Anglers don’t have to travel to Florida or Louisiana this year to find “gator” speckled trout.
Cell phones have a dubious reputation when it comes to answering them while driving vehicles on a busy highway. They can be just as dangerous when used by someone aboard a boat.Navigation suffers when a conversation creates a distraction. Worse, it can cause an angler to miss a strike.
But Capt. Mike Taylor hadn’t missed a strike when his number appeared in the cell phone window. It’s worth the risk to answer a call you’ve anticipated for weeks. Wirelessly, Taylor reported landing fish.
“I have two nice ones in the boat,” he said. “Can you come up and give it a try?”
It was a call anyone would take a minor risk to hear, even driving on Interstate Highway 40 near Wilmington. Making a U-turn at the next clover-leaf exit, then a turn onto N.C. 53 toward Jacksonville and merging onto the N.C. 258/24 bypass south until hitting U.S. 17 through town. It was only a few minutes until the Wildlife Commission boat ramp at the U.S. 17 Bridge.
“Check this out!” Taylor said excitedly.
Grinning broadly, he held up a pair of spectacular speckled trout. The largest — still kicking — weighed 7.2 pounds.
The size of these New River specks has become legendary, and no one knows for certain why they attain such sizes.
According to biologists, specks more than 5 pounds are usually female and at least 3 years old. Speckled trout are fast-growing fish with high reproductive rates, spawning continuously during the warm spring and summer months.
The main reason Tar Heel specks rarely match the “gators” common farther south along the Atlantic Seaboard and Gulf Coast states is cold weather. Winter “freeze” kills in the relatively shallow waters of Pamlico Sound, the northern extremity of their range, take a toll on larger specimens.
But after two mild winters in a row, it was certain there would be some big specks at New River.
The former Sneads Ferry Campground and Marina, which had a ramp update a couple of years ago, is now history, so anglers who want to launch there to gain access to New River’s speck fishing hot spots will be disappointed. In its place will be a condominium development called New River Landing. However, anglers can use pay ramps at Paradise Point ramp (about a half-mile south of the old ramp) or Swan Point or New River Marina’s ramps, about 1 1/2 miles south of the new condo digs at the N.C. 172 Bridge.
Taylor’s honey holes are many and varied. He shares information with other guides in the area, including Jeff Cronk of Fish’n 4 Life Charters and Ricky Kellum, the Speckled Specialist. Cronk soon was putting his gear into Taylor’s boat because he had received a phone call as well.
After admiring Taylor’s super specks, he cinched his cap and the boat took off downriver.
The New River features many tributaries (creeks). While many of the speckled trout are caught from oyster beds in the river, especially near the N.C. 172 Bridge at Sneads Ferry and at a submerged pipeline at the eastern side of New River near the U.S. Marine Corps Base at Camp Lejeune, most anglers fish feeder creeks.
Northeast Creek, Southwest Creek, Duck Creek, and French Creek host runs of specks. But the points such as Hadnot Point, Well Point, Spring Point and Town Point north of Town Creek also hold trout.
“They could be anywhere or nowhere,” Cronk said. “You never know with specks. They are one of the most undependable fish. You hear about a big fish being caught and head there. When you arrive, they’ve stopped biting.”
Thus the importance of having a cell phone handy and a group of anglers dedicated to catching gator trout. Speck anglers are as tight-lipped as a bunch of insider traders. But it pays to have pals for big speck news.
No sooner had Taylor powered down his Triton center console, than the wake rocked a john boat from side to side. In the boat was Capt. Ricky Kellum, who was casting a topwater lure along the shoreline.
“Just missed a big one,” he said. “But check this one out.”
Kellum held up a giant speck that later would weigh 8.2 pounds on certified scales. He lives nearby so when the word gets out the speck bite is hot, he can heads for New River without hesitation. But Kellum will go anywhere from Little River to Morehead City to get a big speck for one of his clients.
Cronk and Taylor are no different. All are expert travelers when it comes to super specks.
The guides have a friendly competition among themselves, but they also compete in point-accumulation tournaments for bragging rights.
“You have a tough time beating Ricky any year,” Taylor said. “But I’m determined to do it this year.”
The creeks hold the key to the spectacular size of New River specks. Most of the river — except for the navigation channel — has a depth of no more than 10 feet. It’s shallow compared to the creeks, which have holes twice that depth.
“I think the specks spend the winter in the deep holes, and it keeps them from being hurt by the cold,” Taylor said. “Nets aren’t allowed in the creeks, although you hear rumors of netters poaching at night where they aren’t supposed to be from time to time.”
“The commercial guys make some really big catches in the river,” Cronk said. “Sometimes that’s how you find out they are biting in the creeks.”
Specks weighing more than 10 pounds have come from commercial landings at New River, but for an angler, a 10-pounder is tantamount to one of the holy grails of fishing, akin to a 40-pound king mackerel, 1,000-pound marlin or a 10-pound flounder.
Soft-plastic and topwater lures work best for catching the bigger Sneads Ferry fish. But Kellum and his sidekick Walter Bateman of Coastal Carolina Guide Service, also toss MirrOlures for specks.
Lots of anglers use light monofilament lines without adding leaders when casting lures for “hammer handle” specks. But that’s a big mistake with gator trout.
Bateman and Kellum use low-stretch lines to help them detect the occasionally subtle peck a big speck. Bateman prefers monofilament and Kellum, superbraid.
Bateman uses 10-pound-test low-stretch monofilament. Kellum uses 2-pound diameter, 8-pound test superbraid. He uses a monofilament leader to keep specks from sensing the superbraid line.
“Superbraid keeps you from getting broke off on structure when you’re fighting a big fish,” Kellum said.
Both anglers use light spinning tackle or bait-casting tackle. While a medium-running MirrOlure is their mainstay lure, they also use big-lipped diving MirrOlure models, Rapala Husky Jerk suspending lures, Top Dog topwater lures and DOA soft-plastic shrimp lures.
“I like a day-glow color for the DOA shrimp,” Kellum said. “It really shows up in the dark water.”
Taylor uses 14-pound test Berkeley Fireline super braids with leaders of test and mono leaders of 15 to 20 pounds.
“A big speck can cut you off,” Taylor said. “As many casts as it takes to get a big speck on the line, you don’t want to lose him because he cuts you off.”
Taylor uses the same Penn 4500 and 5500 reels for specks he uses for kings and Spanish mackerel. The small diameter of the braided line gives plenty of line capacity and has an added advantage.
“Some of my clients are not experienced fishermen,” he said. “They keep reeling while the fish is taking line. If you reel while the drag is slipping, you will twist a standard braid or a monofilament line. But the Fireline is twisted already, like bailing twine. It won’t twist up until you get loops in your line that lead to tangles.
“It’s also tough enough to get through the rough cover and strong enough so you can usually bend the hooks if a lure gets hung on a stump, and you can pull it free.”
He cast a 4-inch Berkley Gulp pogie soft bait toward the shoreline. He had several strikes, but they were gars.
While some anglers don’t think specks will tolerate the freshwater, they’re wrong. Kellum was casting a Zara Spook in the junior size. A big speck hit struck no more.
“I caught my fish today with a soft bait,” Taylor said. “They hang onto it, and you catch them. But really nice fish will also hit the topwater lure, and I really want to catch one with a Spook.”
No sooner had Taylor switched to a Spook when a strike like an alligator’s bite pounded the lure.
“There he is!” he said as he set the hook. “He’s got to be over 5 pounds!”
But the battle was short-lived. Taylor tried to horse the fish away from a stick-up, and the hooks pulled free.
“That’s the trouble with the topwater bait,” he said. “Fish strike and miss it maybe 75 percent of the time, and they seem to toss it easier than the soft plastic. But with the soft plastic, you have to put up with strikes from smaller fish and you stay hung up more.”
“Every time you have to go to the bank to unhook a snagged lure, you disturb the fish,” Cronk said. “So there’s something to be said for working the Spook. You work the topwater bait until your arm gets tired or you really want a strike from something.
“You might catch a blackfish or a gar, even a small trout or red drum, but something’s going to hit a soft plastic where you might cast all day and not get a hit on a topwater lure.”
“You have to keep your confidence level high, and have faith in the topwater lure to use it,” Taylor said. “It can get pretty boring if other anglers aren’t around to tell you they’ve had some strikes. You might be fishing all day for one strike from a big fish. But if you want to catch bragging-size specks, it’s worth the effort. I fished all day once and landed four fish in five casts and all of them weighed more than 5 pounds. But I fished the rest of the day without a single strike.”
When the water temperature eases below 70, specks will bite all day. Cloudy skies may bring out fish when it’s warmer. But the best times to fish are usually early and late in the day.
Specks are notorious for feeding at night. They take no notice of whether it’s night or day in their feeding patterns. The most important thing appears to be the presence of bait.
“When you see shrimp, menhaden or mullets popping the top of the water, you’re going to find specks,” Taylor said. “If you watch closely or listen hard, you will hear the big ones striking the bait at the surface. It’s like the strike of a largemouth bass, only bigger.”
Of course, smaller specks lurk in the same waters as big ones. Standard tactics for any size fish include tossing small grubs and live baits. A cast net can be used to catch bait and the bait fished with a Carolina rig or float rig.
Popping cork rigs are popular along the steeper banks and points where there is less of a problem with hanging a stump or oyster bed. Float rigs are perhaps the best way to fish the oyster beds. Baited with a live menhaden, shrimp or a Berkley Gulp shrimp or pogie imitation, a popping cork is a highly-effective rig that prevents snags with structure.
“The most important thing to have along is a big landing net,” Taylor said. “The hook can pull at anytime, and you don’t want to be fumbling with an undersized net when the fish is beside the boat.
“You never know when a 10-pounder will hit, and I don’t doubt there are 12-pound specks in the New River.”
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