Saltwater Series: Topsail Island

Topsail Beach offers great off-the-beaten-path fishing spots for North Carolina anglers

Topsail Island is one of those spots along the North Carolina coast that is a little off the beaten path but close to larger, more developed areas. Sandwiched between the hustle and bustle of Wrightsville Beach and the U.S. Marine Corps training facility at Camp Lejeune, the waters around Topsail Island offer a variety of options for fishermen.

Topsail Island isn’t often mentioned as a premiere fishing destination, but those who know of its fine fishing often smile when it is omitted from fishing conversations. There is a question of whether a lot of fishermen know of it — or if those who do are quiet in an effort to keep it to themselves.

Getting to Topsail is a matter of heading toward somewhere else and then making a turn. NC 50 runs from Raleigh to Surf City in the center of the island and NC 210 runs from Fayetteville to connect the two bridges giving access to the island, but they are typically the end routes to getting there. Most inland fishermen travel either I-40 toward Wilmington then turn left, or take US 70 toward Morehead City and turn right to get to Topsail Island.

Topsail Island is divided into two counties and three towns at a point in Onslow Bay where the beach is transitioning from facing east to facing south. Topsail Beach is at the southern end of the island and is bordered on the south by New Topsail Inlet. Surf City is in the middle of the island, and North Topsail Beach is on the northern end and is bordered by New River Inlet. Topsail Beach and Surf City are in Pender County, while North Topsail Beach is in Onslow County. The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway runs the length of the island and is its inland boundary.

New Topsail Inlet is the funnel that drains and replenishes a series of marshes and bays from below the southern end of the island to roughly Surf City. New River Inlet also drains and replenishes miles of marshes and bays, but from Surf City to the north. New River is a unique river on its own as it begins and ends in Onslow County and divides Camp Lejeune, Camp Gieger and Marine Corps Air Station New River as it runs from Jacksonville to the ocean. Both are small, shallow inlets that require caution when navigating.

Three N.C. Wildlife Commission boat ramps and one public pay ramp on Topsail Island serve the area. The wildlife ramps are on the ICW at Soundside Park beside the NC 50/210 bridge in Surf City and under the NC 210 Bridge at the north end of the island, plus on the New River at Fulcher’s Landing in Sneads Ferry. The fee ramp is operated by the town of Topsail Beach and is at the City Marina beside the water tower in Topsail Beach. Several private ramps are on the mainland along the ICW, and a public ramp is planned for the Hampstead area.

Capt. Stuart “Stu” Caulder of Gold Leader Fishing is a native of Wilmington who changed careers 10 years ago — from a commercial grouper and king mackerel fishermen to an inshore and nearshore guide. He has refined his approach and developed tactics geared to the success of his clients on all of the species of fish that live in the Topsail area. His observations on this area are based on his fishing experience.

“This spot gets fished a lot from spring through fall, but it usually holds some drum.” Caulder said. “It’s a spot I like to fish, but I have to be able to get here early, before anyone else. My preferred time to fish here is the last two hours of the falling tide. That’s when all the baitfish have to come out of the marsh into the channels, and the fish are waiting for them.”

Caulder said this spot also holds some flounder and is known to have some big bluefish early in the spring and again sometimes late in the fall. He always begins by concentrating on the north bank and rarely has to look elsewhere. Because this spot is well-known and fished often, fish have seen most lures many times, so it’s a spot where you will usually do better using live bait.

Because of its proximity to Rich Inlet, this area is prone to extreme tides, especially around the full and new moons, according to Caulder, who said drum will move up in the grass on those high tides, making it a good time to fish.

Rich Inlet is not marked, but most locals run it regularly. Caulder said he would not advise running the shallow inlet unless you are very comfortable reading the water. Anytime when the the ocean is calm enough to fish here, it would be just as easy to run up the beach from Masonboro Inlet at Wrightsville Beach or down the beach from New Topsail Inlet.

“You need to be careful fishing in the surf from a boat,” Caulder said. “Keep one person on the wheel and looking around at all times, and keep the nose of the boat pointed out. If a little larger wave catches you close to shore, you can handle it much better facing it with your bow than allowing it to dump water over your stern.

“This is a fall, winter and spring drum spot,” Caulder said. “Once the water cools around Thanksgiving, there will usually be a school or two of drum feeding in the slough between the bars just off the beach until the spring. It has to be calm to fish here. In addition to needing to bring the boat within casting distance of the fish in the surf, you locate the fish by seeing them in the waves. There is just too much area to cover to rely on finding them by blind casting.”

Caulder said he rigs paddletail and split-tail DOA soft plastics to fish here and uses heavier jigheads than he would inside the inlet. The heavier jig heads help add distance to your casts, he said, and there are days when 10 to 15 feet in casting distance is the difference between catching drum and watching drum swim past.

Fish are active early, but in the dead of winter, Caulder often fishes in a dead-stick mode and relies on the surge of the surf to give his lures some action.

Caulder said this is a spot that holds drum and a few flounder. The drum are here from spring through late fall, with the flounder arriving in late April or May and leaving from late October through November. The drum seem to tolerate cooler water better and scour the creek to find food earlier and later in the year.

“I usually do better with artificial baits early in the year through maybe May, but once live bait arrives, these fish see lots of it and can get a little picky,’ Caulder said. “Drum will gather in the creek mouth during the falling tide and be along the edge of the waterway right in front during the last of it. Slowly creeping a live bait out of the creek mouth toward the waterway will usually move it by drum and a few flounder. In the fall, there are usually a lot of upper slot drum here.”

While there are numerous docks along the ICW that can be productive at times, these docks, just south of the red 102 day marker in the ICW, have been consistent over a period of years, according to Caulder. These docks are across from the former site of Elmore Inlet, which once was the divider between Lea and Hutaff Islands. It has filled in and allowed the islands to become one. Apparently, some genetic or DNA memory causes fish to return to this area.

“These docks are primarily good spots for red drum, but you will occasionally catch a few flounder,” Caulder said. “There is a large flat between the end of the docks and the bank, and it covers well on the high tide. It is out of the main current flow of the waterway, and the fish move up on it along the edges of the dock to feed. It is tide dependent, and I prefer the last of the rising tide and the first of the falling tide.”

Caulder said this is a spot to fish live or natural baits. He said to pay attention to the tide and fish the upcurrent side of the docks, slowly easing the bait back to them. When doing this, you have to be ready to put pressure on any hooked fish immediately. Most fish, especially drum, will try to turn and go with the current, and you must immediately turn them or you will risk losing them to cutoffs from the barnacles on the pilings.

“This should be fished as the area, not a specific spot,” Caulder said. “The creek mouth is a focal point, but the fish may be 100 to 150 yards on either side of it. I catch a lot of drum here, but I can tell sometimes from the look of passing fishermen that they wonder what I’m doing so far up or down the bank. That’s what you have to do when the fish aren’t right in the mouth of the creek.”

Caulder said he has caught a few flounder at this spot, but he really considers it a drum spot. The falling tide will push bait and drum out of the marsh, and depending on how the bait moves, the drum will hold in the general area of the mouth along the edge of the ICW.

As soon as the water temperature rises above roughly 60 degrees, the drum begin showing up, according to Caulder, and they will stay until it drops below 60 degrees in the fall. He prefers to fish here on the last half of the falling tide, and unless he sees fish making wakes, he will start on the upcurrent end and drift past the creek. He usually begins casting an artificial bait until a fish hits or surges at it, and then puts his power pole down and switches to live baits.

Caulder said this is the only marked channel from the ICW to the south end of Topsail Island and New Topsail Inlet. A lot of water moves through the channel on every tide change, and it carries bait that keeps the fish coming back. This is a spring-to-fall spot, and he fishes it more as an area, paying attention to working both banks and out a little ways into the creek.

“I like to fish here around high tide,” Caulder said. “I throw soft plastics along the edge of the grass and up into bare spots for drum. Once the water gets to the mid-60s or so, I will also use topwater lures from the bank out to the middle of the channel. I like MirrOlure Top Pup or She Pup lures and catch drum, specks and even ladyfish on them. If you like the excitement of topwater fishing, this is a good creek to try.”

“There is a hole in this bend of this creek that runs from the ICW to New Topsail Inlet, and it can hold a lot of nice trout during the fall,” Caulder said. “You can see the bend has several marsh creeks that feed it, and bait gathers here as the water cools and the bait begins to head out.”

Caulder said trout are the main draw of this spot, but the abundance of bait also attracts other fish. Drum may follow the grass line, and flounder will definitely hold on the bottom for a few weeks before heading to the ocean for the winter.

Caulder said he fishes a lot of DOA shrimp and DOA CAL paddletails. He likes to fish the lightest jighead that gets the bait to the bottom. This allows the bait to move more naturally as the current bounces it across the hole.

Caulder said this is an excellent creek to fish because it runs all the way across the marsh to Banks Channel at Topsail. It is a good place to find red drum from spring through fall, and it holds some flounder as well. The creek has many bends and meanders, and as it crosses the marsh, there are several flats and pond areas that are ideal habitat for fish and baitfish.

“I concentrate on fishing here for the last two hours of the rising tide and the first two hours of the falling tide,” Caulder said. “This is when the fish can find their way back into the marsh, and they are moving in here to feed. I often drift through the creek with the tide and use a topwater bait to find the fish. Once I find the fish, then I put my Power Pole down and catch them with live bait.

“This bridge is a newer bridge that replaced an older drawbridge that used to be just a hundred yards or so downriver,” Caulder said. “It holds fish in a variety of ways. There is a little remaining foundation or debris scattered across the bottom, and there is rip-rap running off the bank on both sides of the river. This makes for enough structure (so) you will occasionally lose a lure or rig. There are also some older pilings from a pier that was on the Sneads Ferry side and the bridge bulkhead, creating structure to fish.”

Caulder said this bridge usually holds fish from early spring through late fall. Gray trout and speckled trout are caught from the rip-rap of the old bridge out to the channel and into the bay on the downriver Camp Lejeune side. Red drum forage along the banks, and black drum hold in deeper holes and the channel. Sheepshead can be found on most of the pilings, and flounder lay in scour holes around the pilings and along the bulkheads.

Caulder said this is a place where soft plastics and live or natural baits would both catch fish. The trout and drum — and even occasionally a flounder or black drum — will hit baits like DOA Shrimp and grubs. Live shrimp and mullet minnows are eaten by all, but the many smaller bait thieves make it very difficult to fish shrimp during the warmer months. While pieces of shrimp also attract many bait thieves, they are a favorite of black drum. Sheepshead will occasionally eat pieces of shrimp, but sandfiddlers are their favorite meal and increase the odds of catching them.

Caulder said the Onslow Beach Bridge is on Camp Lejeune, and while there is a pier immediately adjacent, it is only accessible to civilians by water or as a guest of a marine.

The ICW runs through Camp Lejeune, and the Onslow Beach Bridge crosses it approximately midway across base. This bridge has a reputation as an excellent spot to catch speckled trout and flounder and is well worth the ride up the Intracoastal Waterway from Sneads Ferry. The fishing is so good at times that the marines have constructed a small fishing pier out to the bulkhead on the east side.

“The fishing at the Onslow Beach Bridge can be really good at times,” Caulder said. “In the fall, the trout sometimes gather inside the pivot for the swing section on the beach side and just behind the eastern end of the bulkhead on the mainland side. They will usually hit soft plastic shrimp and grub shapes. The trick with the soft plastics is to cast them into the current and let the current bounce them across the bottom back to you.”

Caulder said live baits will also work. Patient fishermen can use mullet minnows to catch flounder lying along the bridge bulkhead. He said it is much like fishing with grubs, except slower, and to cast upcurrent right beside the bulkhead and then creep them back. Occasionally a large trout will be lying along the bulkhead and beat a flounder to the minnow.

NOTE: Caulder said two other bridges, at Surf City and North Topsail, can produce flounder, black drum and trout on any given day from late spring through late fall. There are also some very shallow bays along both sides of the ICW, but because of their shallow nature and the extreme potential for grounding, he was hesitant to discuss them in detail, but felt he must point out they often hold a few flounder and moving schools of red drum. He warns that exploring the bays requires a shallow draft boat and still requires being careful of the stage of the tide.

Capt. Stu Caulder may be contacted by visiting www.goldleaderfishing.com or by calling 910-264-2674.