Sneads Ferry inshore action coming alive as fish enter summer patterns

Fish moving into bays and creeks where they’ll spend the summer, guide says

The waters around Sneads Ferry are warming, and summer fishing is settling in with fish moving into bays and creeks where they should stay through September, according to Capt. Allen Jernigan of Breadman Ventures.

“After the cold winter and short spring, it has taken a while for things to get back to there normal order, but they are falling into place,” Jernigan said. “Our summer mixture is coming together. There are flounder in the bays and along the channels, redfish in the bays and creeks and trout holding in the deeper water along the channel edges.

“There are only a couple of weeks left until trout season opens on June 15, and a lot of fishermen, myself included, are anxiously awaiting that,” Jernigan said. “We have good numbers of them already, and it is really tough to tell a client he has to release the nice-size speckled trout he just caught.”

Jernigan (910-467-1482) said flounder, one of the most sought-after summer fish, are beginning to spread through the area. He has been seeing lots of nice-sized flounder on gigging charters, which has helped him catch them during the daytime on hook and line. He said the largest concentrations are moving up onto the flats in the bays along the New River and the Intracoastal Waterway.

“There are redfish in the bays too,” Jernigan said. “The water temperature is right in their comfort zone right now, and they are active and feeding. We have been getting some good topwater bites. They like MirrOlure Top Pups and She Pups.”

Jernigan said when the topwater drum action slows, he switches to soft plastics and spoons to catch fish under the surface – along with a few flounder.

According to Jernigan, specs have been moving out of the deeper water onto the edges of the flats early in the morning to feed and are hitting topwaters. They seem to like the higher-frequency rattle of the She Pup better than the Top Pup, but they’ve been hitting both. Once the sun gets up, they’re moving back to the bridges, hitting a variety of soft plastics.