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Trout in the sound

Trout in the sound




I'm curious if anyone has been doing any sound fishing and seeing trout? It's been so windy on the weekends since, well, about November that I got out for the first time in the kayak yesterday near Buxton. This is the time in years past we would catch studs. I caught one small trout ~15" and no others. I've seen that there have been some studs caught in VA recently. I'm hoping the cold kill didn't have too much of an impact down here. I saw lots of pics of dead trout this winter, but there were sooooo many in recent years I was expecting to see a few more than 1 yesterday. I'll be hitting it hard the next few weeks weather depending.

On the bright side, the drum were playing. We caught a few with the largest at 26", 29" and 32" so that was nice. The 26" with some steamed shrimp from O'Neals is for dinner tonight.


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RE: Trout in the sound




I will say the cold affected them this winter. We are soundside Frisco and they are out there but have not come up to the shallows as quick as last year.
Last year this time we could consistently catch them in the AM in 4-6 ft of water at 72 degrees water temp. When the water hits a constant 75+ the trout just go wild until October.
My advice would be to go deeper and present lures aggressively.


RE: Trout in the sound




Deeper isn't much an option as I am in a kayak and even 2+ miles out from our usual launch spots... it's shallow. I can get to deeper water launching from the Rodanthe boat ramp. I caught one about 23-24" yesterday, but that was the only one. It definitely feels like they were affected quite a bit. This is the time of year when at least one citation sized fish was guaranteed every trip the past few years on the flats. Not so much this year. If you're familiar with the area behind and east of the high school, there's a deeper slough of sorts that parallels the shore, inside of the duck blinds. It's about 6' deep. I'll try some jigs in that slough the next time out. Historically, for us, the shallow water held the gators, but that's the water most accessible so it's what we hammered.

The drum fishing is fantastic though. You have to really try hard to get a keeper. Most everything has been over slot. For the fun factor, finding a school of drum is tough to beat. Some good size blues in the mix as well, but no big choppers. 3-4lbs seems to be the size and they are mixed in with the drum.


RE: Trout in the sound




Deeper isn't much an option as I am in a kayak and even 2+ miles out from our usual launch spots... it's shallow. I can get to deeper water launching from the Rodanthe boat ramp. I caught one about 23-24" yesterday, but that was the only one. It definitely feels like they were affected quite a bit. This is the time of year when at least one citation sized fish was guaranteed every trip the past few years on the flats. Not so much this year. If you're familiar with the area behind and east of the high school, there's a deeper slough of sorts that parallels the shore, inside of the duck blinds. It's about 6' deep. I'll try some jigs in that slough the next time out. Historically, for us, the shallow water held the gators, but that's the water most accessible so it's what we hammered.

The drum fishing is fantastic though. You have to really try hard to get a keeper. Most everything has been over slot. For the fun factor, finding a school of drum is tough to beat. Some good size blues in the mix as well, but no big choppers. 3-4lbs seems to be the size and they are mixed in with the drum.

Mstaszew

When I am saying deeper I wouldn't say you have to go more than 200-250 yards out soundside hatteras to hit 10-20ft of water where we have been getting trout south of the Hatteras High School.
I will 2nd the drum bite as far as good but also the keeper part is tough we pulled in 11 in 2 hrs and my arms got tired. We have not hit any blues soundside and I am happy about that because all they do is destroy tackle.


RE: Trout in the sound




I hit the old Mann’s Harbor bridge on Monday looking for sheepshead. No sheepshead, but I picked up trout on a bottom sweeper w/ sand fleas. I lost my nerve about 20 pilings shy of the center span coming from the west. The wind picked up and there were massive boats running through at full speed so I turned back.

Overall the trout are in far fewer numbers this year where I fish. The size of fish I caught were mostly good for the table if there was a season, but no gators. The drum bite more than makes up for it.

I haven’t launched from Hatteras yet. Dad and I checked out the beach behind the CG station a few years ago, but there was a water filled hole at the start that blocked us. I walked in to test the depth and it was knee deep so we bailed and never tried again. Frisco Woods is as far south as we launch and then we’ll head south to the day use area and hit that flat before working back. I need to check out Hatteras launch spots again. We generally avoid concrete boat ramps as that’s hard on the gear and can be slippery. My dad and stepdad are in their 70’s.


RE: Trout in the sound




I fish the Norfolk, Chesapeake area twice a week. The red fish are plentiful and a few rock fish, but I have only seen one trout so far, which is very unusual. All of my go to trout spots have been dead. I guess the cold stun was worse than I thought.




RE: Trout in the sound




I fish the Norfolk, Chesapeake area twice a week. The red fish are plentiful and a few rock fish, but I have only seen one trout so far, which is very unusual. All of my go to trout spots have been dead. I guess the cold stun was worse than I thought.

chief5130


That's how it seems. Our pool guy said he's caught some really nice ones up above Nags Head and I've seen sporadic pics from charter guys of mostly small trout. They'll be back in the numbers from before. This was my largest drum this year thus far. That's a 32" Ketch board.

My OBX fishing has come to a close until Fall though. Maybe I'll bump into you in VA somewhere at some point. I fish from a green Old Town pedal yak although they are pretty common. I have family in Urbanna and KW county and do some fishing that way in the summer. Mostly the Rapp and Mobjack. Last year I hit the HRBT on two trips, from both sides, and caught a lot of oyster toads and microscopic croakers. I was drifting a live pig fish on the east side of Fort Wool in ~25' of water and something smoked it. I assume it was a very large ray, but I never saw it and couldn't slow it down. The highlight of the trip was seeing a carrier group return when we launched from the Willoughby ramp.




RE: Trout in the sound




Yesterday the trout showed up in Hatteras soundside. We caught 7 in 40 minutes. But was mid day in just 2 feet of water. I will also “spot burn and post where we caught them.
They were not 100 feet from the shoreline in shallow water.
This was soundside behind Brigands Bay.




RE: Trout in the sound




Yesterday the trout showed up in Hatteras soundside. We caught 7 in 40 minutes. But was mid day in just 2 feet of water. I will also “spot burn and post where we caught them.
They were not 100 feet from the shoreline in shallow water.
This was soundside behind Brigands Bay.

Alexy



Yes! I'm jealous...not that I would have caught any, but cheer those that do. We're coming back down June 16th and I am so excited to try and fish. I have caught a couple in Brigand's shockingly by mistake I am quite sure. Everyone was surprised. So happy you guys had a nice fishing trip!

I'll pm you this summer and see when you and wife are down. Would so love to meet y'all. We couldn't come back down earlier given construction at our home in VA and the darn rain.


RE: Trout in the sound




Yesterday the trout showed up in Hatteras soundside. We caught 7 in 40 minutes. But was mid day in just 2 feet of water. I will also “spot burn and post where we caught them.
They were not 100 feet from the shoreline in shallow water.
This was soundside behind Brigands Bay.

Alexy


Any size? I have left the beach for the summer and won't be back until late Aug/early Sept so my OBX fishing is on pause for a little bit.

You guys are right there at some of the best trout fishing in the world. I'll die on that hill. I fish a little to the east of there simply due to being in a kayak, but I can only imagine that it's just as awesome all the way up to the bend there. One day I'd like to do a one way trip from Canadian Hole down to the Frisco day use area. I have a pile of GoPro videos from the flats to the east of you of monster trout, several over 8 lbs and good size drum. I haven't taken the time to learn editing yet to put together a cohesive fishing video so I only have unlisted clips posted on YouTube I share with friends and fam who fish.


RE: Trout in the sound




Yesterday the trout showed up in Hatteras soundside. We caught 7 in 40 minutes. But was mid day in just 2 feet of water. I will also “spot burn and post where we caught them.
They were not 100 feet from the shoreline in shallow water.
This was soundside behind Brigands Bay.

Alexy


Any size? I have left the beach for the summer and won't be back until late Aug/early Sept so my OBX fishing is on pause for a little bit.

You guys are right there at some of the best trout fishing in the world. I'll die on that hill. I fish a little to the east of there simply due to being in a kayak, but I can only imagine that it's just as awesome all the way up to the bend there. One day I'd like to do a one way trip from Canadian Hole down to the Frisco day use area. I have a pile of GoPro videos from the flats to the east of you of monster trout, several over 8 lbs and good size drum. I haven't taken the time to learn editing yet to put together a cohesive fishing video so I only have unlisted clips posted on YouTube I share with friends and fam who fish.

Mstaszew

smallest was 11" biggest was 19" all were caught on gulp


RE: Trout in the sound





smallest was 11" biggest was 19" all were caught on gulp

Alexy


Good size for the table once we get our season back in a few weeks.


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