Tidelines – October 2026
Catching red drum, especially the “old” drum of August to October in the Pamlico and Neuse rivers and Pamlico Sound, is a long-standing tradition for many families along those coastlines, and I was fortunate enough to be included in one of those ongoing traditions compliments of the Hopkins family of Lowland, NC.
Capt. Meagan Hopkins co-captains with Capt. Lee Winkleman, both of Top Gun Fishing, and they spend most of their time and run most of their trips out of the Atlantic Beach and Morehead City areas. The two run offshore, nearshore, and even inshore trips, but when August comes around, Meagan, who grew up in Lowland, makes plans to spend as much of the month of September as she can back at home chasing red drum.
This year, Meagan and Lee invited my wife Leslie and I to join that September tradition of chasing red drum, but when our day to fish together came around, they told us we needed to manage expectations if we still wanted to fish for reds.
Slot reds would be no problem, Meagan told us, and we should limit out easily, but the old drum probably wouldn’t bite until sunset, and sunset would be a problem. The northeast wind had turned to southwest, and Meagan explained that there were two problems with southwest wind in the Hobucken and Lowland area—the citation red drum bite doesn’t usually start until dark, and the mosquitos can become unbearable at dark.
Leslie and I wanted a reason to leave Wilmington, and we had already arranged coverage for the dog and our youngest son, so how bad could the mosquitos be? The trip was on.
Our meeting spot was the boat ramp in Hobucken next to RE Mayo Seafood, the local supply store and marina where all the shrimp boats come in. Hobucken and Lowland together are called Goose Creek Island, and Meagan, like everybody that lives on Goose Creek Island, knows everyone and they are all connected in some way to each other.
Leslie Hurley holds up one of the upper-slot red drum she hooked off a point touching the Pamlico Sound near Goose Creek Island. She was soaking cut mullet with Capt. Meagan Hopkins and Capt. Lee Winkleman of Top Gun Fishing.
For example, Miss Penny was working the counter at RE Mayo when I bought a cold drink, just as Miss Penny worked the same counter when Meagan was little. And Miss Penny lived a few doors down from Meagan when she was young, but then Meagan added that everybody in Lowland and Hobucken lives a few doors down from each other.
At roughly 4:00, we left the boat ramp, the same boat ramp Meagan’s family used when she was growing up. Her Bay Rider headed out of Jones Bay and stopped at a point in the direction of Lowland, a point that she had been shown by her dad Jeffrey how to fish since she was roughly five-years-old.
“A lot of people like fishing deeper, but I always like fishing more shallow,” Meagan explained. “Sometimes you can see the red drum feeding up against the bank, and I also like that we can put a couple of rods towards the shoreline for slot red drum and put a couple of rods off the back of the boat in the deeper water for a big red drum.”
We were anchored up in 4-feet of water, casting smaller sections of cut mullet to about 2-feet of water, and heaving the Owen Lupton rigs with much healthier chunks of bait out to 8-feet.
The bottom right up against the grass line, Meagan told us, was full of mud and ridges, so she suggested we pull our baits off about 5-feet. Leslie and I followed those instructions, and it wasn’t long before Leslie’s was the first rod to double over.
Gary and Leslie Hurley hold up the boat’s limit of red drum that came from casting cut mullet into two feet of water off a grass line. They were fishing with Capt. Meagan Hopkins on one of her traditional September trips out of the Hobucken/Lowland area.
The determined runs and heavy headshakes identified Leslie’s fish as a red drum well before she maneuvered her fish close enough to see. The boat and the waiting landing net spawned one more good run before we had our first fish in the boat—a 25-inch fish with a heart-shaped spot and a good amount of blue in the tail.
Leslie followed her upper-slot red drum with a 3-pound trout that bit on cut mullet in the same shoreline area. I started to cast my bait a little closer to where Leslie was getting bit and finally found my first fish of the late afternoon—a slot red drum that I had to admit was a little shorter than Leslie’s.
A good fishing trip is more than catching fish, and Goose Creek Island gave us more.
Off in the distance over land, you could see a number of small rain systems where under the broken cloud cover were curtains of water dropping down to the ground, and the sun in its infancy stage of setting, illuminated some clouds while accentuating the darkness of others.
It was time to head back to a point closer to Jones Bay where Meagan wanted to set up for big reds before the sun was much lower in the sky. This second point featured the same depths, with shallower slot red drum water towards the grass and deeper old red drum water off the back, and this second point quickly produced just as the first, with two more slot red drum hooked off the front. However, once again, the big rods were quiet.
Meagan squirted some menhaden oil into the water to let a slick help call the fish in, and with darkness settling in, the bait stealers started to quiet for the night. We were finally able to leave our baits out longer before having to replace them, and then it happened.
Unfortunately, the “it” wasn’t a school of big red drum that pulled down all four rods. The “it” was the swarm of mosquitos that were being blown by the wind in our direction.
Two days ago, with a northeast wind, the old red drum had cooperated before and through sunset and the mosquitos were nowhere to be seen. This night, though, with our southwest wind, the conditions were just as Meagan predicted—a slow daytime and sunset bite and a crazy mosquito presence.
“For years now, I’ve loved taking family and friends out fishing for big red drum,” Meagan told us as we came back through Jones Bay, clearly the most disappointed out of the four of us that we hadn’t connected with a 40+-inch fish. “My favorite is to put someone on their first one.”
As for Leslie and I, we weren’t disappointed. We caught fish, had fish to bring home for dinner, enjoyed an uncrowded body of water and undeveloped shoreline framed by memorable weather, and became part of Meagan’s red drum tradition.
In October, Capt. Meagan Hopkins and Capt. Lee Winkleman will start focusing more on wahoo and tuna trips, and bottom fishing is always an option for Top Gun Fishing. You can find out more about the types of trips they offer at Top Gun Fishing on Facebook.
While offshore and nearshore fishing are their staples, maybe you want to get on the calendar for a Goose Creek Island day of soaking bait for red drum of all sizes.
Don’t take it from me, though. I suggest you knock on any door in the Hobucken/Lowland area and ask the person who answers the door what they think of Meagan Hopkins.
