Emerald Isle

[bassguy84]

Cancelled the trip to Florida and ended up going to friends at Emerald Isle. I brought the Yak and some surf gear to give it a try. We launched from my friends sister's house in swansboro around high tide. Lots of bait everywhere so I thought it might be promising. I put on the tried and true when it comes to NC flat fishing the Jighead and Gulp. We head out and start casting. I was having a very hard time working the lure. Even with high tide I was just in 3-4 ft of water and the lure was just getting hung up on mud and dead grass. This never happened to me before while fishing like this. I guess I was fishing low tides up in belhaven and I was casting in front of that before. I was only using a 1/4 jig so I just tried to get deeper. No luck and getting extremely hot we called it quits. We headed back to the beach. As we walked down a funnel cloud started forming. Pretty cool to watch. A second water spout formed on the same line behind it. Not close enough to be scary so everyone watched in awe. Later as the beach cleared out I casted out my surf rod with cut mullet and sand fleas we caught. I caught a small flounder on a cut piece of mullet last night and figured I would hopefully upgrade this time. Waiting I saw a teen catch maybe a lizard with on what looked like a soft plastic. I thought well maybe the gulp would work here to if there are flounder. I ran back to the condo and got me 6'6" medium bass rod and my Shimano 2500 with 8lb and headed for the ocean. I use this in flats but I wouldn't think this would work in the ocean. I waded out to my chest and had an incoming tide. I casted out and worked the lure back. Wow this might work I could fell bottom contact and the lure felt like it was working right. As I work back my second cast I feel some weight, there is nothing to snag in really. I wait and I could feel it swimming and set the hook. I was on. Holy crap. I brought him in and couldn't even see the lure he choked it. Nice thing is once I got him on the grips it came right out he wasn't even really hooked. I was able to catch 6 more very quickly sometimes on back to back cast. Most of the time I felt the typical flounder tap and weight and then waited to set it. I had a blast for 30-45 min and then it just got to rough to wade and my lure was on the beach right after the cast. Hitting a boat up today with hopefully more to report. Tight lines.

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[J.A. Veil]

Tim "NCPierman" Taramelli is a guide who fishes in the Swansboro area. He is very successful on redfish and trout, and also does trips into the marsh for bowfin and gar. If interested, I can provide name and contact info.

I fished with him on a very cold day in Jan 2019. Despite the non-optimal conditions, he put me on redfish. I caught 7 reds up to 25" in 45 minutes.

[bassguy84]

Boat trip today was successful. We didn't know what we were doing to much. My friends friend had the boat and some gear and we went out for a trip. Armed with hooks, weights and cigar minnows we headed to some of his spots. We rigged and baited and in 5 min a rod went off. I jumped on it and got my older son. Definitely one of the strongest fish I have ever hooked into. I helped him work it in. As it got closer it would run again. Finally we see color. Shark. I was pumped still. We repeated this for several more sharks. My friend ended up catching a small black seabass. With weather getting bad we headed in. Hitting the beach tonight33788.jpg33782.jpg33783.jpg33785.jpg

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[bassguy84]

Thanks for the guide info but thankfully I was able to figure it out I was able to have one of my best weeks of fishing. I was able to get on the kayak several more times. I was able to get an NC slam. I had a blast. I would recommend that area of NC for fishing, family, and a lot of fun.

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