Men in the Arena

The more I fish the more apparent it is all I do not know.

Henry and I had planned on a two day red fish adventure to break the grey cold wintery cycle and we decided to focus on the Wilmington, NC area as, in our mind, the most northerly watershed where we might reasonably expect winter redfish action.  It turns out that our anticipation to fish caused us to hustle past our (great) guide’s local knowledge of his water.   Capt. Jud and I had linked up about a month ago and agreed to a go-no-go decision about 48 hours from the trip.   Jud knowing the tendencies of the micro climate suggested we hold for more favorable weather, but fortified by excitement and plans made we took our chances.  

After picking up Henry in Raleigh we made our way down Hwy 40 to Wilmington and had a great dinner at Georges on the Wilmington Riverwalk.   Strengthened by ribeye and beer we checked the weather and it still looked decent 65 and 12-15 MPH wind.  After a hearty breakfast we headed to our link-up boat ramp at Fort Fisher on the tip of the Wrightsville Beach (Barrier Island).  As we left the hospitable climes 5-miles inshore and felt the bite of the Atlantic winds the weather as Jud forecast it would grew rougher, grayer and windier.    The plan was to fish the grass flats of Bald Island refuge which sits right in the mouth of the Cape Fear River, with Southport, NC to the south across the shipping channel and Fort Fisher to the North.

Henry and I exchanged “oh-shit what have we done” glances for a second, then silently decided to do our best with the conditions.  Fortunately this trip was as much about red fish flats education and area recon as about catching and we knew we’d learn a lot. Jud pulled in a few minutes later pulling an elegant 17’ Beavertail skiff.    I’m not a skiff expert (yet) but this skiff was a perfectly tuned fishing machine; clean lines, simple, high quality.  We stowed our gear (grabbed an extra jack or two) and headed out.  With steady 15-mph winds and choppy discolored water we knew we wouldn’t be sight casting so we didn’t take extra fly rods knowing we’d be survey-casting spinning rods to cut through the wind and cover all the water we could. We had a great time on the water.   The boat, Jud and the flats were right out of a World Fishing network Redfish Spot, but the weather, probably mostly the change in the barometric pressure conspired to keep the reds from biting.   As Jud poled us through semi-sheltered tight estuary channels as the tide went high then fell.   We saw mud boils as we spooked the reds but couldn’t get them to activate.  

We’ll be back to this area and with Jud again.    If you are looking to book reds in the Wilmington Area look him up http://www.muddyflyguideservice.com/