First, the far. Last Fall I booked a trout fishing trip with Capt. Josh Sutton (@pamlico_point) who fishes the Pamlico River in NC. He’s a relatively new guide but already has a reputation for putting clients on big girls and a big conservation supporter and all around awesome guy. I invited best bud Ray @bosnray to join. We weren’t sure what to expect after the big freeze, but even Josh was pleasantly surprised and quite relieved that the fishery is gonna be just fine. We had two full days of grinding, as most big trout trips are, with a lot of smaller fish and a few big ones mixed in. Day 3 we had that big storm pushing in (the one they closed school for here). We thought maybe we had a half day before all hell broke loose. So, we went out, all feeling pretty tired and sore. As the morning progressed, the winds increased 15 to 20 to 30 to gusting to 40. Once the winds hit 30 the trout pushed up into shallow water and lost their minds! It was total insanity. At the height of it Ray catches his BP by almost 4", a 27.75" monster and as Josh is filming his release I’m hooked up to a 26" We wanted to have lines in the water so when we caught a big one we put it in the well and kept fishing. When all was said and done we had about 35 lbs of trout in the livewell… Once the rain started it stopped so we went to a wind shaded area and made our entry films for the Speckled Truth Heavy Hitters tournament. What a day. If you want a great guide in NC look up Josh at Pamlico Point Fishing Charters. I can’t guarantee results like we had but it won’t be for lack of effort.
On the near side, yesterday I took a day to see if Peapod left me any trout to catch I had a really good day with maybe 12 trout incl. 4 at 18"+ (one was a 19" male…old fish!) and a really nice 22" at 3.5 lb. I think its gonna be a good spring for big ones. Please handle with care, release and enter into Release Over 20". If we all do our part and let these breeders go we’ll have more and better quality fish for us, our kids, and grandkids to catch. That 22" was almost certainly female, age 5 and will spawn more than 20 million eggs this season alone.
I’ve been fishing Harkers lately and some days we run up there.
We’ve mainly been fishing those big grass humps and the drops around them.
The stuff behind Portsmouth Island where the Pamlico empties is,well,you know. Especially on a west wind.
Good stuff, and a fun read. Thanks for the pics
@barbawang I wonder how many of those 20 million trout eggs make it to a 5 year old breeder fish like the one the guy from Store – Eye Strike Fishing is holding? Enquiring minds and such…
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I’ll try to look up annual mortality figures by age tomorrow and do some sliding on my abacus. The answer is a lottery jackpot sort of number as you already know.
Dave, just wow. Different class of fish. Those yellow backs scream lower salinity to me, but I know nothing about the area or the fishery. I do know that Ray and you must have been howling into the gale at some point though, as well you should. Thanks for sharing and keep up the awesome work!
EF it was my first time there so I’m not too familiar with it, but we were in some creeks that looked to be closer to the mouth of the river, and also approximately mid point in the river, but we were definitely in offshoots of the river.
If I lived in that area, I would be a lot more messed in the head chasing those giants. Imagine a day when they get rid of the gill nets in NC - it would be maybe the worlds best fishery, or at least in the discussion.
BTW I saw yesterday that new NC regs for trout when the fishery reopens in June, is basically Release Over 20. A 20" upper slot with one over 26 allowed. And a commercial closure on weekends. If this is true, that makes now 2 states that have implemented RO20 by regulation since we started the program. We are not out to change regs, but I can’t help but think that widespread public support of releasing over 20 informs the legislation and the public’s acceptance of it. Texas, is seeing the best trout fishing in 30 years as a result. Pretty awesome IMHO.
Always appreciate your fisheries biology input barbawang, I’m constantly trying to learn myself. I tell people that if you look at it from high level, we are not necessarily seeing 10x more trout each year, the number maybe increasing but each year maybe less than 2x if no fish kills - just going by observation. But the more fish are out there spawning the more we will have - and better genetics presumably.
One of our Board members shared a book passage from an account from a hundred years ago ish. Here’s the quote: “There is…good fishing all along this Coast, especially from October till Christmas,” an official reported from South Carolina. He added, apparently with only limited exaggeration, “I’ve seen two {people} take between 14 and 1,500 trouts above 3 feet long”
And to answer your question, yes, we were super stoked. Ray’s hat blew off in the middle of it and it didn’t land for about 200 yards away - to give you an idea of how windy it was. The power pole was dragging us along. I’m not sure about the salinity but I think it was relatively high. Josh said years ago it was very low, but in the past several years it has been in the double digits ppt.
Charlie Wenner’s book on trout remains the best reference I have, and although it’s dated, their annual mortality estimate on SC SST was 70%. Over a 5 year iteration, that would leave 0.24%, which is 48,600 fish from the original egg number… which is not a realistic estimate of annual recruitment to the population, btw… way less than those 20m eggs would make it to the year 0 cohort
We have used that reference extensively in our RO20 posts. We’re really lucky to have such a great DNR in SC. That statement you show is really impactful and we use this one a lot. If you start with 1,000 trout at year 0, only 8 will remain at year 4. And that is a 20" trout in SC.
I hope and pray we can get our trout fishery to the same point of NC. I started fishing NC coast exclusively 2 years ago fall into winter and finally found the pattern and location of the giants. It can be a grind but once you find them the thump is incredible!!! Release those 20+ inchers!
We wanted to have lines in the water so when we caught a big one we put it in the well and kept fishing. When all was said and done we had about 35 lbs of trout in the livewell… Once the rain started it stopped so we went to a wind shaded area and made our entry films for the Speckled Truth Heavy Hitters tournament. What a day. If you want a great guide in NC look up Josh at Pamlico Point Fishing Charters. I can’t guarantee results like we had but it won’t be for lack of effort.
