Topsail June 17, 2004
Chris, at East Coast Sports, reports that it was pretty slow on the piers, with no kings caught over the past week. The piers had a few spanish early and a few spots and mullet at night. They also picked up a few blues, black drum, mullet, and an occasional flounder. In the surf from New River Inlet to Surf City, there were a few sea mullet caught in the sloughs. In the surf from Surf City to Topsail Beach, there were lots of good size mullet and blues. Topsail Beach to New Topsail Inlet produced lots of sea mullet and plenty of reds at night. New River is obviously full of big specks. He weighed in 4 citation trout over the past week, with the biggest going 6 lbs. 14 oz. It was caught on live shrimp.
Plenty of dolphin are showing up around 10 miles. One guy weighed in 5 dolphin from 10 to 18 lbs. he suggests trying 9 Mile Rock to target dolphin. There was also a 38 lb. king caught light lining somewhere around 20 miles. Further off, there have been marlin in 800′ of water and tons of dolphin in 180′ of water.
Greg, at Seaview Fishing Pier, reports red drum action picking up using either cut bait or shrimp. Several reds were recently caught (and released) over the slot limit of 18 to 27″. He reminds that you can only keep one red in the slot and must throw back over and under sized fish. A few 15 to 16″ flounder have been caught on live and cut baits. Many of the fish are still too small to keep. Spanish, from 14 to 15 inches, and bluefish are still biting plugs. Sharks have invaded the king rigs, with several blacktips and spinners on the ends of lines.
Eric, at New River Marina, reports that just about everything is biting. He’s recently seen red drum averaging 25″ to speckled trout and flounder weighing up to 6.5 lbs. However, the flounder on average are still very small. Sheepshead fishing is slowly getting better, with fiddler crabs or sand fleas as the baits of choice. Average size spanish mackerel and bluefish are just off the beaches, while further off (12+ miles) the dolphin and king mackerel are still biting live and dead baits if you can get out there.
Lynn, at Sneads Ferry Campground and Fishing Pier, reports that inshore the red drum have become active in the river and will take live bait. They are still catching flounder from the pier and other river areas, but no big catches to report this week. Mud minnows or small mullet will work best for the flounder.
