by Joyce Deaton

Been fishing lately? Pilot has – and how. Last issue we launched the first in a three-part series designed to aid the novice fisherman. We’ve been contacting experts at tackle shops throughout the Cape Fear area asking what gear they’d recommend for fishing the coastal waters – inshore, near-shore and offshore. This time we bring you the second installment of that feature, aimed at near-shore fishing from about 10 miles to 30 miles out.

For advice, we went to Wes Barbour, owner of Island Tackle and Hardware in Carolina Beach, and Capt. Brant McMullan, owner and manager of Ocean Isle Fishing Center in Ocean Isle. Avid fisherman themselves, they shared their tips for tackle and technique in this richly populated area of the Atlantic. There’s even more at their shops’ web sites, islandtacklehardware.com and oifc.com. These experts say the best fishing for this distance calls for two techniques: bottom fishing and trolling.

Wes’s Tackle Box

Bottom Fishing

Target fish for bottom fishing include red grouper, gag grouper, pink snapper, black sea bass and scamp. Rocky bottoms and ledges are the best spots for finding plenty of these fish.

You’ll need some 10- to 16-oz. bank sinkers, 7/0 to 8/0 circle hooks and 150- to 200-pound leader line, plus 80-pound monofilament or 100-pound test braided line on your reels. You’ll also need some 150-pound test barrel swivels to connect your line and leader to make sure the line swings free and doesn’t tangle. Use 4/0 reels and 5 ½ to 6-foot stand-up rods. For bait, use cigar minnows, Spanish sardines or squid.

Secure a good spot by anchoring your boat directly above a ledge. Drop your lines straight down and wait for a bite. “As soon as you feel a bite, pull up with the rod to set the hook and immediately start reeling,” says Barbour. “This ensures that the fish doesn’t go back under the ledge and break your line or get you hung. Keep reeling hard, and you should soon land the fish.” If you aren’t getting a bite very soon, you should move to another spot. “Sometimes even if you are off by 10 feet, it can make a difference,” he says.

Trolling

By trolling, you can land challenging fish such as king mackerel, mahi mahi, cobia and amberjack. Take some live bait such as menhaden, blue runners, bluefish or threadfin herring. For these, of course, you need a live well on your boat or a cooler that can keep the bait alive. Use live bait rigs and 60-pound braided wire, 4x treble hooks for nose and tail hooks, and 75-pound test barrel swivels. You can also add king busters or beads to make your rig even more appealing to the fish.

If you prefer, you can use “hardware” instead of live bait. Barbour recommends 3 1/2-inch drone spoons as well as #5 planers on downriggers to help the lures dive.

You’ll need 25 feet of 150-pound leader line and a 150-pound coastlock swivel connecting to the planer. The swivel will make it easier to take the leader line on and off and will allow for movement. For surface lines, use a skirted-type lure with strip bait or ballyhoo and #2 planers on a 150-pound class rod.

You’ll need reels capable of holding 500 yards of 20-pound test line with a retrieval ratio of 6 to 1. And you’ll need 12- to 20-pound 7-foot rods.

Look for your target fish above ledges, wrecks, rocky live bottoms and weed lines or patches. Most trollers use six lines, with two of the six on downriggers adjusted for the water depth. Keep a very light drag on the reels to allow the fish to strike the bait and run with it in his mouth without knowing there’s a hook and line attached.

Once the initial run is completed, you can set the hook and begin reeling. “Finesse is the name of the game here,” says Barbour. “Remember you are using very light line compared to the hopefully heavy fish on the other end.” Let the fish run and tire itself out as you continue to retrieve your line. If the fish wants to run, let it run with a loose drag, maintaining minimal pressure.

“The team effort comes into play then, as you must choreograph the angler and the mate with the gaff,” he says. Be sure you communicate the direction of the fish’s movement and his energy level with your gaffer. “Once you have this synchronized, hopefully a nice fish will be sliding into a chilled icebox,” Barbour says with a smile.

Capt. Brant’s Tackle Box

Bottom Fishing

For grouper and snapper, you’ll need some 8/0 circle hooks, 150-pound test monofilament leader and 150-pound three-way swivels. Also take along some long 2/0 or 4/0 long shank hooks and some bank sinkers in 6, 8 and 12-ounce sizes to get your bait down to the bottom. Use this tackle on a Penn Center 4/0 Redface reel with 80-pound test PowerPro braid line and a Star EX-7040 rod.

You can find charts showing the location of wrecks at tackle shops and online. Anchor over the one of your choice, bait your hook with frozen cigar minnows, half of a Boston mackerel or any hand-size live fish, drop your line to the bottom and wait, says McMullan.

Trolling

For king mackerel, use Eagle Claw L774 treble hooks, #4 piano wire for leader and #8 SPRO power swivels. McMullan recommends the Shimano Speedmaster reel with 400 yards of 20-pound Sufix line on a Star DLXKF 7-foot live bait action rod. For bait, use frozen cigar minnows or live menhaden.

For cobia and dolphin, use a 2-ounce chartreuse bucktail jig and 30-pound fluorocarbon leader. Using squid for bait, put all this on a Shimano Trevala 58XXH rod with a Shimano Sustain 8000 reel and 300 yards of 80-pound PowerPro braid. If you like, you can use the bucktail jig for sight fishing as well. Otherwise simply troll slowly until your target takes the bait.

“Use local knowledge to find the fish,” says McMullan, who also operates a charter fishing service through Ocean Isle Fishing Center. His shop, for example, posts a fish report every day on its web site. You can also call tackle shops or talk to charter captains, who are generally glad to share what they know.

“Fish to the seasons,” adds McMullan. “June through July and October through November are best, but you can catch fish all the time at this distance.” The width of the coastal shelf off the North Carolina coast creates a rich environment. “In South Florida, you go two miles offshore and you’re at the Gulf Stream, while here we have 50 miles with lots of structures to work with. This makes for very good coastal fishing.”