some more pics from the giant black drum day

my last day of the season on the Neuse

Ran my last trip on the Neuse for this drum season and ended up with a double digit day, caught 15 citations in about 2 hours this afternoon.   Taking the Parker to Capt. Ken Kramer at the Crystal Coast where he is going to teach her some fly fishing.

I am going on a big adventure.   Heading to Costa Rica for some business, then a trip out to the seamounts for blue marlin, followed by 3 days of tarpon fishing.  More on this and reports to follow.

pups and alberts on the fly with Capt. Ken.

Capt. Ken Kramer

"Wassup!   Lots of small drum and some nice trout, alberts eating Cape!"
------ Ken

This just came in from Capt. Ken.   He's got a great boat for polling around the marshes and is "the" man for sight casting to tailing "reds".   Yes, that is available here in MHC, but maximum of 2 anglers, ideally 1 angler.

When Ken is not in the marsh over the next few weeks, he will be chasing alberts and those big Spanish mackerall that they're catching on the shoals.  For that, he'll be running my 23' Parker.

Fishing out of MHC and the Crystal Coast is cranking up.

Double digits and dates still available

Puppy drum fishing has improved, also trout are starting to bite and there are as many stripers around as I've ever seen on the lower Neuse, perhaps because of a lot of  the water coming down from New Bern.   Something else is going on also, apparently an amazing spawn in 2014 on the Roanoke River/Albemarle Sound.   To the north of us on the Albemarle Sound these 10-16 inch stripers are abundant in biblical numbers and they are overflowing their range into the Pamlico River through the ICW and across the Pamlico Sound from the eastern Albemarle.    In 20 years of guiding I have caught more striped bass in the lower Neuse than all previous years combined.   Coupled with an equally epic 2015 spawn of red drum, every stop is covered up with 14-17 inch puppy drum who just had their first birthday and by next year, they will be in the slot. 

Oh, the big drum, yeah, Greg had a double digit day yesterday and the 6 that we caught came within an hour, so yes, they are still around and biting a lot better now that we're away from that full moon.   As long as the water temps stay in the 70's, there should be a great opportunity for catching a giant through the next couple of weeks.    Greg, Jennings and Ray have openings on the lower Neuse and Joe and Mitchell will be running more on the upper end.

Also a reminder that striper season opens Oct. 1.......I think.   

yes, there are still some big drum around

and the afternoon bite should be getting better as we get further away from this big moon.

Never caught a dinosour before

Huge black drum on a mini rod

Another successful corporate trip by Down East Guide Service

George,

I must say, we have done a wide array of company outings over the years, but the week we spent in Oriental was one that will not be forgotten anytime soon.  We had over 20 different guests filter through the 5 days we spent fishing with you and your guys, and I think all of them will be receiving citations.  Greg, Jennings, Justin, Timmy, Joe, and yourself worked hard everyday to put our guys on fish.  The captains were first class, the fishing was great, and the service was out of this world.  Your business has truly offered one stop shopping for me, and the package you put together for our business was top shelf all week.  I will be following this up in the coming weeks to set up a larger group trip next year, but wanted to thank you for the memories you and your guys facilitated for our guests.  World class fishing with a world class outfit!

All the best,

RH

Love a nor'easter

Not very good for corks, but good for the meat-heads

From Justin, this was a quad of pups, fastest boat limit ever.

From Team OPEX

Thanks for everything. The week was exceptional. Your crew of Captains got our guest on the fish. It was not always easy but I think every guest caught atleast 1, so thank you!!!! Here are a few pics

It ain't always easy

They really must be bunched up somewhere, but not  where we've been fishing the last few days.   We've been catching a few everywhere, but not the double digits that we were consistently catching last week.   With a big group and a lot of guides fishing the next couple of days, someone is going to land on them.  The big gathering is upon us and we are tired of picking at the edges. Some epic days are approaching. 

Albies fired off at the coast!

That's right, really good albie blitz at the coast.   Capt. Chris has been splitting his time between there and harassing our drummies.   These are some more pics from Justin's drum trip yesterday. 

The names have been changed to protect the guilty

 

Live report from Capt. Justin Haddock

Three and counting by 8:30 am 

Justin later yesterday afternoon

Like a bunch of bananas fell into the boat

After Justin and Mitch's great start to the day yesterday, it was like someone dropped a bunch of bananas in their boats and the bite slowed.  I guess that's what happens when live reports are posted.  These are from MItch over the last couple of days.

Capt. Mitch says right back at you

Mitch is getting the little ones and the big ones also.  Looks like today is going pretty good.  

Twenty minutes into it.

After 20 minutes this is what Justin had in the cooler......then he got spooled on a "mini rod"

 So he upgrades the tackle a little and this is the result.   Not a bad way to start the day.

Capt. Ray No Doubt

George,

 I’ve been drafting this email in my head ever since my feet hit the dock after we stepped off the No Doubt yesterday. I often find myself sitting at my computer reading fishing reports you post on DEGS and dreaming about having a day out with one of your guides that is half as good as what I’m reading. We have fished with Ray before a few years back and knew we wanted another run at drum with him. All my worrying and dreaming was for nothing because there is No Doubt that on Tuesday Captain Ray put us on em.

I haven’t had the pleasure of fishing with any of your other guides but I can’t imagine anyone works as hard as Ray Massengill. There is absolutely no quit in that man. We pushed off at 7 am knowing that we’d have to cut things a bit short at 5 pm and be back at the dock..... We fished hard and by 11:15 we only had two drum in the boat. 

Let me say that I could have gone home happy at that point and I didn’t even have the fun of reeling one of those in. You hear a lot of people say that after 11 the bite turns off with the heat of the day and as time ticked by I wondered if we had gotten all the fish Gods had in store for us that day, but Ray got word over the radio that a school of menhaden were on the surface so he asked if we minded taking a ride a couple miles so he could net some. 

We happily obliged and knew that there would be an opportunity to run poppin corks through the bait balls to entice a bite. No dice on the poppin corks, but two throws with the cast net and Ray had more bait than 5 boats would have needed. 

Once again, Ray’s character shined through as he called Greg on the radio and gave him a bucket full. All of your guides seem to work great together. 

Ray doesn’t have much patience for a lack of action. I can’t tell you how many times he said we’d fish for 30 minutes only to sit on a spot for 15 minutes before Ray had us moving to find the bite. At around 2pm, in the heat of the day, when the drum supposedly aren’t as active and the bite isn’t supposed to be good, Captain Ray made it happen!   We caught (double digits)  between 2 and 5pm. We had 3 doubles. What a rush.  Ray never slowed down. All while we were reeling fish in he was baiting and re-baiting in hopes of “burning there ass up”. We left them biting for the evening crowd as we trekked back to the marina. No Doubt yesterday was the best day of fishing any of us could have hoped to have. Ray has nothing but good things to say about both you and Anna and DEGS. I hope to join you down in Costa Rica in the next few years1

 Best,

Jason  

Capt. Ray video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyW7TvcP56A&feature=youtu.be

It has been very good when you land on them.   I had two anglers today who are very tired.  5 on at one time.  Yes, we had a double digit day.

George

Finally, I took a few pics

 This big snook is from Costa Rica and happy to be released from my camera to the web.













Not all the big drum and tarpon that get hit by sharks end up as a meal, often the shark is stuck with a face full of scales stuck on their teeth and the drum gets away with scars to tell the story.  Here are a couple of examples from this week.

 

George,

           I want to thank you once again for a great day. I want to tell you ,that after fishing with you for at least fifteen years, how much I appreciate what you do. Thank you for time, effort, and hard work that you put in to each trip that you have provided for me and my children. I remember starting on the Roanoke River fishing with my son for stripers and catching over a hundred fish, then taking him and our oldest daughter and catching stripers, then in June for a mixed bag of fish from Oriental.  Then there were years that I brought my son and dad down and we were not able to get out. . Not only have you worked hard but you have also kept us safe, thank you again. Yesterday was an exceptional day, twenty five plus pups and those pesky big old drum not leaving the bow rods alone.  A double digit day on big old drum and we weren't even looking for them. What a day! We were all exhausted last night, thanks again. It's easy to be happy when you have a day like that, but appreciation comes from watching you work. It comes from knowing that you have our best interest in mind whether it is big fish or smaller fish, or directing someone who has a young child to fish for stripers that first year instead of giant red drum. I believe that people are put in to your life for a reason, " of divine intervention", you'll understand that. I consider you a friend for all that you have done. I hope that your other parties appreciate, pay attention and notice all that you do. I am sending you a few pics, if you want more let me know.  I look forward to fishing with you again. Oh, one last thing you actually taught me how to catch specks, that first year you wore me out catching stripers on the Roanoke River so I learned how to snatch a grub off the bottom a feel the bite on the fall. The pups yesterday afternoon were picking up the lead heads and moving towards us that's why we were missing them. Thanks again God bless and tight lines.

Barry

Jake Jordan Report

Greetings from Havelock NC: 

    Many times people ask me why I left the Florida Keys after five decades to move to North Carolina? Also many of my friends ask what I do the rest of the time when I am not fly fishing around the world for Tarpon, Sailfish, Marlin, and other big fish species? Well the answer to both questions is easy for me, I come home to eastern North Carolina, home of the best fishing that I know of and the best place to live here in this awesome country, The United States of America. Happy Labor Day to all of my great clients, friends, and family, I am truly a blessed Man.

                           My Buddy George Beckwith releasing one of my big Drum caught today

This weekend my friend Wanda Hair Taylor from TFO Rods came over to enjoy dome of our awesome Drum fly fishing. Unfortunately between tropical storm #8 and "Hurricane Hermine" the fly fishing conditions were not very good to say the least. Finally after trying with out success to catch some drum on fly my buddy George Beckwith came to the rescue. Wanda and I met George (Down East Guide Service) Beckwith at his dock, at 11:00 AM this morning, boarded his vessel and headed out to find some Drum. Now you may know that I am a fly fisherman, as is Wanda, However TFO, the company which we represent makes all types of high quality fishing rods, so we decided to test out a few of the TFO (Gary Loomis designed) spinning rods. Most of the time when I fish, there are large fish on light tackle involved, today was no exception. George did a great job putting us on the targeted species, we fished for five hours, caught our limit of "puppy drum: (Redfish under 30 inches), and caught more than a Dozen of the Giants (up to 50 pounds). Here are a couple of pictures from today, no wonder I love my Job! More pictures and reports to follow. Regards

Jake

Three sets of doubles today

Wanda releasing one of the big Reds she caught today!