Atlantic Coast surf and shore fishing

Well, talk about a fishing trip driven by convenience rather than sound planning…this was my second “pick up the beach-stranded truck at the mechanics” trip in the past four years.  Not a trend that I particularly want to continue.  The first time was in the spring – early spring – a dicey time of year when short term weather conditions are often the most important determining factor in the fishing.  The return (“good clutch”) trip came on the heels of a strong spring nor’easter – not good for surf fishing.

This past weekend, we drove down to Smyrna/Morehead (with a nice detour for free beer at the Mother Earth Brewing grand opening in Kinston on the way) to pick up my truck – the “good distributor” trip!  I wanted to fish the Wilmington area, simply because the access situation is better with 4WD access to both ends of Pleasure Island (Carolina/Kure Beach), flounder hot spot Snow’s Cut, and one of my favorite speckled trout spots.  Crystal Coast anglers would probably beg to differ with my decision; I guess I am just more familiar with Wilmington area beach access.  (For what its worth, at $20 a pop for a days access to Freeman Park at the north end of Carolina Beach, I may just stick to Atlantic Beach next time…)

Mother Earth Brewing grand opening - all of Kinston was there!

Anyway, given that it was after dark by the time we picked up my truck, I decided to give the high-rise bridge a go.  Bought me a dozen live shrimp and waited out a couple guys fishing the most accessible corner. I both floated the shrimp into the shadowline and fished them on the bottom with remarkably little action.  It was LIVE SHRIMP after all.  As the tide fell, the bait around the bridge got thicker and thicker with lots of small blues – picky small blues – working the shadowline.  Netted some grass shad which proved to be more effective than the shrimp, but soon switched to articifials.  Got one keeper gray trout on a speck rig (double bucktail) tipped with shrimp, and failing more action, tried jigging a bunch of lures – soft plastics and even a small gotcha, surprisingly – given the ruckus the blues were causing – with no action. My last effort was to tie on a simple (boring) metal lure – a krocodile spoon – a good caster with just enough weight to stay down on a steady retrieve.  The old standby tin was the ticket and I played with some small (but fat and fiesty) blues for a few more minutes, before packing it in for a room for the evening.

Krocodile spoon

Sunday was a total bust – a turbo skunk, if you will (that’s a skunk without even a clear, discernible hit).  The surf was low pressure big and it didn’t help that I arrived at Carolina Beach at high tide.  Still, I fished a perfect spot at the point at the north end of Carolina Beach (next to CB Inlet) – a place that had puppy drum (or at least a few nice blues) written all over it.  Nothing.  I played out the day drifting some nice live finger mullet both in the inlet and in Snow’s Cut (OK, I may have had a few hits at these places – I did lose my bait – but nothing notable).  After dark, I hit my trout spot with the ol’ standby purple demon mirrolure, but the surf was high and rough (even at dead low tide) and frankly, its a bit on the early side for this place to produce anyway.