigging with two ounce Stingsilvers at the Atlantic Beach Reef. So here it was the first week of December. There wasn’t another boat in the waters we had been fishing all day. We caught an inshore Grand Slam of false albacore, speckled trout and red drum. I think that if you are not getting out to the Morehead City area after Thanksgiving then you are really missing out on some great fishing. Merry Christmas.
For a good bunch of chicken wings go to Rap's right in downtown, or for a oyster feed like you have never experienced with no effort, they shuck them for you, go to the Ice House on Wednesday and/or Friday nights.
There is a free boat ramp on Hwy 70 behind the Crystal Coast Visitor's Center maintained by the state Division of Wildlife. Deep water and concrete ramps.
