Annual Family Beach Trip

My family takes a week beach trip to a North Carolina beach every year.  This year we went to Topsail Island for a week of fun and sun.  I manage to take a few surf rods each year and I usually charter an inshore boat for a day of fishing with my brother and at least one other person.

I'd read online about some people catching pompano and whiting (sea mullet) from the surf around Topsail using sand fleas.  This year I surf fished here and there, mostly in the early morning and caught one pompano, one whiting, and ~8 small sharks.  My camera didn't make it out to the beach, so I snapped a few of both fish before I filleted them along with my little helper.

We made it out one day on an inshore charter targeting topwater redfish in the New River inlet near Sneads Ferry, NC.  I brought a 6'6" MH baitcaster setup, one of my bass rods, specifically for this type of fishing.  I also brought a Bomber high-pitch Walkie Talkie (looks like a large Zara Spook).  We had a tough time finding the reds and only managed to get one small school to strike our topwater lures.  I caught the first one on my own rod and lure, the guide hooked another and handed the rod to my brother.   Both fish were netted and those were the only redfish we saw all day.  Photo is just before they were filleted back at the beach house.

We continued to search for good water and were fishing a small cove next to a grass marsh.  I got a big strike on my Bomber, set the hook, and before you know it the drag was screaming!  This fish took a few good runs and also made multiple attempts to shake the large plug from it's gnarly teeth.  We netted the fish and it was a big inshore blue (est @ 10-12 lbs).

The fishing wasn't stellar this year, but I had a good time hanging with the family.

Topwater fishing for redfish at the coast was exciting.  Makes me want to go back and target them again, maybe from a canoe.