Friday, June 8, 2007

It pays to get up Early...










I had a great early morning trip with Pete Richardson of Wilmington, NC this morning. Pete had it together and we managed to impress ourselves by catching two redfish this morning between 5:45 am and 8 am. The morning was quiet with lots of bait on the move but very little redfish tailing/pushing/waking action to speak of.
I thought I had seen some reds milling quietly in a pocket of water on the edge of a flat no deeper than about 8 inches and asked Pete to make a cast with a topwater pug and spinning rod to wake them up. On the first cast he had a tremendous surface strike which we missed. On the very next cast he settled the score with a well placed cast and a great hook up yielding him a pretty 4 lb. redfish at first light.



The light improved and we decided to move to another spot that has been producing some tailing fish for us. When we arrived the water was slick and the fish were not showing themselves. We actually bumped into some fish and Pete got one to eat a fly presented perfectly in front of the lead fish. Once he got the fish close we could tell it was bigger than the one he caught earlier that morning. We weighed the fish at six pounds even and he ate a Borski's Bonefish Slider.
The fishing has been great and with the right weather we can sight fish to our hearts desire! Give me a call if you are interested in some tight lines, strong runs and big smiles. 910-233-4520
Tight Loops & Lines,
Captain Seth Vernon






posted by Intracoastal Angler at 8:47 AM 1 comments  

Monday, June 4, 2007

Bob Kirkman's 1st Redfish on Fly






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

posted by Intracoastal Angler at 7:02 AM 0 comments  

Friday, June 1, 2007

High Tides Have the Reds of Wrightsville Tailing



It was another beautiful morning at Wrightsville Beach. Josh Eddings and I got an early start and fished locally in search of tailing fish on the rising tide. We had only about an hour and a half to kill and so we spent our time wisely this morning.

Josh hadn't driven my new Beavertail B2 yet so I turned the wheel over to him while we rode the waterway. If you haven't seen the new boat you can get a peek at it on the website http://www.beavertailskiffs.com .



The high was only 2.9 feet this am and it kept most of the fish from escaping too far into the grass and out of reach. We had three tailers, a dozen pushes and one busting a crab way back in a grass flat. Just nice getting out on these slick calm mornings.



Give us a call if you are interested in a flats charter for these great game fish 910-233-4520.

Tight Loops & Lines,
Captain Seth Vernon

posted by Intracoastal Angler at 8:21 AM 0 comments