Added on Monday, August 1, 2022  Fish Post

Tidelines – August 2022

In the camper, Capt. Tommy Sports, of Sports Fishing Adventures, brought up Google Earth to show me where exactly Cedar Creek Campground was located in relation to the flats in Core Sound we would be fishing the next morning.

Though I somewhat know the area, I was still surprised to see just how much water there was between us, in Sealevel, and Harkers Island, just as I was impressed to see how much water there was for us to execute Tommy’s plan—wind drift acres of grass flats in search of red drum, trout, and flounder.

Google Earth also gave me a pretty good idea of the obvious sandbars and shoals that would need to be avoided on our way across Core Sound to target the waters on the soundside of the barrier islands that Tommy felt would be cleaner and more fishable than the waters just off the mainland coast. However, Core Sound is well known for its tricky, shallow waters, so I knew that time on the water, which Tommy had in plenty, was the only way to really know not only how to cross, but where to find the entrance and exit points for the skinny water we would be targeting.

Tommy had made me excited for this trip since we did a podcast titled “Fishing the Shallows for Inshore Slams” where he talked about transition zones, and that anticipation built even more as I watched him rig six rods (six rod holders on the jon boat meant six rods) for the morning.

I nursed a beer while Tommy tied on two Carolina rigs, one Heddon Spook topwater, one popping cork with a 4:32 Fishing custom bucktail that would eventually get a new penny Gulp shrimp, another 4:32 Fishing bucktail (no popping cork) that would get a white Gulp shrimp, and a spinnerbait with a soft plastic.

The morning showed what we had suspected the night before—the weather was going to be a bit unpredictable, with fronts moving through and cells randomly appearing and disappearing. There were clear windows of relief to fish, but it seemed likely, if not a certainty, that at some point we would get wet.

The morning’s southwest wind meant Tommy would head us more in the direction of Barden’s Inlet and then cover water as the wind pushed us back in the direction of Ophelia Inlet. Our first casts were over bottom that was covered thick with short grass, and we quickly hooked a bluefish and got bitten off by what was likely a small shark. Then the first front moved in quickly from the south.

There were no bolts or even flashes of lightning, so we put on our rain suits and threw out the anchor to hold us tight to a grassline to wait it out. On the backside of the front, one that passed us by just as quickly as it came on, there was no wind, the water was still, the no-see-ums came out, but so did the tail of a redfish just 30 yards or so off our bow.

I grabbed the topwater rod and sent it beyond the tail and a little to the left, and then started my walk-the-dog action. The tail disappeared, but then a big push of water and wake, what I imagine a torpedo looks like in the water, appeared moving slowly behind my topwater.

Even though I had a lot of water to work with prior to getting the lure back to the boat, nothing got the redfish to commit. I kept a steady retrieve at first, incorporated a couple of pauses a little over halfway back, went back to steady retrieve, and then tried a more sporadic action.

Nothing.

The fish had been given every chance to take the topwater, so it seemed pointless to throw it back out. I grabbed the popping cork rig, the one with a bucktail and Gulp shrimp, and threw it back out to the original location where we had spotted the tail.

The cast was one of those wonderful scenarios where the bobber lands and disappears all in one motion—I was tight.

Tommy likes a light drag so his guests can enjoy the runs, and I did enjoy. After several drag pulls in no more than 2’ of water, including one last big pull once the fish saw the landing net, we had the upper-slot redfish in the boat.

If I set up this article in the intro to suggest that we accomplished an inshore slam, we didn’t. No trout cooperated, but we did land red drum and several flounder. Most of the flounder came on the spinnerbait, in large part because when you’re fishing in such skinny water, a spinnerbait is right in a flounder’s target zone, even if you don’t bounce it off the bottom.

We drifted and caught fish, we poled and caught fish, and we trolling-motored and caught fish, and eventually we headed back to the campground.

Capt. Tommy Sports, of Sports Fishing Adventures, is a fantastic host to his clients, in part because he is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet, and also because he has to be a good host to get people to make the extra effort to meet him in Sealevel.

The extra effort, though, is worthwhile on many levels. In addition to the vast expanse of open water that holds three of the favorite inshore species year round and is at least mostly free of other boats, once you drive beyond Morehead and Beaufort, go past the turn to Harkers Island, and make the left turn in Smyrna, you enter a special part of North Carolina, a place where there are houses with replica Cape Hatteras lighthouses and old wooden boats in the front yard that have been repurposed as yard decoration, canals that run along either side of the highway reminding you that this part of North Carolina is just as water-connected as it is land-connected, and town welcome signs, like the one for Davis, that also lists the name of the local Baptist church.

If you’re into adventure in the form of great fishing with a great captain in a part of North Carolina that more people should get to know better, then call Capt. Tommy Sports, of Sports Fishing Adventures, at (252) 515-2066, or visit him online at www.sportsfishingadventures.com.

My suggestion is that while Tommy is filleting your fish at the Cedar Creek Campground’s cleaning table, the one by the docks and boat ramp and the gas pump, you take advantage of the bathhouse to freshen up with a shower before making the drive home.