Tidelines – August 18, 2016
Capt. Gary Dubiel, of Spec Fever Guide Service, stays pretty busy fishing throughout the year, but he’s especially busy during the run of citation red drum in the Neuse/Pamlico area during the late summer and early fall; however, for the last three years he’s managed to set aside a half day of fishing to take me out of Oriental to land a big red on a swim bait under a popping cork.
What’s impressive, though, is that even though both our choice of day (we typically go early in the calendar before the red drum bite really heats up and all his days get booked) and choice of time is limited (having to go in the morning before he has an afternoon trip or I have to get back to the Wilmington office to battle the ever-growing workload), despite our limited window of opportunity, every year Dubiel has put me on at least one popping cork citation.
Publisher Gary Hurley with his first popping cork citation red drum of 2016. He was fishing in 3 of water downriver from Oriental with Capt. Gary Dubiel of Spec Fever Guide Service.
August 8 was our morning this year, but a second half summer of bad weather, bad wind, and high temperatures had Dubiel a little concerned in the days leading up to our trip. Sudden and torrential rain had been playing havoc with the salinity and water quality, never ending southwest winds had the water levels regularly lower than normal, and the string of days measuring over or near 100 degrees (heat index) had water temperatures at levels that breed lethargy (both in fish and anglers).
However, the day before our trip the storms abated, the wind changed direction, and predicted temperatures in the high 80’s seemed to promise good fortune for us, even though it had been since June that Dubiel had landed a citation red drum.
Maybe it was just good fortune. Or maybe I brought along good karma by calling our trip a birthday fishing trip. Or maybe Dubiel merely executed a successful fishing strategy, but the result was certainly an efficient and successful morning on the Neuse River.
One of the keys for targeting citation red drum on popping cork rigs is finding plenty of bait. If you find lots of bait, then your chances of finding fish go way up. You also look for slicks or bird activity or any number of signs that big fish are in the area, but it all seems to start with bait, so Dubiel that morning took a run downriver from Oriental until he found lots of bait activity off some grass banks.\
Capt. Gary Dubiel, of Spec Fever Guide Service, with a 24″ speckled trout caught on a jighead/soft plastic bounced along a grass bank in the Neuse River.
The early morning sun was still a little low in the sky for us to fully search for prominent signs of big red drum life, so to start off our day Dubiel brought out lighter-weight popping cork rigs to search for more modest fish. This is when the good fortune started.
One cast: small trout. Another cast: small red drum. A few casts later: small flounder. And then a few more casts later: small striper. Yes, the fish were modest in size, but it’s hard to complain about bagging an inshore slam in the first hour or so of fishing.
And while I was able to upgrade to keeper-size on the speckled trout, Dubiel was bouncing a jighead and soft plastic off the bottom and bringing in quality fish (including one speck measuring out at 24”).
I had just found a pocket of small stripers and was casting in expecting to pull out my fourth fish when Dubiel announced, “There they are!”
I turned to look about 50 yards off our grass bank to see a school of about 100-150 fish crashing baits on the surface. Water was flying and tails were slapping and splashing as Dubiel trolling motored me close enough to get a heavier cork rig to drop near the middle of the melee.
One pop. Two pop. Bye bye popping cork.
The battle was on, and since my big red was only in about 3’ of water and couldn’t go deep, I was able to watch my fish run and run and run again.
I got a citation red rum on popping cork for my birthday, and Dubiel got his first big red of July/August and was able to promote the arrival of the fish on Instagram. Win, win.
Big reds on popping corks are now a staple of the Pamlico/Neuse area, so if you haven’t done it yet, then put this fishery and fishing strategy on your list. And though he’s busy (for good reason), you’d do well to start with Capt. Gary Dubiel of Spec Fever Guide Service. You can Google him, Facebook/Instagram him, or find his contact info on page 24.
