Catching reports

Someone recently asked me “where do you get the information for the catching report?”

I smiled broadly.

Most weeks I fish several times myself, so some of the information comes from my own experiences. Many of my friends fish and share their experiences with me. Obviously I check with the three piers on the island. But a good deal of information comes from charter boat captains. I have a number of them that I talk to on a regular basis. From all of that I boil it down to a few paragraphs of what I hope will be useful to our readers.

That same person asked me why I called it a “catching report” instead of the usual “fishing report”. Again, I smiled broadly. Then answered, “Folks want to know what is being caught, not sought.” She stopped “fishing” for information at that point.

Speaking of charter captains, we are blessed with some good ones in our area. They range from inshore specialist to saltwater fly experts and of course offshore big game guides. I have personally been out with a number of them. Even though I grew up here fishing in these waters, I learn something every time I go out with one.

I get quite a few messages via email and private messaging from out of town folks that will be visiting Topsail. They usually want to know what will be biting during the time they will be down. Most of them also want to know where and how to fish in the local waters. I help as much as I can but usually the best advice I give is to hire a guide for a half or full day trip. There is no better way to learn the local waters in a short time frame.

In fact, that is good advice for locals too. Have been meaning to learn a new style of fishing, maybe fly fishing or butterfly jigging? Perhaps you fish mainly inshore but have been itching to try some big game offshore fishing. Hire a guide and get a personalized lesson, plus you get to catch fish while learning! Speaking of learning, another good way to learn is to attend one of the many fishing schools in the off season. But I’ll save that for a future column.

Catching report

The piers are reporting some nice catches of mullet and loads of blues. The bite has been strong around dusk. Some flounder and black drum are still being caught. Reds and specks are being caught in the surf. The false albacore have been very active from just off the beach to about 1 mile out, just look for the birds.

The kings have moved off shore just a bit but can be found from eight miles on out to about 20. Grouper are being taken in about 60 – 90 feet of water with plenty of black bass and nice size white grunts being caught too. Offshore a few tuna have been reported caught. The Wahoo are still biting too.

Tight lines to all!