by Capt. Craig Price
The arrival of August means one thing to me – it’s time to gear up for giant red drum fishing in eastern NC. In August-September I run inshore saltwater charters in a special little corner of the world known as the Lower Neuse River-Western Pamlico Sound. Along with a substantial cadre of professional guides, I operate out of the small fishing-sailing village of Oriental, NC.
When I have open dates on my calendar, I usually fish with friends from the area – a proverbial “busman’s holiday”. Our favorite tactic during early morning sessions is casting artificial lures to the “old drum” that occupy the sound and river from late July to October. Below I recount a couple of excursions that went our way and I remember fondly.
On each morning we left the dock at sunrise and ran a short distance out of Oriental to a quiet slough (pronounced slew) <6 ft. deep just outside of a creek that feeds into the river. These sloughs are created by wave action from strong winds blowing in on the river shores just like surf zones on the ocean beaches. They vary in size but this one encompasses about 30 x 200 yards, i.e. a pretty small feature in a huge riverine system.
Both days light wind, slick water, and increasing light revealed numerous schools of large menhaden, finger mullet, and glass minnows as we “motored down” on the shoal and switched to the trolling motor for the last couple hundred yards to the slough. As we quietly approached the fishing zone schools of bait shimmered and showered in the early light. We couldn’t have ordered better conditions for catching trophy red drum on light tackle in skinny water.
Our rigs consisted of Penn Spinfisher 4500 series reels spooled with 40 lb. Berkley Tracer Braid, mounted on 7.5 ft. graphite Penn rods. The braid was tied to Bomber Paradise Extreme popping corks with 3 ft. of 50 lb. fluorocarbon leaders. Gulp Ripple Shad on 3/8 oz. jig heads and DOA CAL swimbaits on VMX keel weighted hooks were on the business end of our leaders.
On day 1 as we entered the slough we observed 20-30 porpoises approach our fishing ground. Though they’re amazing to watch, porpoises are effective, efficient predators and natural enemies of smaller red drum and many other species of gamefish and forage. We couldn’t help but think “there goes the neighborhood”.
As it turned out, the porpoises cruised through the slough, entered the creek briefly then departed as quickly as they arrived. Our worries that any big drum that were present had bugged out and/or the bait had scattered were quickly dispelled. Several huge swirls plus the sight of the distinctive broad bronze tails with one or more dark spots on them proved that the giant redfish were indeed still close at hand.
My friend Michael Wynne of Merritt, NC took the bow position, hooked up on his 4th cast and the melee began. With huge drum crashing bait in the slough, porpoises thrashing bait further out on the shoal, plus osprey and gulls bombing the water around us, the environment was electric with life, and death.
Even so, we boated Michael’s first “biggun” and quit after catching a couple each. They all measured 46-48” long, easily weighing 45-50 lbs. I have no doubt we could’ve caught more fish due to the perfect conditions, but sometimes a little is truly enough. Plus, the final fish had led us on a long, hard battle that left us both satisfied and amazed at the fish’s power and stamina.
The next day, Peter Overgaard of Oriental joined me and took the bow position. Peter’s an avid and experienced angler who introduced me to the popping cork style of fishing for these beasts. We carry on a friendly competition whenever we fish together so I was dismayed, and appreciative of his skill, when he hooked and boated a 48” drum on his first cast. We’d been fishing for 20 seconds, and I was already 1 fish down!
But the fishing gods were generous this day. I made my first cast to a large swirl and connected with a 45” specimen. We ended up with 5 citation red drum (>40”) in a little over 90 minutes and left for home very grateful for the opportunity and privilege of battling these magnificent creatures in such an idyllic setting.
When matching wits with Mother Nature, the sun can and does “shine on a different dog” most days. When it’s my turn, I love catching big numbers as well as any angler, but sometimes a little really is a gracious plenty. These are the gifts that reaffirm my love of fishing and the outdoors.
All of the fish were released alive to grow even bigger and stronger. Hopefully our paths will cross again one day, succeeded by the cry of Fish On!
Capt. Craig Price, Fish On! Guide Service, PO Boz 1623, Denver, NC 28037
704-996-0946
www.folkn.com