ERIC SHARP
January 20, 2008 BEAUFORT, N.C. -- If you ask a Florida angler where to catch a big red drum, the answer almost certainly will be the Indian River, where 20- to 30-pound redfish are common. Gary Dubiel, who fishes the vast maze of waters around North Carolina’s Pamlico Sound, grins when he hears that and says, "We call the red drum in the Indian River ’bait.’
In August and September, we see lots of huge fish in the 35- to 65-pound range. It’s not uncommon to catch double-digit numbers in five hours." Beaufort offers an intriguing alternative for anglers who want to make a Southern saltwater fishing trip but don’t want to travel as far as Florida, or who have visited Florida several times and are seeking something new.
And while northerners tend to think of Southern fishing as a winter venue, the backcountry and near-shore waters along the North Carolina coast offer a cornucopia of species summer and winter -- speckled sea trout, drum, albacore, tarpon and giant bluefin tuna. Dubiel owns Spec Fever Guide Service and runs two boats to guide inshore for sea trout, redfish and flounder and offshore for albacore, Spanish and king mackerel, dolphin and tuna. The day I fished with him, we worked a small section of a single tributary to the Neuse River.
People need to see the scale of the water we fish to understand just how immense it is. What most people would call river or creek fishing is tiny compared to what we have," Dubiel said as he turned his boat into a tributary called the South River, a tidal cut that lets water flow between a bay and the Neuse. "You could spend days fishing the shorelines of this creek alone."
While these are saltwaters, the tidal range in western Pamlico Sound and its tributaries is tiny, only inches up or down, because narrow inlets and broad expanses of shallow flats control and dissipate moving water quickly. It makes it hard for people who come from other saltwater areas," he said. "They’re used to fishing with big, moving tides, and there aren’t any.
Freshwater fishermen tend to figure it out faster. What you learn here is that water levels are determined by the wind speed and direction," not tidal fluctuation. We have pretty close to a year-round fishery," said Dubiel, who mostly guides clients with spinning tackle but whose first love is fly-fishing. "In summer, we get a lot of pompano off the beach, along with Spanish mackerel and bluefish. We can also fish offshore for bluefin tuna, bonito and albacore.
We also see a fair amount of tarpon here from June through August, fish up to 150 pounds, and we see a lot of smaller king mackerel (under 20 pounds) in summer and the big kings in October and November. We have good fishing for trout, red drum and flounder just about all year.
February is usually the only month that’s slow, but if we have a warm winter like this one and the water gets to 50 degrees, you can have some good trout and redfish then." In April and May, anglers also catch smaller species off the beach -- whiting, spots, croakers, weakfish and dogfish are most common. May and June, we’ll maybe fish one day inside for trout, flounder and smaller drum, and the next day go offshore for dolphin or tuna," Dubiel said.
"In summer, July through early September, they might fish for trout and smaller drum in the morning, then go for big drum in he evening. We get our biggest red drum in summer. I’ll put 400 over 40 pounds in the boat in August and September. It’s scorching then, so what we generally do is go out with light tackle early in the morning and fish for smaller drum and flounder, then go out again in late afternoon and fish until dark for the big reds. It’s cooler then, and that’s their primary feeding time.
Later in the fall, the variety is really neat. People will fish for trout and flounder one day, and the next day go for the big adult drum, and the day after that go offshore for albacore and king mackerel. Some of our fish are real wanderers. Tags put on tarpon in the Neuse River have been returned from Cuba and Tampa Bay, and we got returns on tuna that were tagged offshore here from Greece in the Mediterranean" more than 3,000 miles away. For sea trout, flounder and smaller redfish, Dubiel said a good choice is a 7-foot spinning rod and reel with 6-10 pound line.
For tarpon and big drum, he uses beefier rods and reels that hold 250 yards of 20-30 pound line. For fly-fishing, we mostly use intermediate lines and 6-8 weight rods inshore," he said. "I find that a 7-weight fishes really well. When we get out toward the ocean, we use heavier rods for the pelagic fish."
The fishery that has been slow the past few years is the winter offshore and surf fishing for big striped bass. The stripers off the beaches migrate south in the winter from as far away as New England, following schools of bait.
They are cool-water fish that like temperatures in the 40s, but in recent winters the water has been in the 50s, and the striper schools have rarely come south of Chesapeake Bay 160 miles to the north. Contact ERIC SHARP at 313-222-2511 or esharp@freepress.com. Dubiel can be reached at 252-249-1520 orat specfever.com. Find this article at:http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080120/SPORTS10/801200639
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