It’s no secret that fall and winter are my favorite times to fish in Coastal North Carolina. September is the beginning of what I live for. We will start to see our first north east wind, big high pressure and cold fronts coming through at the end of the month with the giant schools of mullets and menhaden coming down the beach in the beginning of the month. Along with these schools of mullets and menhaden will be Tarpon, Spinner sharks, old drum and Cobia.
Of course, I like to Grouper fish, and I spoke about that in the national section of the magazine but now is when we need to focus on the inshore fishing as well.
Yes, August was hot but don’t ever count out the first couple or three weeks of September as being the hottest time of the year. This is just one good reason to be nocturnal. I sell Boat lifts for a living so of course I like to fish around (Boat Lift Us) lifts that are equipped with the correct lighting systems to become nighttime entertainment centers. When you have the correct lighting, you attract all the shrimp, glass minnows, mullets, etc. and therefore you attract all the Trout, drum and Flounder. See the attached link to the video on my YouTube channel. This is literally like shooting them in a bucket. I will caution you to be quiet when fishing on the dock at night because you are directly over their heads. If you make a lot of noise, be it loud music, stomping your feet, slamming coolers, etc.,etc., you will turn the fish off and give them lockjaw. If you are quiet and keep catching them without making a tremendous amount of noise they will continue to bite. Of course, I like a shrimp lure and nothing fishes a 3 inch DOA shrimp body like the Barefoot Jig … As seen in the video.
Yes, I like to fish a double tackle at night as well. Some nights they like the jig, and some nights they like the trailer shrimp with no weight. Depending on the water depth you have around your dock/boat lift, you may want to fish underneath a cork at night.
This will keep the jig and the trailer shrimp swimming at the correct depth properly. Sometimes the larger fish are outside of the lights in the dark water. This is when the cork can be especially effective. You don’t need to “pop” the cork a lot… just barely keep it moving.
You don’t have to worry about using glow-in-the-dark colors or real bright colors at night, as they see the (live) shrimp that are almost invisible anyway perfectly at night. As a matter of fact, one of the most effective colors at night is dark brown or black. During the colder months of the year, when there is very little algae in the water and the water is very clear, a dark color shrimp is often more effective. It’s not only Speckled Trout under the lights, but the drum and Flounder are drawn to the light as well. Watch the video and draw your own conclusions.
This is a great place to entertain your children and grandchildren at night around the dock without even having to get in the boat, which can be very intimidating to youngsters. It gets dark early, so flick the lights on and take your kids outside. Get them away from the television, tablets and phones and do what dads and grandpas do best … go catch some fish, live in the moment and be very thankful for all we have.
TIM BAREFOOT
barefootcatsandtackle.com