Swansboro April 2005
Capt. Jeff Cronk, of Fish’N4Life Charters, and Capt. Mike Taylor, of Taylor Made Charters, report that the backwaters have warmed into the upper 60’s in the feeder creeks off White Oak River, Queens Creek, Bogue Sound, and the New River, and they and are alive with lots of small baits (finger mullet and shad). They’ve been finding a few nice speckled trout ranging from 1 lb. to 5 lbs. The trout are typically feeding on small baits, so scale down in size to 2-3 inch shad imitations in pearl white or smoke grey with 1/16 to 1/4 oz. leadheads.
The bluefish have begun making their showing near Bogue Inlet, Bear Inlet, and Brown’s Inlet. Any deep (8+ ft.) channel with good tide and green water will hold blues in good numbers. Some good places to try are Trout Creek, Coast Guard Channel, Banks Channel, Cow Channel, West Channel, Sanders Creek, and Brown’s Inlet channel. They will hit just about any artificial thrown. These fish will range from 1/2 to 3 lbs. with an occasional “Hatteras” size blue, especially if trolling along the surf.
There are some schools of reds working along the surf as well as the grass flats and bays off the sound and river. These fish will usually hit either topwater baits like Mirrolure’s Topdog or Heddon’s Zara spook. If they won’t cooperate on either of those, try soft jerk baits like the Zoom Super flukes or toss out live baits on float corks.
Gray trout and sea mullet should make their showing by mid to late April along the surf and around the inlets. The “killer” sea mullet rig consists of a pack of 1/16 oz. Spec Rigs with a 1/2 oz. weight added to the line between both specs. Tip it with some shrimp, toss it to the spot, and work slowly along the bottom, tapping it very slightly. For the grays work the same rig but step up to 1/4 oz. spec rigs and jig in the inlet channels. Stingsilvers and diamond jigs also work great on the grays and allow you to work deeper channels with more current.
Mollie, at Bogue Inlet Fishing Pier, reports that the pier has seen a few sea mullet, a few spots, and some small blues. The biggest sea mullet weighed in at 1 lb. 12 oz., and the pier also weighed in a 15 oz. speckled trout earlier in the week.
Lee, at Nancy Lee Fishing Center/Charters, reports that he’s been pulling in some sea bass and tautog. The biggest sea bass weighed in at 1.5 lbs. The tautog are averaging 3 lbs. The spot for these species is Key Post and anywhere on that ledge. There’s been lots of dogfish, and often it’s tough to get your bait down to the bass and tautog. Fresh squid is the bait of choice.
