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Bulls and Pup: Neuse River/Core Banks

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  • Bulls and Pup: Neuse River/Core Banks

    A few good friends and I took last week off to hunt for Bull Redfish in Pamlico Sound. It's been on everyone's bucket list...the Sound is a massive body of water often blasted by wind so we did have a big boat along for this part of the trip. (so consider this a mixed kayak/boat report) This month marks the beginning of spawning run for reds. We were told they could be caught on cut bait fished on the bottom or with popping corks and soft plastic combos. The area is chocked full of bait of every kind so we had no problem filling the livewell...just about every cast with the cast net boated numerous finger mullet, menhaden and shrimp. Our first few trips out however only yielded heavy action from the CNRs on our cut and live bait. Then we corked till our arms hurt. Finally Nitefly (Eric) found some bull red action on an unlikely bait- live shrimp- unfortunately though on his light rod (2500 reel) and the fish broke off boatside before we got the boga grips on him. Later in the week after tiring of CNRs we switched to live blue crabs as a bait which proved to the best way to get them. The first night I got 2, both in the 40 inch range (we kept forgetting our tape measure so used a rod held against the fish) Eric was next on the morning bite, followed by Dave and Brandon with a monster 45 incher. These fish put up an incredible fight and take some crazy runs which is kind of hectic when you have eight or more lines in the water that have to be pulled up when you hook into one. I'll let the pictures tell the rest.










    We primarily hit the sound for bull reds at daybreak or dusk, which left us plenty of time in our kayaks to explore the core sound and adjacent areas during the day. There is a lot of water to explore down there, and our target was mainly puppy drum with the occasional flounder thrown in. We found the key spots (for puppies) were the grass flats adjacent to deeper water or channels on the low tide and areas that had grass, oyster or mudflats that had recently flooded on the rising/high tide. The fish tended to be quite spooky so a slow drift with the wind and sun at your back produced the best results, however these conditions were hard to find on some of the days. It is a beautiful area down there with minimal fishing pressure. We also saw an abundance of rays, skates, sharks and several sea turtles.













    John Hostalka

    Delaware Paddlesports and
    Hobie Fishing team member

    2018 Camo Hobie Outback
    2015 Hobie Outback

  • #2
    I bow down to you Mr drum master
    Ryan
    Blue 2016 Hobie Outback
    Chesapeake Bay Kayak Anglers, Inc

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    • #3
      Fantastic report! That's a great item to check off on your bucket list
      -Mustafa
      ابو مسقوف AbuMasgouf (Aboo-Mas-goof ): Fish Roast Papa
      2016 Hobie Outback
      2012 Hobie Revolution 13
      "Be humble to whomever you learn from and whomever you teach."-- Imam al-Sadiq (as)

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      • #4
        Awesome report. I hope to make it down that way again someday.

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        • #5
          Wow awesome fish and pics thanks for sharing
          Hobie Revo 13 carribean blue

          My YouTube Channel

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          • #6
            Great report guys. That sounds like fun.
            John Veil
            Annapolis
            Native Watercraft Manta Ray 11, Falcon 11

            Author - "Fishing in the Comfort Zone" , "Fishing Road Trip - 2019", "My Fishing Life: Two Years to Remember", and "The Way I Like to Fish -- A Kayak Angler's Guide to Shallow Water, Light Tackle Fishing"

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            • #7
              With a new baby in the house, I am living vicariously through your drum fishing this year. Good job!
              ___________________________

              Hobie Fishing Team Member
              Survival Products, Salisbury, MD

              2017 Camo Hobie Outback
              2015 Olive Hobie Outback

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              • #8
                Still hoping to get a really big one from the yak some day. I seem to keep missing them at kiptopeake. Interestingly I hooked a particularly feisty pup that pulled my yak around for no less than an hour. Every time I'd gain line on him he'd strip it back out. I got the footage on my go pro. In the end he measured in at 31'. Still trying to figure that one out. Never seen anything like it and I've landed various reds in the same size range which usually is a 5-10 minute fight.
                John Hostalka

                Delaware Paddlesports and
                Hobie Fishing team member

                2018 Camo Hobie Outback
                2015 Hobie Outback

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                • #9
                  Nicely done! I love picture reports!

                  I'm curious how big were the live crabs you used? Did you take off the claws? Clip the points at all?

                  I've been thinking of trying live blue crabs in the Assateague surf next month when the bulls show up there to cut down on non-target fish picking at my meat baits. I've used blue crabs for black drum before, but I always halved them and took the top off, never live.
                  Brian

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                  • #10
                    We generally picked the most feisty ones we had, size didn't seem to matter (although I generally pick the smallish ones) we did clip the points off the shell and break off the claws so some crab tongs are handy. We hooked them about an inch back from the point up through the bottom and top shell so the hook is exposed on the top surface. We used 8/0 or bigger circle hooks with flattened barbs.
                    John Hostalka

                    Delaware Paddlesports and
                    Hobie Fishing team member

                    2018 Camo Hobie Outback
                    2015 Hobie Outback

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                    • #11
                      Thanks for the info. That's about what I was planning to do, so I'm glad I was on the right track.
                      Brian

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