Live Rock Cafe

Live-bottom areas can provide good offshore fishing during July, but if the bite is slow, anglers need a Plan B.

When July’s heat and humidity drop across the Carolinas like a wool blanket, anglers don’t have to go far off “the hill” to find good big-game fishing.King mackerels live in N.C. waters the entire year. What keeps Carolinas kings attached to N.C and S.C. waters are baitfish, reefs, wrecks and comfortable water temperatures.

Kings don’t like water that’s extremely warm, preferring temperatures in the 68- to 85-degree range. That temperature range exists not too far off the N.C. coast, even during July — and plenty of game fish lurk there.

Mike Wells, a Raleigh resident and fishing guide (Intimidator Sportfishing Charters, 919-422-5280, www.bigkings.net), uses southeastern N.C. ports such as those at Oak Island, Southport or the Ocean Isle public ramp underneath the Intracoastal Waterway Bridge near Ocean Isle Fishing Center. July is a favorite time to meet clients at one of those ramps and head to nearshore “live-bottom” areas. With current high fuel prices, shorter trips are welcome.

But sometimes, kings don’t cruise Wells’ favorite live-bottom mackerel haunts. But he has a backup plan, as do a number of veteran southeastern N.C. skippers.

That secondary solution basically comes down to having a map that shows nearshore reefs and wrecks. Those areas usually hold baitfish and game fish, even when action at live-bottom areas is slow.

“We’re going to the 390/390 first, which is about 10 miles off Little River Inlet (S.C.),” said Wells prior to a recent excursion. “That’s where the King of the Cape tournament-winning king mackerel (42 pounds) was caught by Toby Russ aboard the Mr. Goodhands (in 2003).”

Wells said the 390/390 is usually a good mid-summer spot for kings because it has bottom structure conducive to holding baitfish.

“This time of year is when a lot of fish come (closer to shore),” said Wells, who owns a 31-foot Contender, the Intimidator, powered by twin 250-horsepower Yamaha engines. “It usually fires off late in the summer, and it’s also a good fall spot to catch big king mackerel. During September, October and November, this place can be on fire.”

The 390/390 is a live-bottom area, as opposed to a “hard-bottom” spot. Wells explained the difference, although it’s a little complicated.

“Live bottom has (marine) growth and different types of structure that hold baitfish that king mackerel like to eat,” he said.

Live bottom can be naturally-growing coral colonies or rocks with coral and other undersea flora.

Hard bottom, on the other hand, can be rock or something else that doesn’t have live growth. It also could be hard sand or mud, so there’s little attraction for baitfish. There’s nothing to eat and no place to hide. So there’s no reason to expect game fish, like kings, to be at hard-bottom areas because usually they won’t have concentrations of baitfish.”

The other main near-shore bottom structures off the southeastern coast include wrecks (sunken ships, some from as long ago as the Civil War or World War II) and artificial reefs. Artificial reefs also may include deliberately-scuttled Liberty ships or tug boats. They often form the basis of N.C. and S.C.’s artificial reefs (see http://www.ncfisheries.net/reefs/index.html). Many of these reefs have been enhanced by concrete pipe or reef balls put in place by N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries and S.C.’s Departmet of Natural Resources with help from local saltwater clubs.

These AR (artificial reef) structures provide a surface on which coral and other plants can grow. Small baitfish seek out such places for safety and as feeding grounds (they eat the small plants growing on the structures). The reefs act as magnets, attracting predatory game fish such as king mackerel, cobia, barracudas, red drum, flounder and Spanish mackerel.

The 390/390 is actually a local abbreviated name for the Loran numbers that intersect at this stretch of ocean about 8 miles south from the middle of Ocean Isle Beach. The actual Loran setting is 45390/59390, but local anglers don’t include the first two numbers when talking about this area.

“The thing to remember about maps (and Loran numbers) is they don’t mark an entire area of live bottom,” said Jerry Dilsaver, an Oak Island angler who also is a writer for North Carolina Sportsman, its special-events coordinator and a former Southern Kingfish Association national champion. “Maps may show specific wrecks or reefs but not specific live bottoms. When Bob Black (another southeastern captain) and I fish the 15-Mile Rock, he may be a mile from where I’m fishing. But he feels more comfortable in his area, while I’m more comfortable at mine.”

Dilsaver said his approach to fishing at a live-bottom area is to fish its edges first, then slowly circle toward its center until he sees bait pods on his fish-finder.

“If I see a pretty good ledge with my fish-finder, I’ll look for bait pods and mark them with my ‘man overboard’ (a GPS feature that saves in its memory the location so boaters easily can return to the same spot),” he said.

“Ledges” (as opposed to “edges”) are uneven stretches of bottom contour that alter currents and hold baitfish — which means game fish are likely to be nearby. A live-bottom ledge can vary from 2 to 12 feet in depth.

Hard bottom reveals itself on a depth-finder screen as a thin straight line. A rock bottom shows as a thicker line, Dilsaver said.

“Bait pods tend to linger longer above rocks than they do above bare sand,” he said.

The key to fishing live-bottom areas is simple but not easy — anglers must put in time to learn such areas.

“Everybody does it a little differently,” Dilsaver said. “You have to spend time out there, enough time to find spots that hold fish. It’s not something that’s done or learned overnight.”

Other area spots are also productive.

“The 410/510 (45410/59510) is another good place with lots of good live bottom that holds baitfish most of the time and usually has kings,” Wells said. “It’s also close to the beach (about 8 miles south/southeast of Little River Inlet). It’s another good area to fish in the late fall, too.”

Since he didn’t know exactly what kind of fish he’d encounter, Wells had rigged his rods to be versatile — they could handle just about any denizen of the deep except a mature bluefin tuna or a big blue marlin.

He uses 7-foot live-bait rods fitted with Shimano Speedmasters and Penn 545 reels spooled with 17-pound-test Cajun Red Lightning 1716 monofilament. Wells’ reels are high speed 6-to-1 retrieval ratio models (which can help get a king mackerel that’s melted 200 yards of line off a reel back to the boat in a reasonable length of time).

His terminal tackle includes standard “pogey” (menhaden) rigs, with 4X strong bronze (774) or silver (776) treble hooks as trailers. Wells likes Mustad No. 1 or 2 nose hooks connected to the “stinger” or trailer hooks by No. 4 or 5 wire.

“I go up to No. 5 wire in the fall because the kings usually are a little bigger,” he said.

“I like to use bronze hook colors for pulling pogies, and silver hooks when I’m pulling a ribbonfish. The silver hooks in the side of a ribbonfish (which also is silver-colored) make these hooks almost invisible.”

Wells, who is a king mackerel tournament angler, looks for every edge he can get when he’s hunting big fish. Kings, most anglers believe, have extremely good eyesight, and tourney competitors try many tactics to make lines and terminal tackle as invisible as possible. A tackle-shy king often will break off a charge at a trolled bait if it sees anything that doesn’t look natural — such as a shiny swivel, visible leader or glistening hooks.

Wells’ swivels (stainless steel No. 10 size) are black.

Wells also likes to use “skirts” while trolling pogies for kings.

“I’ve been using Cape Lookout mylar skirts with green glow beads,” he said. “It makes the baits look bigger.”

Drag settings of reels (king anglers almost always use bait-caster-type reels) are extremely important.

One would think with a fish that can weigh nearly 50 pounds and moves through the water like a torpedo, a heavy drag would be the ticket, but just the opposite is true. Drags are set as lightly as possible because of the way kings attack baits and their ability to empty a fully-spooled reel.

If a captain trolling live baits or artificial lures uses heavy drag settings, the head-first, toothy charge of a king likely will snap the line every time or the hooks will pull free from the king’s mouth or the side of its face. Sometimes kings hit surface baits so hard they clear the water like a Trident missile, launching 5 to 10 feet into the air.

So captains place rods in holders. When a king smacks a lure or bait, it hooks itself with the terminal tackle trebles and is able to take out line from a light-drag reel. Holding a rod in one’s hand during a king mackerel attack is an invitation to have the tackle jerked overboard or ruin a good hookset.

“My drags are set at 3 pounds (pull),” Wells said, “which is fairly light. You want the fish to run with the bait after it hits. The star drags on these reels allow you to adjust the drag while you’re fighting a fish, but the best idea is to not touch the drag. You might tighten it just a bit when you get a worn-out king to the boat, but even then, if he makes a sudden jerk, the hooks can pull (out of the fish).”

A big king mackerel can be landed with light drag settings that allow the fish to “run” without pulling the hooks.

The pump-and-reel technique of regaining line is the best way to land a king. The angler simply holds the reel handle steady then raises the rod tip to vertical. Then, he drops the rod tip quickly while cranking the reel handle to regain line. Then the process — pump up, reel down — is repeated to bring the fish toward the boat. Novice anglers often crank a reel handle without pumping, but with a light drag setting, they’re not regaining line but instead are just wearing out their cranking arm.

Another southeastern area guide, Richard “Dicky” Flick (Get Reel Charter Service, www.getreelfishingcharters.com, 910-278-9322 or 910-294-2004), also tries live-bottom areas. But if they don’t produce fish quickly, he often heads to nearby reefs or wrecks.

“It’s not like you’re giving up on king mackerels, although you’re likely to catch other fish (at wrecks or reefs),” he said. “But when it’s slow, yeah, we might go to an artificial reef or a wreck and see what’s happening.

“You basically troll around the wreck. You can pick up kings, amberjacks, barracudas and other fish. The reefs and wrecks usually will hold baitfish, and that means there’ll be some bigger fish, too.”

During late July 2004, Flick had three female anglers aboard his former boat, and they were fishing near the General Sherman wreck, a former blockade runner sunk in 1874 a few miles off Little River Inlet, S.C. Local anglers have renamed the ship the Robert E. Lee.

Barbara Vickery, Tammy Powers and Buffy Canterbury landed a couple of king mackerel near the Sherman/Lee wreck, and also had great fun with ravenous amberjacks. Flick, with his boat drifting across the sunken ship, tossed stunned baitfish over the side to get the amberjacks in a feeding frenzy, then his anglers cast baited hooks into the melee. Hookups with fish were almost instantaneous.

“These girls never had been fishing like this,” he said. “One of the AJs skidded a girl across the deck. It was a hoot.”

Flick, who now docks his 44-foot Henriques Get Reel sportfisherman at South Harbor Village on the mainland across from Oak Island, said he also makes regular summer trips to Frying Pan Tower, a former Coast Guard station scheduled several years ago for demolition but which still stands above water about 44 miles southeast of the Cape Fear River’s mouth.

“I’ll use Sabiki rigs to jig up ‘hardtails’ (also called blue runners), or we’ll jig up cigar minnows,” he said. “Then we drop ’em down to the fish.

“Kings and amberjacks are real fond of cigar minnows. We also jig cigar minnows at the Knuckle Buoy (about the midpoint of Frying Pan Shoals). But the cigar minnows really stack up at the (Frying Pan) Tower.

“The idea is to use baits the kings and other fish are eating.”

Another favorite spot, if anglers want to catch big red grouper in the summer, is the Raritan Wreck, Flick said.

“It’s 20 or so miles out Lockwood Folly (Inlet) and inshore of the Horseshoe (another live-bottom area),” Flick said. “If we go to the Gulf Stream (about 30 miles offshore), we catch wahoo and dolphins.”

Flick said the Blackjack Hole and Ennis Wrecks are other good offshore spots.

“During July, the water temperature is usually about 78 degrees at these places,” he said. “And that’s a good temperature for king mackerels. We also usually free line a menhaden at the wrecks; you can catch cobias or kings with them. The amberjacks love hardtails. Trolling dead cigar minnows around the wrecks also will catch fish.

“The Ennis also is a really good summertime spot.”

The weather can be hot during July, but anglers can find some really cool fishing off the southeastern coast if they’ll switch from live bottoms to reefs and wrecks when Plan A doesn’t work.