Tidelines – May 2026
The plan every spring, despite what seems to be annual increases in wind complications, is to get just a little off the beach to target the fun and delicious Atlantic bonito that come through our area for a month or so. After a couple of attempts were thwarted by high winds and seas, a Thursday afternoon phone call from Capt. Taylor Horrell, of South End Adventures out of Topsail Beach, came just when I needed some stars to align.
The forecast had changed for the better for Friday, and he was open. If I could get to Lewis Seafood, where Taylor keeps his boat, on the south end of Topsail Island by 6:00 am, then he liked our chances for pulling some bonito over the rails.
Thanks to a light incoming tide, we ran through a mild New Topsail Inlet. Taylor turned left and slowed down once in the neighborhood of the Topsail Beach water tower.
“There are some rocks and ledges here that have been holding bait,” Taylor shared with James and I while his mate Drew McEachern put out the trolling spread, “and historically this is where these fish often are.”
Taylor fishes on the “Cap’n Boo,” a 31’ JC Downeast-style lobster boat.
“We’re putting out four lines,” Taylor continued, “two planer rods, with one a little further back and a little deeper, then a trolling lead. I use #0 Clarkspoons on all three of those lines, and for planers, I use #1 planers.”
For our fourth line, he wanted to try something a little different. He had a “worm rig,” or perhaps better known as an umbrella rig, that he uses at times when commercial king mackerel fishing, but he’s never tried the rig on a bonito trip. Today’s umbrella rig had four hooks with green tubing, and then one hook in the middle with black tubing. He floated this fourth line way back and behind our other three lines.
We were pulling those four lines at about 6 knots while marking some bait near the bottom, but apparently the bonito weren’t ready. The bite was quiet for us, as well as for the 3-4 other boats that were in the general vicinity.
Bait was showing on the machine, as well as shimmering at times on the water’s surface, and that gave us confidence, as did the number of birds in the area that were all optimistically flying around and looking, like us, for any activity. We may have spotted two turtles, or perhaps the same turtle twice, but an hour had produced only one single bonito that hit the starboard planer line (the shorter one).
Mate Drew McEachern and James Hurley hold up a handful of the bonito they hooked on the troll while offshore of Topsail Beach. The mostly 4 lb. class of fish were caught with Capt. Taylor Horrell, of South End Adventures.
The radio was telling us that no one was catching to our north at Diver’s Rock, but boats at the Liberty Ship were doing well. We wouldn’t be running to the Liberty Ship to chase fish, but the theory on our boat was that fish to the south hopefully meant fish heading north and in our direction.
Then, as it often goes with bonito fishing, the switch was flipped and the bite turned on.
Another planer rod got hit, and while James was reeling that bonito in, the umbrella rig started dancing.
Once James had the planer to the rod tip, he handed the rod to Drew, and then Drew dipped down the rod so James could grab the line and begin handlining the fish in.
“Try to keep the head up,” Drew advised James, with the fish now directly behind the stern and digging down hard, “and when you flip the fish into the boat, flip it into the cooler.”
James guided our second bonito into the cooler, where Drew pinched the mouth of the fish between the cooler and the cooler lid to control the fish while he used the dehooker. The fish fell into the cooler of ice, and Drew put the planer line back into the spread just in time for my fish to now be off the back of the boat where we repeated the same handline-flip-dehook process.
Drew employs this interactive approach on all trolling trips. Clients can do as much or as little as they wish, and while Drew is always ready to stand in if need be, he is more than happy to let his clients run the back of the boat, if they prefer.
Our fish total quickly climbed. All four lines had their moments, but the umbrella rig was the most popular. Any questions about the umbrella rig had already been answered after generating four or so of our first eight fish, but its success was fully on display when it brought in three bonito, on three of the five hooks, on one retrieve.
James and I had plenty of fish to keep, including some to give away to friends, so we pulled lines and began heading back to Lewis Seafood. On that short run back to the docks, Taylor and Drew shared with us another way they make trips memorable for their clients. We were going to give one of our fish to the Lewis Seafood Shack, a food truck that stays in the front parking lot of Lewis Seafood, and he would be cooking our catch and turning our bonito into fish tacos.
Capt. Taylor Horrell, of South End Adventures, and Gary Hurley, of Fisherman’s Post, with a couple of the bonito they caught trolling Clarkspoons and an umbrella rig in 40′ of water off of the south end of Topsail Island.
Drew cleaned our fish, Taylor assisted, and by the time our fish was bagged and on ice, the tacos were ready—loads of freshly seared bonito, homemade slaw, chopped tomatoes, a creamy white sauce, and a quarter of a lime to squeeze.
Capt. Taylor Horrell and Mate Drew McEachern, of South End Adventures, will finish the bonito run and move immediately into the summer-long spanish season (they caught the boat’s first spanish of the year on our trip). They also love to target grouper in season, as well as troll for king mackerel.
If any of this sounds attractive to you—a comfortable and roomy boat, a short run, lots of delicious fish, and a mate that likes to let the clients be as active as they wish—then check out www.southendadventures.com or give Taylor a call at (910) 470-2199.
The decision about whether or not to book them should be as easy as fresh fish tacos at the dock at the end of a fishing day.
