Corolla Fish Report
What can I say? The fishing along the beach has its ups and downs. There are bait fish and small pompano all over, and one would think that there should be some predators around. We did have one angler land a keeper drum, and there have been mullet and kings caught, and I heard of one decent bluefish. Yesterday on the Avalon pier cam, I saw one angler catch not one but two cobia. I have noticed that folks are using too big of a hook for this time of the year. You should be using a #2 to #1 for most of the fish. If you're running more than one rod, by all means, throw out one with a bigger hook, but just know that the small fish will pick it clean, so check your bait often or you may miss the big one. We have a bunch of charters going out this week, and Matt was on the Miss Nell today with the family, and the mahi are in close, and this doesn't happen very often, but they are here right now, and these are on our half-day trips!! The offshore fleet had mahi and marlins, and sails. The other pic is from Ethan from Virginia and Xavier from KS, who landed themselves a gar from the bayside.
On another note, I am getting more and more people in just having to catch a shark, which is fine. There are anglers who come up here and do plenty of shark fishing, which is great!! but they know what they're doing. I am often caught between a rock and a hard place when people ask well, little Timmy just wants to catch a shark or we just want something big to pull on? I will often just say tie it off to the bumper of your car and tug all you want. The people who need to read this report are probably never going to see this, but you're not going to catch a shark on a 50.00 dollar pole. When the rig and bait cost more than the pole, it's not going to work. When I ask how do you plan to release the shark, they have no answer. All I can say is folks need to respect what they are fishing for and the ocean. If you land one and get caught not being able to release it, you will get a big fine. So the big question do you sell it to them or just say NO! Which I have done it once so far this summer. Respect the ocean and the creatures that live in it, please.
Charters — get them while they're hot! Call the shop to book.
Send your fishing photos to obxbaitandtackle@yahoo.com and we thank you.
