I had the extreme pleasure of fishing with Mr. Bob Kirkman of Lenoir, NC on Saturday morning of this past weekend. Bob is an accomplished trout fisherman and has spent a lot of time in the NC mountains around Boone honing his trout technique. When he arrived at the coast this Saturday he was ready to tackle some hard fighting saltwater fish.

We had some incredible early morning fishing activity and absolutely not a breath of wind until around ten o'clock. We started the day fishing some shallow mud flats bordered by spartina marsh in pursuit of fish that were headed into the marsh on the rising tide to forage for crabs and shrimp. Bob and I spent the first part of the morning getting him caught up to speed on the "double-haul" which is a technique we utilize in saltwater fishing to make long distance casts more quickly and more accurately. After a short warm up we moved in range to some fish we had seen briefly tailing along the edge of the marsh. Within minutes of seeing two fish pursuing shrimp in a small lagoon Bob had hooked and lost his first rising tide redfish.

Little did he know that I could see some more fish pushing in the next bay. Three casts later Bob was tight to his first red of the day. We were fishing a new Umpqua fly pattern called the Johnny Rocket and the fish loved it! Congratulations Bob, you did a great job this weekend and it was a pleasure fishing with you. Tell Ollie and Brownie I said "hello" when you see them in the mountains.

Don't hesitate to call or book a fly fishing charter for this summer. The weather has been very good and the fishing is only going to get better when the menhaden arrive in our backcountry waters.

Tight Loops & Lines,

Capt. Seth Vernon