Our boat was not ten minutes from the dock before Capt. Reece Stecher saw them.
“Get your rod ready, there they are,” Reece shouted from the tower.
“I saw them too, an angry mob of red drum. They had trapped a hapless school of mullet on a shoal and were laying waste to any and everything that moved.
My Johnson Spoon didn’t make it five feet and it was, “Fish on,” as line peeled off the reel. Reece pitched a grub into the feeding pack, and also had an immediate hookup. A minute or so later, my 28-inch foe finally came to net, followed by Reece’s 26-incher.
A double! We each made another cast and hooked up again. Two more drum. This was outta’ sight, sight-fishing for drum – as good as it gets.
Capt. Stecher, who runs Beach Bum Fishing, said that the drum and trout action has been non-stop all year. He fishes medium light tackle back in the shallows of Albemarle Sound. The grass beds are there and so is the bait. As every fisherman knows – find the bait and you’ll find the fish.
As quickly as the school of our drum popped up, they disappeared, so we moved, anchored, and cast cut mullet back to the grass beds. Bam! A hook-up, then another. Our limit of puppy drum was one per man and we had that long ago. Next up? Speckled trout.
After motoring a little deeper back into the sound, we anchored again, and I quickly had a 19-inch speck on the end of my line.
“Wow,” is all I can say. Unbelievable fishing!
Later, we found another speck hotspot and quickly caught another half dozen before calling it a day.
This great fishing for specks and puppy drum should run well past Thanksgiving if there are those who would like to get in on some of the best fishing on the Atlantic Coast. Not only that, but the stripers will also be in play. One fellow picked a 22-incher at the Oregon Inlet Bridge earlier in the week. That means the big ocean stripers should be close behind. Reece also noted that the fishing in Mann’s Harbor last year was unreal with lots of 8- and 10-pound stripers coming to net.
Capt. Stecher doesn’t just happen to catch fish. He plans on it. Reece has been fishing these waters for 25 years and he fishes full time, not just weekends. He knows the top spots for the various wind and tide changes and he’s the best saltwater skipper I’ve ever fished with. And that flurry of drum activity ranks among the most exciting of my outdoor adventures.
It’s fall on the Outer Banks and the fishing is fantastic. Contact Capt. Stecher at BeachBumFishing.com and you, too, can expect a day of dynamite action.