During the past week or so, it’s been warm, sunny and very pleasant. Most days have been more than fishable, and on the calmest days, I went drum fishing – and we absolutely killed them this past weekend. 2007 is going to be an epic year for drum – and what I am seeing now is only a taste.

On friday 3/23, I went out alone to do a bit of scouting and found fish in every spot I stopped. The water is crystal clear this time of year, and it 2 hours of fishing, I saw hundreds and hundreds of fish. During that time I found 6 tight schools numbering from approx. 50 fish to upwards of 150…all of which were in less than 3′ of water. In addition, I saw probably 50 singles, doubles and groups of 3-5. As the water was so clear that I could count the spots on their tails, the small groups and singles proved to be a challenge as I was fishing alone and used the trolling motor in leau of poling (you spook fewer fish when poling). But I still managed to boat 2 singles and I caught a fish from every schools I found….the big schools were not spooky at all and i could get within 10-20 foot and hooked up as soon as my bait hit the water (i caught all fish on spinnerbaits and weightless jerkbaits). A fly-caster would have gone crazy!

In addition, I found one school that had a dozen or so fish in it that were easily between 35-40 inches. Big mommas! Even so, all the fish I landed were between 23 and 30 inches…and very thick!

3/23 & 3/24 – The fishign was just as hot but the spring-tides (Very low water) made it a bit difficult…but we still found good schools of fish every where we went – AWESOME.

3/28 – I went out with my buddy Captain Scott today to find a few seamullet…and it was on! We fished for a mere 45 minutes before I had to drop him off for work – and we were in a hot bite the entire time! We landed about 16 fish that were all around 1lb, give or take a few ounces. Scott got the biggun of the day, landing a 2lb beast. Also in the mix were lots of small gray trout, some nice croakers, small hake, etc.

For those of you who don’t know – seamullet are great eating (one of my favorite) and a lot of fun to boot. It’s one reason I love fishing in april…we fish for Bonito in the early AM and can load up on seamullet when we get inside the inlet!

FYI – It’s almost

[b]BONITO[/b] time! My favorite fish, they’re excellent fighters and fantastic on the table – they only stay around for a short time (4-6 weeks) and SE NC is one of the few places on the east coast were you can catch them! PS – the water is warming up quickly this year and I anticipate them making a fairly early appearance.
[b]I have a few good dates still open (including a couple sundays) – but they are going fast![/b]

Also, I have a few dates left for

[b]Roanoke River stripes[/b] – MAy 2, 6 and 9 being about it!

Two of my eight slot reds from Friday 3/23.

If you look very closely, you can see the shapes of fish from a school of approx 75 slot drum!

Beaucoup big seamullet!