Topsail Island – Winter 2014-2015
John Bullock, Becky Early, and Chuck Johnson with a haul of king mackerel they landed while trolling dead cigar minnows under Blue Water Candy skirts near AR-366.
Chris, of East Coast Sports, reports that there’s been some excellent speckled trout fishing around Topsail over the past few weeks. Anglers are still catching a few while working MirrOlures and soft plastic baits from the beachfront, with the best fishing around slough and sandbar edges.
The trout bite has been excellent inshore, and anglers are finding the fish in creeks and backwaters off the ICW and New River (with good numbers of citation fish off the river). Soft plastic baits and suspending lures like MirrOlure MR17’s are the best bets for the trout.
Red drum are in many of the same areas inshore and will pounce on the same artificials as the specks. Anglers may also see schools of reds feeding around the shoals of Topsail and other local inlets over the winter months, and they can cast Gulps, spoons, and other lures to fish they spot to hook up.
Black drum are still feeding around inshore structure and in the surf zone. Anglers are hooking them in both places with fresh shrimp pinned to bottom rigs. The inshore drum are often around and feeding through the wintertime.
Flounder giggers are still finding plenty of success, but cooler water seems to have slowed the flatfish bite for hook and line anglers.
Brandon King, of Hampstead, with a 21″ flounder that bit a Gulp-tipped bucktail jig in a local ICW creek.
Out in the ocean, there have been big numbers of gray trout feeding at nearshore structure like Divers and Dallas rocks. Jigging lures like Stingsilvers are tough for the grays to turn down, and they’ll also pounce on a variety of natural baits.
Allen, of Breadman Ventures, reports that anglers are still seeing some solid red drum and speckled trout action around Sneads Ferry right now, and they should have some opportunities at both fish all winter long.
Some large (to 8+ lbs.) specks are feeding in shallow water in the creeks and bays off the New River, and anglers can tempt the fish to bite suspending baits like MR17 MirrOlures or TTF and Salty Bay soft plastic baits pinned to light jigheads.
Red drum are feeding in many of the same areas and still providing plenty of sight-fishing action for anglers chasing them. Searching for wakes, pushes, and other “nervous water” can clue anglers in to the presence of a school of reds from a distance, and anglers can often spot individual fish to cast to once they get closer. Soft plastics and suspending hard baits will fool the reds as well as the trout.
Robin, of Jolly Roger Pier, reports that anglers are still seeing some action from the pier, primarily while bottom-fishing with shrimp and Fish Bites. Croaker and black drum have made up most of the catch lately, but anglers also saw some sea mullet and pufferfish last week as well. The panfish action should remain decent for much of the month if the temperatures don’t fall too far.
There’s been a decent speckled trout bite off the pier over the past month, but the fish have gotten smaller (most undersized) in recent weeks. Artificial lures like curly tail grubs will attract attention from the trout.
