Saltwater Series: Atlantic Beach

Saltwater Series: Atlantic Beach, Morehead City are a gateway to some of North Carolina’s best fishing

Atlantic Beach and Morehead City have been favorite fishing destinations for many North Carolina fishermen for many years. Atlantic Beach is the eastern end of Bogue Banks and has an ocean beach, while Morehead City is located across the Intracoastal Waterway and Bogue Sound on the mainland. The bounty of fish caught in the waters here is legendary, and most years something is ready to stretch a curious angler’s string all year.

Many fishermen consider this area a gateway to the Atlantic Ocean and, no doubt, it serves that purpose well; passing Cape Lookout with access to the world famous Big Rock. However, it is also an exceptional location for a wide variety of inshore opportunities. One fall, when their championship was held in conjunction with the N.C. Seafood Festival in Morehead City, several the competitors in a now-defunct redfish tournament trail said the fishing was as good as anywhere they’d been. Flounder, speckled trout, gray trout, red drum and numerous other species are found in the inshore waters here.

The area has an incredible amount of water for fish to find suitable habitat. The Atlantic Ocean is the southern boundary, while Bogue Sound is the west end. The Intracoastal Waterway, with Spooners and Pelletier creeks is the inland boundary for about half of its length, but when the ICW bends around Morehead City, this opens to include the Newport River marshes – or “Haystacks,” as many fishermen refer to them – the Newport River and Core Creek. The eastern boundary is the edge of Back Sound and Taylors Creek between Beaufort and Shackleford Banks.

Maybe not all roads lead to Atlantic Beach, but it isn’t difficult to get there. US

70 crosses all of North Carolina’s interstate highways as it works its way from the Appalachian Mountains to its seaside terminus at Atlantic. In doing so, it passes through or near all the larger cities except Charlotte heading seaward through Morehead City. NC 24 runs east from Charlotte, crossing I-95 and I-40 en route to its junction with US 70 at Morehead City. Along the way, NC 24 and US 70 intersect with enough highways that anyone wanting to head to Morehead City or Atlantic Beach to do some fishing shouldn’t have difficulty planning a route.

Capt. Matt Lamb (252-240-FISH) didn’t grow up in Carteret County, but he grew up fishing. Lamb spent his childhood in the Greensboro area and fished most weekends with his father, Ray. During his teens, they began pairing up for bass tournaments, and the die was cast.

Upon graduation from high school, Lamb headed to Wilmington and the boat building and marine mechanic curriculums at Cape Fear Community College. While working his way through these programs, he became addicted to saltwater fishing. This soon led to acquiring his captain’s license and beginning to guide.

Lamb relocated to Atlantic Beach and is fitting in just fine. After guiding for a few years, the opportunity to open Chasin’ Tails Outdoors on the Atlantic Beach Causeway presented itself, and the rest is history. Lamb still charters as his time allows, but between running the store and fishing the Redfish Action and Inshore Fishing Association (IFA) Redfish Tours, he stays pretty busy. His dad has learned to catch redfish and still partners with him for the tournaments – and they still do well. They practice at many of the locations listed below.

1 – Core Creek Bay 1

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“This little bay is one of my favorite spots to fish,” Lamb said. “You have to be careful leaving the waterway to get in, but after that there is enough water to move around for most of the falling tide. Most of what I catch in here is redfish; they are here as soon as the water warms a little in the spring, and stay until the water gets cold late in the fall.”

Lamb said he caught enough flounder in this bay that he is no longer surprised when one bites, and he sometimes even catches a few trout. Reds and flounder can be around at any tide, but this is shallow water, and any trout that might be there starts moving out as soon as the tide begins falling.

Lamb said fish will spook if approached too quickly, but they will usually hit almost any bait. The bay is fairly well-protected from the winds and is a good spot to work topwater lures and see crashing strikes. Berkley Gulp! shrimp are a favorite, but they and real shrimp are pecked badly by bait thieves trying to be more aggressive than the larger fish and steal a meal.

2 – Core Creek Bay 2

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“This bay is shallow enough the fish will spook if you aren’t careful,” Lamb said. “Two boats is about all it can handle, and they have to be willing to work together. There may be a few flounder in it occasionally, but it is a good place to catch redfish.”

Lamb said as soon as the tide rises enough for them to get across it, redfish move into this bay to feed. It is shallow and has a mainly oyster bottom and there must be crabs shrimp and minnows. While the first bay is protected from summer breezes, this one is more protected from fall breezes. With good positioning, it is possible to fish almost the entire bay on a drift and never pole or use the trolling motor.

Early in the day and when conditions permit, a topwater bait worked aggressively across this bay will draw violent strikes. Spoons and Berkley Gulp! baits can be fished across the bottom, but using a very light jighead is a must. With too heavy a jighead, the bait will snag in the oysters and stay hung up.

3 – Creek North Corner of Haystacks

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“This is primarily a trout spot,” Lamb said. “You will occasionally catch some redfish and maybe a flounder, but this is a spot to catch trout and it is at its best during the fall.”

Trout gather near the mouth of the creek and move into it and then back out as the tide falls. The falling tide sweeps lots of baitfish and shrimp out of the marsh and down the creek to the ICW. Lamb said to approach it cautiously and fish ahead of yourself before entering to avoid possibly spooking a school of fish.

“This is a great place to fish a Gulp! shrimp,” Lamb said. “I put it on an eighth-ounce jighead, cast it upcurrent and fish it as it sweeps back down the current to and by me. This is a natural bait for this area and is what the trout are gathering to eat. My favorite color here is new penny.”

Lamb said a small oyster rock just inside the creek that becomes more prominent as the tide falls. Many strikes come just as the bait moves past it and drops into a little deeper water.

4 — Point in Haystacks

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“This is one of many little marsh points in the Haystacks,” Lamb said. “It usually gives up a few fish, and in the fall of 2010, it seemed like there was always a school of fish within a hundred yards or so on one side or the other.

“This is a place I like to begin fishing on the high tide and work the falling tide. Many times, the fish stay here through the entire falling tide and just move a little farther away from the grass and out into deeper water.”

Lamb said this is a spot to catch trout and redfish, and not to be surprised by the occasional flounder. The falling tide sweeps baitfish and shrimp down the marsh, and it is often simply a matter of finding which side of the point they are on on a given day. Reds and flounder may be around during the summer, but the trout numbers are typically pretty slim until the water begins cooling in the fall.

Lamb said this is another spot he usually does well with a Gulp! shrimp and thinks he can cover ground to find fish a little quicker with the artificial bait. Many fishermen preferred live shrimp and mud minnows, but he cautions that as long as the water is warm, the many small bait thieves often beat the preferred fish to live shrimp. They don’t seem to be as attracted to mud minnows, which often last longer.

5 – Creek in Haystacks

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“The great thing about the Haystacks is all the potentially good spots for catching fish,” Lamb said. “If you get there and someone is in your preferred spot, there is no need to crowd them and possibly ruin the fishing for both of you. You can simply ease down the creek, and it won’t be long before another point, creek or oyster bar presents itself.”

Lamb said this little creek drains into the main channel heading into the Haystacks on the Radio Island Bridge side, and it gets a lot of pressure. He said it was surprising how well it produces, especially since it is so well-known. He said the ticket to fishing it is getting there a little before the tide begins falling and fishing it through the falling tide.

Lamb said this creek drains baitfish and shrimp from the inner marshes and attracts flounder and drum during the warmer months – and then trout in the fall. He likes to bounce a Gulp! shrimp across the bottom slowly with the tide, but many fishermen also drift live shrimp under a cork or fish mud minnows on Carolina rigs on the bottom.

6 – Radio Island Trestle

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“The Radio Island train trestle is a special place to fish,” Lamb said. “There are multiple species that hang out here, and fishing all the way through a tide will let you catch many of them. The fishing starts early in the spring when the first gray trout and bluefish come into the Morehead City turning basin, and in a warm fall there could still be fish in December.”

Lamb typically targets large gray trout at the trestle, but he also catches flounder, sea mullet, speckled trout, bluefish, black drum and sheepshead. He said there is a short lull in the current as the tide switches, and this is a window to get live shrimp to the bottom for the big grays. Once the tide begins running again, the bait will get swept away too quickly, and the grays won’t get to it. With a 1-fish limit on gray trout, this is a good place to be on the slack tide to catch a nice one.

“Once the tide starts moving, the current rips by the trestle,” Lamb said. “I use a 1- to 2-ounce egg sinker on a Carolina rig to get my live bait down to the bottom. At the point the tide is running fast enough that much weight is drifting bad, the time to catch the big grays has ended. You can still catch flounder, specks, blues, sheepshead and more with the bait drifting, so there’s no need to leave, but the window for those big grays is closed until the next slack tide.”

Lamb said there is plenty of structure on the bottom; be prepared to lose rigs. Mud minnows on a Carolina rig should last a little longer and attract the flounder and everything except sheepshead. Lamb said it can be a little intimidating, but some of the best fishing around the trestle is often at night.

Sheepshead preferred fiddler crabs and the small green crabs found on many docks. Lamb fishes them on lighter Carolina rigs, with small, strong, sharp hooks. The sheepshead feed on the barnacles on the pilings, so the fiddler crab must be dropped down beside a piling and held right against it and out of the current.

7 – Pilot Boat Dock-Radio Island

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“The Pilot Boat Dock is much like the Radio Island Trestle except it doesn’t have as much old structure laying on the bottom,” Lamb said. “These two spots are very close and in the flow of all the water that runs into and out of the Haystacks, Newport River and Core Creek. The Pilot Boat Dock is a few hundred yards closer to the (Beaufort) inlet and a little closer to the bank, but the current still runs by strongly.”

Lamb said the dock is a good place to catch gray trout, flounder, sea mullet, speckled trout, bluefish and sheepshead – just like the trestle. He feels like the dock is a little easier to fish, because the area isn’t as restricted as between the trestle and Radio Island Bridge. At the dock, it is also possible to drift by and keep a line close to the dock and vertical, so it doesn’t pull up or move too quickly.

Lamb said sheepshead can be hanging on any piling, and it’s just a matter of taking the time to find them. The gray trout and sea mullet are usually in the deeper water just off the end, while specks will be using the dock to break the current and as an ambush point to dart out and grab dinner. Flounder may be anywhere from shallow to deep, but they seem to prefer to stay on the slope of the bank from Radio Island into the turning basin. Bluefish can be fun at first, but they sometimes seem to be everywhere and ready to eat anything, so they can be a real nuisance when trying to target other fish.

8 – State Port Wall

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The wall at the State Port is a fixture of Morehead City and Atlantic Beach fishing and will continue to be. It is a spot that has something to offer at almost any time of the year and includes a variety of fish: black drum, flounder, gray trout, king mackerel, sea mullet, sheepshead, spots and tautog.

“It seems like at some time of the year almost everything bites at the State Port Wall,” Lamb said. “The king mackerel that are caught there get everyone’s attention, but they are just feeding and following bait and come through the inlet.”

Lamb said tautog are the prime winter fish along the wall, but there are also some black drum and sheepshead. The black drum and sheepshead stay through much of the year and are joined first in the spring by sea mullet and gray trout.

“When the sea mullet and gray trout arrive in the spring, it is a great sign to everyone the fishing is about to begin for another year,” Lamb said. “Usually the mullet are first and the grays are a couple of weeks later. The mullet bite best on speck rigs and double-drop bottom rigs baited with a small piece of the freshest shrimp possible. You’ll catch a few grays on this, but they typically prefer vertical-jigging metal lures like the Sea Striker Jig Fish and Stingsilvers.”

Lamb said the flounder often hold right against the wall, and fishing several feet from it would draw far fewer strikes. The flounder like live mud and mullet minnows, and Carolina rigs are the preferred rig of the fishermen.

Spots are a fall fish and a favorite of many fishermen. They come past the wall in schools and head down the ICW. Lamb said the typical spot rig is a double-drop bottom rig, and either bloodworms or the FishBites synthetic bloodworms are the preferred baits.

9 – Atlantic Beach Bridge

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“The Atlantic Beach Bridge is a place many fishermen overlook, and that is a mistake,” Lamb said. “In their haste to get somewhere else, they speed right on by, even when they see a boat or two fishing here. This is a spot that has the structure and current breaks of the existing bridge and spread rubble and piles from the old bridge that used to be just to the west.”

Lamb said the south end of the bridge is his favorite, and it holds flounder, gray trout, speckled trout, sheepshead, black drum and bluefish. He said bluefish can sometimes be a problem as they hover above other fish and ravage baits intended for the fish below. Still, that isn’t all bad.

Flounder can sometimes be difficult to find. They may be anywhere from immediately alongside the bridge supports to 30 yards over in the rubble left from the former bridge. Trout and black drum may also hit live minnows, but live shrimp is generally considered a better bait. Gray trout arrive in the spring, then give way to flounder and specks, with specks being around longest in the fall.

10 – Hoop Pole Creek Mouth Point

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Hoop Pole Creek has a great reputation for producing flounder, redfish and speckled trout. It is a rare combination of flats, bays, holes, oyster rocks and marsh islands channeled from the ICW to the sound side of Atlantic Beach. Lamb said the potential for good fishing there begins as soon as you reach the first of the marsh islands at the entrance.

“The broken marsh of Hoop Pole Creek allows for free exchange of bait moving up and down the sound from near the Atlantic Beach Bridge to Bogue Banks,” Lamb said. “You can catch fish in Hoop Pole Creek with artificial baits, but there is so much live bait moving through it on every tide that many fishermen prefer to use live baits.”

Lamb suggests working the edges of the marsh islands for flounder and reds. Trout will seek the deeper holes and hide there, waiting for baitfish and shrimp to be swept past in the current. He suggests Gulp! baits on light jigheads for fishermen who prefer artificials. His personal favorite of the Gulp! baits is the 3-inch shrimp in new penny, with white being a close second as far as his favorite color.

Jerry Dilsaver, a former SKA national champion and USAA Angler of the Year, is a full-time freelance writer based out of Oak Island.