As the summer season begins to slow and schools get back on schedule, many coastal residents and visitors alike are gearing up for fall fishing. When water temperatures begin to cool inshore, fishing heats up and savvy anglers know that red drum are preparing for the lean days of winter. Luckily, they are creatures of habit and by following their seasonal patterns, it is relatively easy to find your own fishing hot spots.
The first strong northeast winds that we experience along our coast every year, normally in late August or early September, begin to cool the water and push a lot of bait like mullet and menhaden from the sounds and bays out along the beachfront. These “mullet blows” usually kick off a feeding frenzy, as every fish in the area knows that hard times are fast approaching, and they feed with reckless abandon, trying to fatten up while food still is readily available.
During this transition red drum can be found throughout the coastal waters of North Carolina. I have been fortunate to catch them on the capes, shoals, in the marsh creeks, and everywhere in-between. Small boat fisherman should also be able to find plenty of fish on nearshore structures like piers, wrecks, and rock jetties. Some of the fish are migratory but a surprising number are residents to NC's waters years round, they just move around as the seasons change.
When targeting red drum this time of year, I like to search along estuarine marsh banks that have patches of oyster rocks, especially hard edges that have held true over time. A quick look at a series of online satellite maps helps to put together a timeline that allows you to see how a particular estuarine system changes. That helps to pin point some likely locations to try before you even hit the water.
Once on the water, look for activity or color changes just under the surface of the water as you slowly drift 20-30 feet off the shoreline. Use the current and wind to your favor and slowly work your way down the shoreline, using a trolling motor only to keep you in position as the fish can be motor shy. The most important thing to remember is that when these fish are in shallow water, they are indeed super spooky. Moving slowly, using either a push pole or trolling motor allows you to sneak up on the fish and see them before they become aware of your presence and flee. Big schools of fish often can be found in shallow bays and narrow creeks, moving along on the search for baitfish, crabs, and shrimp that inhabit the same areas.
When the schools move in skinny water, they can’t hide from a patient angler with a good pair of polarized sunglasses. I love my Smith Optics PolarChromic Ignitor lenses with ChromaPop polarization for sight casting because they adjust to the ambient light conditions, making them especially useful on those days where the sun is in and out from behind the clouds. On bright days I like either brown or copper lenses, they seem to filter out a lot of the disruption from stained inshore waters that can be common this time of year. It may take some effort to find them, but the excitement of sight casting fish that are schooled up right in front of you is worth the work. Having the right glasses make it so much easier!
Once you find them red drum can be caught on a variety of different bottom rigs using natural bait like live minnows, fresh cut mullet, or shrimp, but many anglers really enjoying fishing artificial lures. In shallow water like to start out with a spinner bait or a gold spoon, something with a little flash to it that attracts the fishes’ attention. Soft plastics rigged light work well, too, and if you can find a school feeding aggressively in waist deep water, nothing is more fun than hooking one on a topwater plug. Just remember that they need enough water to be able to roll on the lure so if its too skinny they cant eat a topwater very easily and you are better going with a light weight presentation that will not create a big splash and spook the school.
Be careful when casting to the schools to ensure that they do not all become aware of your presence. Try not to cast directly across the school, instead, aim for the outside edges of the and bring the lure back to them slowly. At times, you might not be able to see the fish but instead will see the wakes that they create in the shallows. Try to figure out which direction they seem to be moving and put the lure several yards ahead of them. Let the fish discover the easy meal as you slowly work it away from them, attempting to recreate the action of a injured baitfish attempting to escape.
Many anglers purchase specially designed boats that allow them to go into super skinny water where the redfish love to hang out. Kayaks are useful when pursuing the reds in shallow water because they allow you to access areas where most power boats cannot go. Over the past couple weeks my buddy Captain Joe Tunstall of Carolina Traditions Guide Service and I have been sending each other pictures of a couple of schools we have found that are continuing to play nice because we are not hitting them too hard with the big boats and lots of pressure. Kayaks allow anglers to get to and stay on fish in places most people cannot go. Paddle to a likely area and work the points and sloughs, use the current to push you into a area then drop a drift anchor to allow you to work it thoroughly.
Joe and I often hop out of the yak' and wade areas that have been especially productive before, really putting in the time on key features like cut banks, grass lumps and oyster points. Just watch out for those oyster shells and the stingrays as you get out of the boat!
When chasing puppy drum inshore, I recommend using a 6 ½ -7' medium light rod rated for line breaking strengths between 8-12 lbs. Lure weight will often range between ¼- 1 ¼ oz., so take that into consideration, as well. You want a rod to be comfortable in your hands and light enough to cast over and over again. But, it needs to have enough backbone to turn the powerful fish when they make their initial run after hitting the lure.
I love my Stellar Lite Star Rods because of the lightweight design and the superior strength and flexibility. I matched it with a Penn 440SSg spooled with 12lb test line. I do still use some monofilament, however like a lot of die-hard drum anglers I have switched a lot of my gear to braided line to give me greater casting distance and more line strength for the same diameter line. That also allows me to use a lighter reel for my artificial tackle, right now I am using a 1000 class Penn Conflict II spooled with 15lb Suffix braided line. The lighter gear makes a difference when casting over a hundred times for that one bite from a puppy drum. I will use a 3o lb., leader when I am targeting drum but often I catch them on lighter line when I am trout fishing since they share a lot of the same habitats.
Surf fishing will heat up as many of the fish chase the bait along the beaches. The waters along the Outer Banks, especially near Cape Lookout and Cape Hatteras, are world renowned for targeting red drum in the surf. It is a lot of fun to load up the four wheel drive vehicles with camping and fishing gear and spend a week at the Cape in the fall, pursuing a classic sport fish from the shoreline. All you have to do is drive along the beach at low tide and search for the deeper holes or sloughs that form in the surf. Often, red drum will stage up near shore and attack bait that is working south hugging the coastline. You don’t always have to cast far out to get to water that holds the fish; it helps to be able to read the beach. Sometimes they are, literally, right under your feet!
When fishing from the beach with natural baits, I scale my gear up a bit and use an 8 foot rod capable of throwing up to 4 oz. of weight. My go-to reel for surf fishing is the 5000 class Penn Sportfisher with 12-15lb test line. I love the upper end Penn reels, because just about any tackle shop can get parts for them and can do quick and easy repairs. They are also sealed so they make a great surf fishing reel that holds up well to the harsh elements.
Anglers have success throwing artificials in the suds when the fish are staging on the mullet bonanza in the fall season. I have had great success with the new Rapala Long Cast Shallow subwalk lure in their mullet pattern. The weighted lure walks smoothly just beneath the surface and entices a reaction strike when the fish are nearby. I will often soak a piece of crab flavored Fishbites on a bait rod while I am throwing lures and sometimes pick up a double. Talk about having your hands full!
Of course, its true that the largest red drum in the world frequent the waters of the Carolina coast, the world record fish over 94 lbs. was caught off Cape Hatteras and 50-60" fish are not a uncommon occurrence to anglers who target them during the late summer and fall in bodies of water like the Pamlico Sound and the Cape Fear River.
If you plan to target the larger fish along our coast you want to scale up your tackle to match your quarry. I know some people wont like hearing this, but just because you can catch them on a 4000 class reel and 20lb braid doesn't mean you should. Its easy to burn these fish out and while they have proven to be quite hardy you want to be able to land and release them relatively quickly, especially in warm water. The goal in a catch and release fishery is to release the fish in a way they can survive the experience, and these trophy fish are the brood stock for every puppy drum we catch in our state. Cradle and support their body when you lift them for the water for a picture and make sure to have your camera ready. This is no time to be fumbling around trying to get the perfect picture, you have to plan it out ahead of time. A future blog post will be dedicated to the trophy drum fishery that exist on the Pamlico Sound, as its impossible to cover the breadth of the fishery in one short article.
When the fishing is good, its important for anglers to remember that here in NC we have a slot limit on reds with each angler allowed to harvest one fish between 18-27" per day. Get on a school and it feels like they are everywhere, but truthfully they have a lot of pressure on them from multiple fronts. Many anglers like myself find more joy in releasing them than we do harvesting. I certainly do promote catch and release but I also enjoy eating one from time to time, hard to beat blackened in a hot flat iron skillet over a plate of pesto Italian seasoned pasta. I choose to keep the legal fish that I feel are less likely to survive release, anything hooked deep or in the gills. If I feel confident it will live I let it go, but sometimes they are so aggressive the plug chokes them and they come home with me. Not a thing wrong with harvesting a legal fish!
As the seasons transition anglers should be able to enjoy action from one of my favorite fish, hard fighting, full of heart they never give up. While they are a fish with many names, North Carolina's state saltwater fish is certainly one that keeps a lot of us up at night, preparing for an opportunity to engage with a wild spirit in its natural setting. Sometimes we are even reminded that we are in the presence of an animal with great intelligence.
On a recent trip I had a overslot fish that was just about tired out make its final run right across my feet as I was wading the flat. He buried the treble hook on the back of the lure in my left foot and the jolt dislodged the hook from his mouth. I am certain that fish had been caught before and he probably is writing a fish blog to all his friends telling them about how he got away! I just paused, took a moment to realize how crazy that situation had been and laughed out loud to God at my tremendous luck! Considering I was on the fish in a very remote location, I just retied a new lure and left the hook buried in my foot until I made it to the ER room later that day. You can notice the bone skitter walk hanging from my foot in the picture from the next fish I caught below, no reason to quit fishing or anything! The hook was buried deep, all the way into my bone! Thank God the fish broke free or it would have really done some damage. Oh well, you can't catch em' all and I always will remember the ones that got away!
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