Featured
Hail to the Spanish!
Spanish mackerel are favorites of many North Carolina fishermen, especially along the southern coast. Their popularity is based on four undeniable traits:
Southeast NC
Bass Fishing
Key on shad, bream beds
The bluegill and shad spawns add up to a big bonanza for bass fishermen on Lake Wateree this month, according to tournament angler Dearal Rodgers of Camden.
Featured
Catch Carolina Beach speckled trout with these lures and tips
By the time day broke over Buzzard’s Bay on Tuesday morning, Lewis Emery of Tails Up Charters in Carolina Beach and his buddy, Larry Essick, already had a handful of speckled trout in the boat — and neither was surprised.
Freshwater Fishing
Catch fish, then cut bait when targeting redfin pickerel
The traditional baits for catching redfin pickerel are the pelvic fin and the top or bottom half of its forked tail.
Freshwater Fishing
Catch redfin pickerel by the bucketful
The best way to keep and carry redfin pickerel is in a plastic pail with a tight-fitting lid.
Freshwater Fishing
Don’t carp about redfin size
The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s Angler Recognition Program awards outstanding catches with a suitable-for-framing certificate featuring the artwork of Duane River.
Offshore Fishing
Catch-and-release dolphin? Really?
Catching a dolphin and releasing it may sound like sheer lunacy to some bluewater anglers, but there is a sound reason to let a few go each year.
Offshore Fishing
Dolphin grow fast, die young and taste good
Few organisms in the ocean can match the fast life cycle of the dolphin fish, coryphaena hippurus. Dolphin reach sexual maturity at four to five months, where it takes a king mackerel three years to spawn. The world-record dolphin, 87 pounds was believed to be slightly less than five years old. By comparison, the world-record king mackerel, a 93-pound fish, was thought to be closer to 25 years old.
Offshore Fishing
Rigging a Dink Ballyhoo
1) Using a thawed, small/medium, high-quality ballyhoo, remove the bait’s eyes with an arrow shaft.
2) Use cutting pliers to remove the bait’s pectoral fins.
Inshore Fishing
Quick thinking leads to more cobia hookups
May and June offer great opportunities for fishermen who dream of hooking up with a powerhouse, 50-pound cobia just off the beach. But anglers must act fast if they want to get a hookup, because no matter how lazy these fish appear when cruising along the surface, they become less and less catchable every minute a boat is on the scene.