Swansboro June 16, 2005
Steve Brantley, of FryingPanTower.com, reports that this past week was a little slower with the small school size kings heading towards the Swansboro area. Kings are being caught around Christmas Rock and the Honey Hole areas. The occasional spanish and blue being mixed in with the catch of small kings was not uncommon. The big news of the week is that there are still some big cobia around. The alphabet buoys and your local hard bottoms such as Christmas Rock, Honeymoon Rock, Divers Rock, and AR 355 are holding fish in the 30 – 40 lb. range. Trolling plugs, ballyhoo, and live bait should all work. Live menhaden have moved into the New River now, but they are scattered. With the forecast of warm weather still in our future, we should start to see some large schools of them settle down in there normal areas such as Courthouse Bay and TLZ Bluebird.
Molly, at Bogue Inlet Pier, reports that they’ve been catching a few blues, but just about all of them are small now (in the 1-2 lb. range). They’ve also landed a few sea mullet, spanish, flounder, and spots, but overall the fishing has been slow. There was a king hooked up over the weekend, but it broke off.
Dale, at Reel Outdoors, reports that the flounder bite is steadily improving on the inside. There have been a few in the 2 to 3 lb. range landed. Go with artificial river grubs or live minnows. The live minnows, however, have been a little scarce in the area. Speckled trout and reds are also biting in the sound. Some reports of 6 to 8 lb. specks came in over the weekend.
On the beach, there are still some blues and an occasional spanish run. Guys have also been finding pompano and black drum out of the surf.
