Tidelines – August 29, 2013
Capt. Greg Voliva (right), of Four Seasons Guide Service, assists Fisherman’s Post’s Publisher Gary Hurley with a quick photo of a 49″ red drum caught and released in the mouth of the Neuse River near an oyster rock.
Driving to a destination to start a fishing trip is second nature to me after 10 years of publishing Fisherman’s Post, but last week’s back-to-back travels from Wilmington to Oriental had even me a little road weary.
The first round trip to Oriental came on Wednesday, as Leslie (my wife) arranged for her mom to babysit so we could leave town shortly after lunch to be at River Dunes Marina right around 4:00 pm to head out for some big red drum fishing.
Capt. Greg Voliva, of Four Seasons Guide Service, was topping off at the fuel dock and eagerly asked, with a strange gleam in his eye, how set Leslie and I were on catching big drum. Not sure where he was headed with his question, we stammered a bit, but then Greg quickly brought us up to speed on the action the local fleet had already seen that day.
Greg had been on the water early that morning and had spied a large school of rolling tarpon. He got on the radio and invited his colleagues over to the fish, and there had already been two successful tarpon releases before Greg had to pull anchor to get the boat back to River Dunes to meet us.
Before we could tell him that we had no problem exchanging big drum for tarpon, a call came over the radio. Another boat had just hooked up with a silver king.
Greg’s Contender made quick work of the run out to where the Neuse River meets the Pamlico Sound, the area of water where the tarpon were congregating, and Greg had no sooner brought the boat to idle before we spotted our first tarpon. The anchor was set, six baits were put out, and the chumming process (cutting up fresh menhaden) commenced.
If this were a Guide Time article instead of a Tidelines, I would now go into much more detail about the tackle, technique, and events. Since space is limited, though, I’ll give you the condensed version of the next two hours.
Lots of tarpon rolling 100 yards off our stern. More chum. Lots of tarpon rolling 50 yards off our stern. More chum. Two tarpon rolling 10 yards off our stern. More chum. The big bite—a single tarpon skyrockets straight up, the starboard stern rod bends double (but only after we saw the fish jump), the tarpon skies again, and the hook is thrown.
Hank Carter and Capt. Greg Voliva with a big red drum that bit a piece of cut menhaden on the bottom in about 18′ of water. They were fishing out of River Dunes Marina in Oriental.
Ah, the joys and pains of tarpon fishing in North Carolina waters. Greg had us front row seat to one of the great sights of inshore fishing, a skying tarpon a few yards away, but a successful release eluded us.
To Greg and I, our missed shot just meant that we had to come back out the next day to try again.
Leslie and I made the three-ish hour drive by night back to Wilmington to relieve the babysitter. I grabbed a few hours of sleep, got up early to help make sure Thursday distribution of Fisherman’s Post was all set up, and then headed the three hours back to Oriental with friend Hank Carter in tow.
Ah, the joys and pains of tarpon fishing in North Carolina waters. The second day couldn’t have been more different than the first. We traveled for hours covering lots of water and failing to see even a single tarpon. Towards the end of the day, when morale was starting to wane despite Greg’s stories of sea duck hunting decades ago before popularized by local magazines and his insights into Camp Seagull and Camp Seafarer life, finally we saw a couple of tarpon roll off the port side.
Greg quickly got the boat in position, the baits out, and the chum started, but this day (like the day before) was not meant to be the day of our successful tarpon release. However, the tarpon roll did put us on anchor on an oyster rock that provided for a handful of citation-class red drum. Hank and I each caught a couple of big reds before a dark front littered with lightning forced us off the water for the safety of River Dunes.
Greg and I still have unfinished tarpon business, but neither of us had any complaints after a couple of exciting days on the water sharing stories about fishing, the changing face of Oriental, the aches of being middle aged, kids and cell phones, and any other topic that came to mind.
If not catching a tarpon means I get to spend more days on the water catching big red drum with Capt. Greg Voliva of Four Seasons Guide Fishing, then I think I’m fine with the elusive silver king staying elusive.
