Redfish in coastal NC

[J.A. Veil]

If you want to fish successfully in an unfamiliar location, it usually pays to hire a local guide. The past two days I fished from my kayak in shallow tidal creeks near Swansboro, NC. The area features vast flats and marsh areas with many twisting channels. There are loads of oyster bars that can make navigation, even in a kayak, challenging.

Tim Taramelli (NCpierman) is a kayak guide who has a fabulous knowledge of this local area. Yesterday he and I dealt with wind and muddy water and still managed to get two nice redfish.

This morning we fished in a different tidal creek and did considerably better. John Rentch joined us today. Tim knew where we should be positioned to intercept the fish that would become active with tidal movement. He also coached us on what tackle to use and how to fight and land large, strong fish.

I caught the two largest redfish I have ever caught from a kayak (27.5" and 30"). I also caught a flounder, two Atlantic stingrays, and a little lizardfish. John Rentch caught reds up to 28", a flounder, a needlefish, and a black drum. Without expert guiding, we would not have done nearly as well.

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Tomorrow Tim is taking us to try something new for me. We will fish in tidal fresh water looking for gar and bowfin. I have not caught either of those species before.

[J. Rentch]

Had a great time today with John and our guide Tim. He worked hard to put us on fish when they weren’t interested. Got to say the Redfish really make you work for them- love the runs! Tomorrow we are going after my first Gar- really excited!

[Mark]

Fantastic guys!

Thanks for posting.

What lures/flies did you use?

Good luck in the freshwater.

I've never caught a gar but I have caught bowfin on TX rigged plastic worms in VA. They hit subtly but pulled hard and spun like a top when I got them to the surface.

[dsaavedra]

Those are some nice fish you guys got. Good luck with the gar and bowfin!

[J.A. Veil]

Fantastic guys!

Thanks for posting.

What lures/flies did you use?

Good luck in the freshwater.

I've never caught a gar but I have caught bowfin on TX rigged plastic worms in VA. They hit subtly but pulled hard and spun like a top when I got them to the surface.

We spent some time throwing topwater (I caught one red on Fri that way). I also threw paddletails and a gold Johnsons Minnow metal spoon. I caught one red on the paddletail yesterday, but otherwise it did not produce. John threw a fly for a while on Sat morning with no takers. Most of the fish we posted there were caught on recently cast netted small mullet. We would cast them out and let them sit. As the tide brought the reds, flounder, and black drum through specific channels, we began to get some bites. But we had to be in the right place at the right time or we would have missed the bite. That is the local knowledge that Tim brought to the game.

[Mark]

Thanks John.

[Big Mike]

Looks like a lot of fun.

[rob-kayak]

Congrats on exploring new waters and a great report with many
smiling faces in the pics.

The fish all looked very healthy...
maybe it was the camera.. but the "reds" looked a little "pale" in color.
Just curious...

I looked at the air temps... for the approx time you went out..
on the historical... about in the 80's... (probably hotter).
Water temp... just curious...

Looks like a great place to go after Specs in the Winter... maybe
I'll visit the guide.

Thanks again glad you had catches and fun....

oh... and thanks for supporting the local community

[J.A. Veil]

Congrats on exploring new waters and a great report with many
smiling faces in the pics.

The fish all looked very healthy...
maybe it was the camera.. but the "reds" looked a little "pale" in color.
Just curious...

I looked at the air temps... for the approx time you went out..
on the historical... about in the 80's... (probably hotter).
Water temp... just curious...

Looks like a great place to go after Specs in the Winter... maybe
I'll visit the guide. t

Thanks again glad you had catches and fun....

oh... and thanks for supporting the local community

The reds had good color. I suspect any miscoloration is the result of my tweaking the digital photos. I can strongly recommend chartering with Tim to learn some locations and techniques. He is an excellent guide. The air temps were in the 90s the last two days. I don't know the water temps.

[Realdeal1138]

This is awesome! I would love to find a good group to go to Oak Island, NC with and do some fishing in the backwater! Great pictures, and it looks like you all had a great time!

[Fishtank]

For years I fished the Chesapeake Bay area. Now I fish mostly in the marsh and inlets of the Charleston SC area. Seems much like what you had up there in Swansboro. Took a number of trips to try and dial in this marsh fishing......and will take a lot more. One thing I learned is that it's far more fickle than the bay area. Case in point, usually I'm particular on bait presentation especially dealing with live shrimp. It's worked well. The past few trips I noticed it wasn't working as well with the abundance of bait in the water. I added a chuck on mullet to the hook and bite increased dramatically. As your guide mentioned, intercepting the fish as they come out of the marsh is key. My son and I fished behind Isle of Palms yesterday. Live shrimp and chunk mullet did well. Did try artificials and didn't get a hit. We ended the day with (50) redfish to 28".