Super Specks

The June trout bite on the Neuse River produces the best trophies of the year.

Most fishermen know that the waters of the lower Neuse River produce huge tarpon and red drum during the hottest months of the year, July and August.

The excellent fishing for these two high-profile gamefish is no longer a secret, with many guides and anglers targeting them.

However, the June lull in big-game action, when anglers wonder when and if tarpon and redfish are going to show up, can be filled with another species. Capt. Gary Dubiel of Oriental knows the onset of summer is no time for waiting out other fish.

It’s the best time to catch trophy specks.

“June is a phenomenal month for specks,” said Dubiel, who has operated Speck Fever Guide Service for 15 years. “They bite all along the shoreline, so I catch them at any structure, casting any lure or live bait you can name.”

Dubiel said most anglers fish for big specks during the winter. That’s a huge mistake, he said, because the ponderous, sow-bellied females don’t enter the Neuse River to spawn until June.

“It’s the best time to catch lots of really big fish,” he said. “A lot of specks will weigh more than five pounds — the size necessary to receive a DMF citation.”

Dubiel said a typical day produces a dozen trout between 2½ to six pounds per angler, along with a dozen redfish weighing four to 10 pounds. Some days are much better, a few worse.

“Wind can be a pain,” he said. “It can be so rough you can’t fish the banks you want, even if you know the fish are there. If the wind’s west or northwest, it can blow the water out of the river and drop the water level one to two feet. When that happens, the water can be too shallow where you want to fish.”

On calm days, Dubiel fishes from 17-foot Hydra-Sports center console with a bow-mounted trolling motor that allows him to sneak into the shallows. When it’s too rough for the small boat, he fishes from his 23-foot Maycraft.

Casting a soft-plastic lure rigged on a jighead, Dubiel uses light spinning tackle to target marsh-grass mud lumps that have been separated from the bank by erosion. He also casts to oyster beds, stumps, sandbars, creek mouths and steep drop-offs.

“People familiar with other areas don’t understand Neuse River speck fishing,” he said. “The water is so shallow and the shoreline so uniform, they don’t know where to begin. But if you study the river long enough, you will see the subtle structure that attracts big specks.

“Other people target bridges and jetties or massive oyster beds they can see. Here, the water is no more than four or five feet deep, and there are no big structure areas. Any stump or mud lump could hold a fish, or a concentration of fish. You won’t know until you cast.”

Dubiel said specks feed on baitfish in June, especially menhaden. Finding menhaden flipping in a creek mouth, no matter how small the creek, means specks are in the area.

“Sometimes there’s lots of bait,” he said. “Sometimes there’s even too much bait. If there are too many baitfish in the water, I find my specks away from the baitfish schools. I think specks feeding inside baitfish schools have so much to eat they don’t strike lures, but there are always other specks somewhere nearby along the shoreline.”

Dubiel plans summer-trip departures for early in the day. It beats the heat and sometimes the wind, and it’s the best time to sight-fish for specks.

“If you can get there before the sun comes up, you’ll see specks blowing up menhaden schools,” he said. “That’s the time to cast topwater lures. I like the MirrOlure Top Dog best for surface fishing. But once the sun comes up, I switch to a jig with a soft plastic or a live bait. I like scented soft plastics because a speck can find them by sight or scent. If I fish them on a popping cork rig, it adds sound to the attracting power.”

Mullet is Dubiel’s preferred live bait, although menhaden will do. He fishes live minnows on a float rig or a Carolina rig with a small egg weight. He uses a 3/0 circle hook when fishing any live bait.

“We have so many small red drum and so many inexperienced anglers who wait too long to set the hook that using circles hooks is best,” he said. “You don’t want to deep-hook a red drum that’s too small or too large to keep, or after you’ve already caught your one slot fish for the day.”

When Dubiel fishes a jig, he gives it a much harder twitch than most anglers. He lets it fall to the bottom, then twitches it upward. The strike usually comes as the lure is falling.

“The fish are usually going to be in the bottom third of the water column,” he said. “If you don’t keep your lure inside that strike zone all the time during the retrieve, you’re missing out on fishing time and reducing the number of fish you’re catching. The more time you keep it in that zone, the more time your lure is in front of a speck’s nose. A hard twitch makes it look like a wounded menhaden, and he won’t be able to turn it down.”

Bob Bruggeworth lives in Fairfield Harbour, a development on the Neuse River near New Bern. He founded the Fairfield Harbour Fishing Club after moving to the area in 1992 and is a dedicated trout fisherman.

“I fish all along the river,” Bruggeworth said. “The speckled trout fishing is unrivaled. I catch trout in the lower river, but I also fish around the new US 17/70 Bridge across the Trent River. I also fish right inside our harbor. A good place to fish is where Spring Creek enters the harbor. There are bulkheads and piers in the harbor that hold fish.”

Bruggeworth likes casting ready-rolls. He prefers Storm lures that have weighted hooks molded inside. He said the holographic colors drive specks wild.

“They’re so realistic, a fish can’t turn them down,” he said. “The trick is to get it in front of the fish. That means making lots of casts to cover lots of water.”

Fishing with Dubiel one day, Bruggeworth wasn’t having any luck, so Dubiel tied on a popping-cork rig with a Berkley Gulp! shrimp on a jighead about two feet below the float.

“Cast it, then pop the float with a hard jerk of the rod,” Dubiel said. “Then let the lure fall for a count of four or five before popping it again. Most fishermen don’t let the lure fall long enough. The idea is to make it resemble a shrimp. They flip up from the bottom then fall motionless back down. A speck will strike the lure as it falls most of the time, but they also can strike as it hits the water, or while it is just sitting there bobbing beneath the float.”

The popping cork rig is deadly on specks during hot weather, Dubiel said. The extra noise can bring in fish from quite a long distance.

“The sound of the beads striking the float are meant to sound like a shrimp flipping in the water,” he said. “If you float it over a sandbar or oyster bed, specks are going to come from the bottom and as far as 50 feet away to investigate that sound. To a speck, a popping cork sounds like a ringing dinner bell.”