Here’s how to catch winter speckled trout in North Carolina’s coastal New River.
Two oval-shaped bobbers bounced on the New River’s surface during the outflowing morning tide. Standing near the stern of Ricky Kellum’s boat, James Grimes of Mount Olive and his 11-year-old son, Conner, intensely watched the multi-colored floats, waiting for the rising sun to warm a beautiful coastal morning.
Jeremy Williams of New Bern and his 12-year-old son, Ryan, also tried to see floats that Kellum, a Jacksonville guide, had cast into the quick-moving current.
At another spot, across the river, the four earlier had caught a handful of 2- to 3-pound trout just after dawn, a few minutes after Kellum had met them at a ramp in Sneads Ferry.
“I’m going to move us over there,” Kellum said, pointing at a channel that flowed a few feet past the point of a small shell island. “Sometimes, bigger trout hang out on the channel side of that point, waiting for the current to push baitfish or shrimp past them.”
Kellum started his outboard and eased the boat’s bow toward the shoreline, dropping his anchor in the center of the deeper channel’s current. He dipped into his bait well, netted a fat shrimp, impaled it onto a No. 4 3X treble hook, the opened the bail of a spinning reel spooled with 20-pound braid and cast behind the stern. He allowed the bait to move toward the island’s point, stopped it and placed the butt of a 7-foot spinning rod into a rod-holder, then repeated the process with a different rod and told his anglers to watch the floats carefully for anything that might be bothering the shrimp, suspended below on 18 inches of 25-pound fluorocarbon.
“Y’all watch those floats, and pick up the rod and start reeling if the bobber goes under or a rod tip jerks down hard,” Kellum said. “If you want, you can hold (them), but if you get a bite, don’t jerk the rod tip; just reel the line to take out the slack. If you’re hooked up, don’t try to horse a fish because you might tear the hook out. Just keep in contact with the fish, and reel him steady back to the boat.”
Experience, it’s been said, often produces better results than enthusiasm, as two of Kellum’s anglers were about to learn. He had the experience and had put them in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.
It’s also been said doing something the first time is a special experience, from biting into a ripe strawberry to a first kiss.What could surpass catching a citation-size seatrout with your father and having him catch his first trophy trout at the same time?
“Whoa,” Conner Grimes shouted. “That rod just jerked down hard.”
“Pick it up and start reeling,” Kellum said, moving toward the youngster.
“Hey,” James Grimes said a second later. “I don’t see my float.”
“Pick up your rod and start reeling, too,” Kellum said, standing behind the boy to offer assistance if needed. “And y’all try not to let your lines cross.”
Luckily, Kellum was able to coax the father to pull his rod to the left and helped the son point his rod tip to the right as they both retrieved line when the two big fish stopped pulling drag.After about five or six minutes, both reeled their trout to the side of the boat, and Kellum landed both, skillfully slipping a hand under their bellies, then lifting them aboard.
“Now that’s something I haven’t seen in a while — two guys catching citation fish at the same time,” he said, grinning.
Both trout weighed more than 5 pounds, the minimum size for recognition by the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, and one of them pushed 6 pounds.
“That was really cool,” Conner Grimes said, beaming.
“This was the last thing I thought we’d do together today,” said his grinning father.
The Grimes learned that, after a cold winter, many of the buds on trees along the coast are ready to pop open by late February and early March, which means the first days of spring have arrived, and just as important, fishing season is about to awaken.
But on one coastal river, fishing usually is already in full swing, especially if the coast has been spared frigid temperatures and ice and snow storms.
Perhaps because of its geography, Onslow County’s New River has the terrain and warmer water to allow speckled trout to remain active throughout the winter.
North Carolina’s eastern New River — a different river by the same name flows into Virginia from N.C.’s northwestern corner — is 50 miles long and home to seatrout, red drum and flounder. It’s just far enough south to miss the hard freezes that cause cold-stun trout kills in the Pamlico Sound and Albemarle Sound regions a few miles north. Relatively mild winter weather also has little effect on baitfish and shellfish.
The coastal New River begins in northwestern Onslow County, flows southeast through Jacksonville and passes through the Camp LeJeune marine base before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. Treated warm-water outflows from the city and marine base may keep the river’s water temperatures more amenable during cold months, plus, its northwest-to-southeast topography and tree-lined shore shelter the river from cold winds.
Although anglers may catch specks from the New River any month, a few sunny March days can boost water temperatures and turn on an excellent bite, particularly for “gator” specks that have made the river famous.
“March is when the water temperature usually hits 50 degrees, and that’s the magic number for catching trout up in the creeks,” Kellum said. “If you see one baitfish flipping on top, and a single trout blows up on it, that means the bite has started.”
There’s another unusual factor that awakens New River trout late in the winter: baitfish.
“Everyone knows trout like to eat shrimp, and I use live shrimp when I’ve got novices or kids with me, especially in early spring,” said Kellum.
Live-bait fishing may seem improbable for any coastal venue during February and March, but Kellum, 49, said finding live bait, especially shrimp, isn’t a problem. He’s been a student of the New River for nearly 40 years and knows where to find live bait during winter and early spring.
“The New River always has live baits in it,” he said. “It’s a matter of knowing where to go. I cast-net shrimp at certain mud flats, and menhaden will be at some of the deeper holes.”
When he fishes with live shrimp, Kellum uses a special 5 1/2-foot terminal-tackle rig. His set-up includes 20-pound Sufix braid for his main line, a bobber-stopper, a 3-inch Billy Bay float, a 2-foot piece of 40-pound monofilament with a 1/2-ounce barrel weight at the end, a pink bead under the weight and above a swivel tied to 2 feet of 25-pound monofilament tied to a 50-pound swivel, then 18 inches feet of 25-pound tied to a treble hook. The weight makes the bobber float vertically.
Kellum adopted this rock-jetty rig — normally used to avoid hang-ups — for live-bait trout fishing in inside waters.
“The bobber stopper is the key,” he said. “I know how deep the bottom is where I’m fishing, so I set the bobber-stopper to keep the shrimp 2 feet off the bottom. People see my bobbers and think I’m fishing only 2 feet deep, but I might be fishing an 8- or 10-feet hole with my shrimp only 2 feet off the bottom. That’s where trout will be, from the bottom to 2 feet up. But people seeing this rig only see the float and not the bobber-stopper.”
When fishing by himself or with seasoned anglers, Kellum prefers casting artificial lures in feeder creeks during late February and early March. The convenience of soft-plastics allows him to cover a lot of water, and he can leave an inactive bite quickly and search for a livelier spot.
When winter begins and water in the main river cools, specks travel as far as they can into the backs of feeder creeks — Southwest, French’s, Northeast, Duck, Wallace, Lewis and Town — where they’re protected from north, northeast and west winds and because of food sources.
“In March, the specks start to ease out of the backs of creeks,” Kellum said. “They follow baitfish and gather at big flats near creek mouths. Also, when the water temperature starts to rise, baitfish move toward the surface, and you can have some fantastic topwater days.”
In June, the trout migration out of creeks ends, and they’ll take up shop in the river.
In mullet colors, all sizes of Zara Spook-style lures, plus Rapala Skitterwalks, are good lures for surface-feeding specks, according to Kellum, but until the topwater bite starts, he throws suspending jerkbaits —X-Raps and MirrOlure MR17s — in creeks and flats.
“My favorite lures for a long time have been the 4-inch Betts Billy Bay Halo Shrimp, the Billy Bay Halo Shad and the Storm Shrimp,” Kellum said. “But Betts has come out with a new lure, the Perfect Sinker Shrimp. It has little legs that shake, and (it) falls slow and horizontal, which is what you want this time of year. It also falls in a circle.”
When he fishes the backs of creeks for specks and has some leftover chunks of shrimp that trout have mangled, Kellum put them on bottom rigs and lands tasty 3- to 5-pound black drum.
“The nice thing about fishing for specks this time of year is you can have a red drum hit the same lures or baits,” Kellum said. “Early in March, you can catch 24- and 26-inch reds as far back in the creeks as you can go.”
DESTINATION INFORMATION
HOW TO GET THERE — Jacksonville and Sneads Ferry, the jumping-off spot for winter trout fishing in the New River, is most-easily accessible from US 17 via I-40, with NC 210 and NC 172 getting anglers there.
WHEN TO GO — Anglers catch spotted seatrout in the New River and its tributaries year-round, but February and March are top months for trophy fish.
BEST TECHNIQUES — For soft-plastic artificial lures like Billy Bay Halo Shrimp and Billy Bay Perfect Sinker Shrimp, 7-foot spinning outfits spooled with 10-pound braid and 2 feet of 20-pound fluorocarbon leader works well. Join main line and leader with a Uni-Knot splice and forget swivels. For live-bait fishing, try Ricky Kellum’s special bobber-stopper terminal tackle. For topwater, use Zara Spooks, Spook Puppies, Spook Juniors and Rapala Skitterwalks in mullet colors. Suspending jerkbaits such as X-Raps and MR 17 MirrOlures will work.
FISHING INFO/GUIDES — Ricky Kellum, Speckled Specialist Inshore Fishing Charters, 910-330-2745, www.speckledspecialist.com. See also Guides and Charters in Classifieds.
ACCOMMODATIONS — Onslow County Tourism, 910-347-3141, www.onlyinonslow.com; Jacksonville Tourism Authority, 910-938-5200, www.jacksonvillenc.gov/index.aspx?nid=293
MAPS — Sea Lake Fishing Guides, 800-411-0185, www.sealakeusa.com; Grease Chart by Nautical Publications, 800-326-3567, www.greasechart.com; GMCO Maps, 888-420-6277, www.gmcomaps.com.
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