Tidelines – March 24, 2016
After a long winter with little to no fishing action to write or even think about, sneaking away from work to catch an early spring redfish was a welcomed treat.
My host this past Friday, as I left a cluttered Inbox and numerous unanswered voicemails, was a new friend that I first met striper fishing in the Cape Fear River this past fall. Capt. Luke Tippett, of TopWater Guide Co. out of the Carolina Beach/Wilmington area, had been trying to get me on a trip casting from his boat to the winter reds cruising the surf line, but my limited availability (can you go next Thursday or the Thursday after that, but otherwise I’m slammed?) just didn’t create enough opportunity for wind, waves, tide, and fish to cooperate.
Some inshore red drum cruising around a Topsail-area bay with a lot of feeder creeks had been cooperating for Luke, though, so we met up just after noon and headed to a spot that earlier in the week produced multiple fish half days.
Though Luke’s probably most familiar with the Cape Fear River, as a relatively new guide in the area he has made a point to be familiar with as many locales as he can in southeastern North Carolina. And this particular bay, he told me, he had fished fairly regular in the summer months because he pulls a lot of trips off of Topsail Island.
Our average water depth was easily less than 2 feet, and the gin-clear water gave us readings that never went lower than 65 degrees. The bottom consisted mostly of sand, but there were mud patches and scattered oysters throughout, and Luke told me that scattered oysters in the mud tend to hold bait this time of year.
The presence of modest schools of finger mullet in the area was perhaps our first observation as we came off plane and started heading by trolling motor to a convergence of a few creeks with some deeper water moving through the center. While I was stowing away my cell phone, Luke hopped on his to call John Raynor, a fishing buddy that was already posted up on a creek mouth across the bay from us.
There was a chance John was going to join us, but I think the allure of taking out his new boat (new to him), a beautiful 19’ East Cape Vantage, was much stronger (and understandable) than the allure of fishing with that Fisherman’s Post guy. John’s report was that he had already released three smaller reds and had seen a school of 50+ in the immediate area, so we quickly positioned the boat on its Talon to point the bow at roughly 2 o’clock to where we wanted to cast.
My first cast? Nothing. I think I had to get used to Luke’s rod/reel and the action of the Down South lure that he likes to throw (the action of the tail wiggles nice and slow on the fall).
Luke’s first cast? A modest early spring red, and as we all know, a bent rod in early March is a welcomed pull, especially on the first cast.
Capt. Luke Tippett, of TopWater Guide Co., with an early spring redfish caught and released behind Topsail on the first cast of the day. The red bit a Down South soft plastic in the frozen smoke color.
We continued to pull a few reds from around the oyster bars and the edges of the deeper channel (and I’m pretty sure I had a couple of small flounder gum my soft plastic before letting go at the sight of the boat), but eventually we decided to put the Yeti cooler on the bow as a standing platform and troll around the flats and oyster cuts and creek mouths to try and sight cast to some bigger reds.
We had plenty to see for early March: skates, small reds, schools of small finger mullets, larger mullet looking a little like small reds, and flounder puffs as they scooted away. Then, around a corner and between some marsh grass and a barely visible oyster rock, we saw our pair of upper-slot to over-slot red drum.
They moved. And we moved. They moved again. And we moved again. Then they were gone, and it was time for us to head back in—Luke to attend to a business meeting and me to get my kids to soccer practice on time.
Yes, Luke and I have a plan to try for the reds again, but we also have a plan to get some bonito on the fly and throw topwaters at the reds and trout around his home waters once the water temperatures rise a bit.
Yes, I like my new friendship with Luke, and I encourage you to start a relationship too. You can give him a call at (910) 264-3472 or visit him online at www.topwaterguideco.com.
Just don’t book a Thursday in mid to late April, because while Luke and I are new friends, my guess is that a booked charter will easily bump me from my bonito on the fly.
