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.
Southeast NC
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.
Inshore Fishing
Don’t count on finding cobia in the same spots every day this month
Guide Jot Owens begins seeing cobia off Wrightsville Beach in May, and on a typical day, he will head to the Masonboro Inlet jetties first thing early in the morning and then start running the beach looking for pods of bait and free-swimming cobia. But he can never count on them being in the same place day after day.
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Angler catches huge cobia out of Hatteras
Blake Michael of Poquoson, Va., knew he was headed to Hatteras earlier this week for the catch of a lifetime, but he didn’t know it would be a doubleheader. Fishing with his buddy, Bryan Nester, this past Thursday, a few days before marrying his “catch-of-a-lifetime” girlfriend, Hailey Hill, Michael landed a 116.2-pound cobia, missing the state record by slightly more than four ounces.
Bass Fishing
Catch Clarks Hill’s late spawners with these tips
If you think you missed the bass spawn at Clarks Hill, you’re still in luck. Some late spawners are still biting, and as long as you’re willing to do a little moving around and use a handful of lures, you’ll catch your share of them.
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Nice king mackerel being caught off Ocean Crest Pier
May is a big month for king mackerel on piers along the coast of Brunswick County, and the action that fishermen on Ocean Crest Pier on Oak Island had on May 10 was a perfect example.
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SCDNR holds youth fishing rodeo May 14
A Youth Fishing Rodeo will be held from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, May 14 at Cohen Campbell Fish Hatchery at 2726 Fish Hatchery Road in West Columbia. This free event is for all youth 15 and younger.
Featured
Oak Island, Ocean Crest pier anglers land first king mackerel of season
Most years the first kings caught from N.C. fishing piers are decked at one of the Oak Island piers and that has happened again this year.
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Pick up on pikin’ in North Carolina’s Lumber River
The Lumber River forms the boundary between Robeson and Columbus counties and cuts across the North Carolina-South Carolina border. While geographically important, the true value of the river is that it is the lifeblood of local anglers because its floodplain creates habitats that support many fish species.
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Great for gaffers – May is a great month to catch gaffer dolphin
It’s a warm, early morning in the middle of spring, with a slight breeze out of the southwest. Stephen Hunter keeps his Cape Horn center console in Holden Beach, but he often chooses to use the Cape Fear River channel when leaving before dawn, for no other reason than the reliability of its water. Picking his way behind Oak Island and Southport, he makes a starboard turn into the channel, slips into the ocean, then pushes the throttle down and heads offshore.