Everything That Swims: Ocean Isle Fishing

I spent 3 days in Ocean Isle, North Carolina, with my brother Wyatt and our friend Alex. Our goal was to fish the whole time and that is pretty much what we did. From the we got up in the mornings (at or before sunrise), we fished. We stayed on the Intracoastal Waterway, probably 120 yards across at high tide, and it connected with the ocean about 3 miles away via Shallote Inlet. Normally, redfish can be caught in the 15-30" range right off the dock at the house on an incoming or outgoing tide, but I think they were mostly spawning, since we saw 3 off the pier spawning in the breakers, and they wouldn't hit a thing! I did manage to catch a nice 17" flounder on a live mullet, but that was it for day 1 from the dock. Wyatt just got his junior boaters license (I'm too lazy to take the ridiculous online course right now), so we took out the john boat that the family we stayed with kept on a lift on the dock. We would have been going offshore or to nearshore wrecks every day we were there on the bluewater yacht that was also on the dock, but unfortunately, Michael (boat owner) broke his leg in a horrible mountain biking crash this spring and he couldn't do much outside of the house.
We collected fiddler crabs and fished at a bridge nearby for sheepshead, but only lost one big one that got wrapped up in the pilings. We went back the next day and targeted them again, and managed to land 2 in the 12-15" range, as well as an 18" speckled trout and two small spadefish. On our last night there (leaving the next day at 3:00), we pitched out a few rods with live mullet while we cleaned fish on the dock. I also put a 12" needlefish out in the channel on an incredibly stout setup with a shimano sustain 8000 spooled with 50lb braid. Nothing picked up any of our live mullet, but right as we were packing up or stuff and preparing to rig up for the following morning, the rod with the whole needlefish doubled over and the drag started peeling. I only had an 80lb fluorocarbon leader, so I knew it was a stingray. I hopped up on the yacht that was on a lift on the end of the dock, and the drag never slowed until I made my way onto the bow of the boat, probably a minute after the fish took the bait. I saw the ray come to the surface probably 120 yards away out in the canal, and it was pretty easy to bring it back in my direction once I turned it. After about half an hour, we had the fish back at the dock, and had a 12 foot kingfish gaff ready to bring it up. Once we got it right below us, it sucked onto the bottom (they use their whole body as a suction cup) and I could only pick it up 4 or 5 inches before it would go right back to the bottom and stay there for 2-3 minutes at a time. Wyatt was finally able to gaff it about an hour after we hooked it, and i grabbed another gaff to help lift it up on the dock, because he couldn't lift it by himself. We estimated the fish to be around 80-100 pounds, and it measured 36 inches wing tip to wing tip. Sting rays are incredibly dense, I always thought that people over-estimated the weight of stingrays until I picked up a big one. I managed to rig up all the rods for the next day, and didn't get to bed until 1:00 in the morning.
We woke up at 6:00 the next day, loaded our gear in the john boat, and managed to get the boat launched even though the tide was dead-low (lots of pushing to get it off the lift). We netted some mullet and headed to Shallotte Inlet to drift for flounder. We only caught one small sea bass, and decided to head back to the bridge to fish for sheepshead once again. That was the only thing we knew how to do being new to the area. We collected rigs that had been broken off, and probably got 6 or 7 one ounce egg weights from other sheepshead fishermen using carolina rigs like we did. I had a monster run around a piling and slice my line only 30 seconds after I sent my bait to the bottom. I pulled the hook on another one shortly after that. Having our hooks picked clean after we felt one little tap on every bite was getting old, so I tried something a little unorthodox. We had been chumming by scraping oysters off of the pilings all day, and my freshwater "match the hatch" instinct kicked in. After 2 or three drops I landed a nice sheepshead...And then another...and another, then Wyatt caught one, and we continued to have great success and even landing a 3 and 5 pounder on little #8 hooks with bits of oyster on them! Once the tide came all the way in, we struggled with pinfish and other little guys and could not find any more sheepies. So we decided to head in and get the fish cleaned to head home. While we were cleaning fish, Alex caught probably a 30lb ray on a whole pinfish using the same setup that I caught mine on at night. That is all I have to say about our trip to Ocean Isle, and I will let the pictures continue to tell some stories as well. Thanks for reading!

The dock we fished off of, with the john boat we used on the lift to the right.

I didn't get to fish with it...But I was in the presence of a Stella...haha

Our sheepshead, a spade a 10" pigfish, and a nice spot.

My big Southern Ray

My biggest sheepshead of the trip, around 3 pounds.

Wyatt's biggest sheepshead of the trip, around 5 pounds.

My 17" flounder

Alex caught a nice 11" sea bass when we were fishing for sheepshead, which is a pretty big seabass for inshore waters, I have only seen them around 5 and 6 inches at the largest besides when we have been fishing at wrecks on our boat.

Wyatt caught a 26" ribbonfish casting a gulp swimming mullet under the bridge. They are pretty wild looking.