Headed East

[The Mad Duck 0]

A buddy and I are headed to Eastern NC this morning to Bream/Bass fish. This weekend will be a fun one. We are both taking old Shakespeare Glass rods with Pflueger Medalist reels hung on them for a weekend of old school fun. Traditionally, whe week before and after the full moon in May are the weeks where the biggest Bream of the year are caught here in NC. This is our first trip down since covid hit,so we are both ready to spank some Bream tails!!! All Kayak, All old school gear!!

[gillage 0]

Woohoo !

Post some pics and details if you get a chance.

Would love to hear some tales of the "Battle of the Bream"

Tight Lines and safe travels.

[Steeldrifter 0]

Good luck to you guys. Nice to see you able to get back out fishing more again rather than working so much 👍

[The Mad Duck 0]

We fished 1/2 a day today.Between my buddy and I , we caught well over 75 Bream. We didn't find any sizeable ones to write home about. I did catch 2 Bass over 4 pounds each on the 3wt. Lots of fun there. Very windy today NE 10-15. Warm front moves in tonight, 90 degrees tomorrow, low winds!!

MORE LATER

[skeet3t 0]

Sounds like a trip down memory lane. I have a South Bend fiberglass rod and Medalist reel. Still use it for ol' time's sake.

Photos, please?????

[The Mad Duck 0]

Too tired for photos tonight. On the water at 6:30 and just getting back to the motel. Food, Shower,SLEEP. A day and a half fishing in a kayak is enough to remind me that I am over 60!!!

[gillage 0]

10 hours ago, The Mad Duck said:

Too tired for photos tonight. On the water at 6:30 and just getting back to the motel. Food, Shower,SLEEP. A day and a half fishing in a kayak is enough to remind me that I am over 60!!!

Wow,  FULL DAY!

Rest up and tight lines.

 

[The Mad Duck 0]

Ok guys, sorry for the delayed report,but we got home late Sunday and we moved our office to a new space,so its been a pretty busy week.

Day one was a 6 hour day. We got down around 11:00am and went straight to the ramp and dropped the kayaks in the water. The creeks we fish down east are all blackwater creeks that look like coffee ,but are actually very clear. I headed upstream and my buddy headed downstream. I started catching fish almost immediately,mostly smaller fish (Brean and Bass). I was catching numbers but not the size of fish that we normally catch in this particular creek. About 10 minutes in, I felt a slight tap on the line and came tight on what felt like a medium size Bream. As I pulled the fish away from the brush pile it was laid up next to, it headed into deeper water like the Bream down there do. Once in deeper water, I realized that this was a good fish. Several minutes later, a nice Bass of around 4 lbs came to the net. I reached into my pocket and...no phone. I realized that I had left it in the truck. I released the Bass and went back to fishing. I was steadily catching Bream 6-7 inches long, nothing to write home about and nothing like I catch in my little pond at home. I saw my buddy rounding the bend and heading my way. He had found some larger fish downstream and tried calling me. He was worried and came looking for me. While we sat and talked I continued to cast. I flipped a fly up next to a large Cypress knee and had a nice thump almost immediately. I knew this wasnt a Bream. We tore up the creek for a few minutes and a Bass that could have been the twin to the one I had caught earlier, got airborne. He made a few more jumps and calmed down and came to the side of the boat. I grabbed the net and started easing it up under him. That's when things went south. I had the net under the fish and it decided to get airborne again. When he did, my fly line tip wrapped my rod and snapped the top 3 inches off of one of Steve's pretty rods that he made for me. It happened with that sickening  snap that we have all heard. To top off injury to insult, the fish flopped out of the net and swam off. We fished back to the ramp and pulled the boats out. We ended up with 60+/- Bream each and 4-5 Bass each. My buddy also ended up with a nice Chain Pickerel and a Blackfish. Once off the water we checked in, had a couple of chilled adult beverages and a nice meal at the restaurant next door. 

Day Two, we were pumped up for. We had decided to fish a creek that usually yields fewer fish,but normally much larger fish. When we got there we found that  the creek was between 18-24 inches lower than normal. Not a good thing for Bream fishing. The Bream beds that we normally fish, were high and dry. We put over and headed to our first spot. We looked for our first bed...dry. The second bed was dry as well. We regrouped and re strategized. We went to a length of shoreline that normally holds lots of fish and pushed off the bank into a bit deeper water. These types of creeks have a very shallow area,then they drop immediately to about 15 -20 feet. We started fishing the top of the drop off and started catching fish. These fish were larger than the ones from the day before,but, stil not the larger fish we were looking for. We fished all day (6:30am to 7:00pm) and ended up catching over 100 Bream each, a few Shellcrackers and 5-10 Bass each, none of which were of any size. My friend threw a beetlespin for a while and picked up a couple of Pickerel as well. That was a long day with a ton of fish,but still haden't found the larger fish we wanted to catch.

Sunday was day 3 and we planned to fish until about 11:00am, then head home. We went back to the creek that we had fished the first day. It was amazing how things changed in 2 days. I went downstream Sunday. I stopped at a Bream Bed I have been catching fish from for years. I caught fish on my first 10 casts. These were the nicest fish of the whole trip. I caught those first 20 fish, then backed off of the bed, tied on a new fly because they had obliterated the fly I was using. I eased back up to the bed and went right back to catching fish. I banged on that bed for close to 30 minutes before it cooled off. I caught 35 fish in that first bed. I spent the next 4 hours selectively fishing beds that I had found over the years and just pulled fish hand over fist. Most of these fish were 7-8 inches long,again, still not the size we were hoping for,but still tons of fun. The last stop for me was a hole that traditionally holds a bunch of large Shellcrackers. When I turned the bend in the creek, I could see water moving back in the pocket where this bed is. I flipped a combo of a Hopper/dropper into the bed and immediately hooked on 2 nice shell crackers, one on each fly. Wow, what a ride. I managed to get both fish in and went right back in. I took close to 20 Shellcrackers from that bed. I tried just outside of the bed in water that was a couple feet deeper and found some decent Bream in the deeper water. My last cast into the bed got a really big strike and I pulled a Shellcracker that weighed between 1/2 pound to 3/4 of a pound. The last photo is that Shellcracker. Unfortunately, the photo was shot from 50 feet away and the fish doesn't look as large as it was.  If you 'll notice though, my whole thumb is in that fishes mouth with room to spare. We paddled back to the ramp,loaded up and headed home after that. Totals for the last day were well over 100 fish each with a mix of Bream,Shellcrackers,Bass,Pickerel, Blackfish and a couple of Warmouths.  So, the last day was the most productive day. All in all a great weekend. I'm ready to head back down!!!

A side note. A lot of these fish were caught on the Old School Rigs that we took with us,but those old glss rods get heavy after while, so we did fish newer rods as well.

 

 

 

[gillage 0]

Great report, nice fish and best of all fishing time with a friend.

Doesn't hardly get better than that!

Thanks for the report and pics, well done.

[Steeldrifter 0]

Sounds like a fun time for sure. Except the tip break which from what I read sounded like it happened the first day, uhg. No worries I'll get that fixed up for ya.

Some real nice sized bream you guy got into there.