Nickajack Angler
Well-known member
Well, I'm on my annual fishing trip to Topsail Island, NC with my Dad. I really wish Louie and Augie were here to enjoy it, so hopefully these reports will share what the old man is up to with their Grandpa, whom I am taking VERY good care of. For those of you that have never had the pleasure to visit Topsail Island, NC, it's one of those untouched tourist destinations that hasn't changed much in the last 50 yrs. The house Dad has is right on the coast - ocean in the front yard, ICW in the backyard with a dock. We are on the southern most tip of the island and enjoy fishing for whatever is biting. Speckled trout is the prized catch that should be running this year, along with redfish, flounder, blues, mackeral, tarpon, pompano, and sheepshead. We are hoping to get good enough weather to get out for a deep sea trip to the gulf steam and snag some tuna, snapper, grouper and Mahi. We'll see.... I'll try to post each day this week of our progress and see what we catch.
After driving 8 hrs from Pickwick last Thursday night, then to Durham, NC Sat Morning where we stayed with family, then on to Topsail Sun AM early, we are staying from Sun. to Sun. House sleeps 26 but only have 5 guys here.
We got here around 10am and unloaded like mad so we could go hit the water. We fish off a friends dock at the end of our bay, where a nice sandbar is that holds fish year round. We took only 10 min to unload and hit the water. Immediately I hooked this small pinfish. They were prolific and hard to get the bait down. Using Gulp pogy's and Churly's favorite swimbait most of the day. Mirrolures provided some excitement, but the fishing reports say that we should slay them on those.... we'll see. The first 10 min of casting we caught a pinfish, a trout and a aligator gar. Those are voracious fish that eat the lure. When you reel in and see those expensive swimbaits bitten in half, we find it has been eaten by those gar. We caught many of those today. The trout and redfish reports have been fantastic and we are hoping the fall has brought the water temps down to 62 degrees and should provide a great week of a consistent bite.
We immediately hooked up with a nice small speckled trout, which are beautiful fish! I tried to take pictures to show the colors of these beauties. After about 10 minutes of my catching three fish of different species, Dad ran to the car to get into his box and try to match the baits I had brought. About that time a guy came by in a nice 18 ft G3. A little bass boat in these big waters. I said "Hey, there's only one thing wrong with your boat!" He asked, "What's that?" I replied "I'm not in the back of it...." He said "Well, then there's two things wrong with it, I don't have anyfish in the livewell yet." We talked about two minutes of how I was surprised to see a bass boat in the ICW and coastal waters, and he said he loves it. He fishes in the bass federation here and thought this boat was perfect for both, which he has used for 10 yrs well in both fresh and saltwater. I said to him that I'd love to go fishing with him and he turned the boat toward the dock and invited me to join him. Then I told him my Dad was with me and how we come here each year... he said "GO GET HIM!" So off we went. His name was Mike and I told him I'd make him famous with some of the best freshwater fishermen in the land. I told him of the CFF and we hit it off right off the bat.
We fished the points, mouths of the bays, channel ledges and out to the inlet mouth into the Atlantic Ocean. Blew my mind we were surrounded by large bay boats and BIG ocean fishing boats, but we caught fish and had a blast. He's planning on coming back to show us some shrimping, speckled trout spots and redfish holes. Absolutely blew my mind and really made the 1st day of the trip a memorable one. Dad was blown away that when he came back I had hooked us up with a "guide" and as I told Mike, I never trusted a man who doesn't fish. He looked me squarely in the eye and said "I don't either!" I gave him some speedcraws and screwlock shakey heads that he said were hard to find down here, and he shared with me a couple of "deadly" MirroLures that he said would increase the quality of our speckled trout fishing. Nothing like meeting a fellow angler who does what many of us on here want to do. Share some fellowship, knowledge, a great time fishing and friendship. I'm doing my part to share CFF with the world..... Enjoy the pics. Nothing huge today, but it was the 1st day of a cold front and NE winds. He says that's going to turn on the fishing this week. If the rains hold off, we should do very well this week. Til tomorrow. Here are some of what we caught. Probably caught over 50 fish today between the three of us. I love this place.... wish you were all here!
Louie and Augie I miss you both terribly!!!! I can't wait until you can come and do this with us. Most all fish were caught on Gulp Saltwater 3 in Pogy's, white/pepper on 1/4 oz jig heads. Dad slayed them on Churly's favorite swimbait today.... until the fish bit off 2 entire packs of them. OUCH!!! Those are expensive little suckers. And I've got to say, the improvements in the durability of the Gulp brands has improved greatly. I only used one 6 pk of the pogys in about 5 hrs of fishing. Only time I had to change was when something bit off the tails.emoBang
After driving 8 hrs from Pickwick last Thursday night, then to Durham, NC Sat Morning where we stayed with family, then on to Topsail Sun AM early, we are staying from Sun. to Sun. House sleeps 26 but only have 5 guys here.
We got here around 10am and unloaded like mad so we could go hit the water. We fish off a friends dock at the end of our bay, where a nice sandbar is that holds fish year round. We took only 10 min to unload and hit the water. Immediately I hooked this small pinfish. They were prolific and hard to get the bait down. Using Gulp pogy's and Churly's favorite swimbait most of the day. Mirrolures provided some excitement, but the fishing reports say that we should slay them on those.... we'll see. The first 10 min of casting we caught a pinfish, a trout and a aligator gar. Those are voracious fish that eat the lure. When you reel in and see those expensive swimbaits bitten in half, we find it has been eaten by those gar. We caught many of those today. The trout and redfish reports have been fantastic and we are hoping the fall has brought the water temps down to 62 degrees and should provide a great week of a consistent bite.
We immediately hooked up with a nice small speckled trout, which are beautiful fish! I tried to take pictures to show the colors of these beauties. After about 10 minutes of my catching three fish of different species, Dad ran to the car to get into his box and try to match the baits I had brought. About that time a guy came by in a nice 18 ft G3. A little bass boat in these big waters. I said "Hey, there's only one thing wrong with your boat!" He asked, "What's that?" I replied "I'm not in the back of it...." He said "Well, then there's two things wrong with it, I don't have anyfish in the livewell yet." We talked about two minutes of how I was surprised to see a bass boat in the ICW and coastal waters, and he said he loves it. He fishes in the bass federation here and thought this boat was perfect for both, which he has used for 10 yrs well in both fresh and saltwater. I said to him that I'd love to go fishing with him and he turned the boat toward the dock and invited me to join him. Then I told him my Dad was with me and how we come here each year... he said "GO GET HIM!" So off we went. His name was Mike and I told him I'd make him famous with some of the best freshwater fishermen in the land. I told him of the CFF and we hit it off right off the bat.
We fished the points, mouths of the bays, channel ledges and out to the inlet mouth into the Atlantic Ocean. Blew my mind we were surrounded by large bay boats and BIG ocean fishing boats, but we caught fish and had a blast. He's planning on coming back to show us some shrimping, speckled trout spots and redfish holes. Absolutely blew my mind and really made the 1st day of the trip a memorable one. Dad was blown away that when he came back I had hooked us up with a "guide" and as I told Mike, I never trusted a man who doesn't fish. He looked me squarely in the eye and said "I don't either!" I gave him some speedcraws and screwlock shakey heads that he said were hard to find down here, and he shared with me a couple of "deadly" MirroLures that he said would increase the quality of our speckled trout fishing. Nothing like meeting a fellow angler who does what many of us on here want to do. Share some fellowship, knowledge, a great time fishing and friendship. I'm doing my part to share CFF with the world..... Enjoy the pics. Nothing huge today, but it was the 1st day of a cold front and NE winds. He says that's going to turn on the fishing this week. If the rains hold off, we should do very well this week. Til tomorrow. Here are some of what we caught. Probably caught over 50 fish today between the three of us. I love this place.... wish you were all here!
Louie and Augie I miss you both terribly!!!! I can't wait until you can come and do this with us. Most all fish were caught on Gulp Saltwater 3 in Pogy's, white/pepper on 1/4 oz jig heads. Dad slayed them on Churly's favorite swimbait today.... until the fish bit off 2 entire packs of them. OUCH!!! Those are expensive little suckers. And I've got to say, the improvements in the durability of the Gulp brands has improved greatly. I only used one 6 pk of the pogys in about 5 hrs of fishing. Only time I had to change was when something bit off the tails.emoBang
Attachments
-
Front of house left.jpg -
Front of house straight out.jpg -
Front of house right.jpg -
under house.jpg -
Pinfish.jpg -
Backyard Topsail.jpg -
Aligator far.jpg -
1st speckled trout of season.jpg -
Dads 1st trout.jpg -
Mike our guide.jpg -
Mike Flounder 21 inches.jpg -
Neighbor Blue.jpg -
small blue fish.jpg -
small flounder.jpg -
Southern tip of Topsail Island NC.jpg -
small gag grouper.jpg
