Neuse Trip 24 thru 27th

Hit the Neuse River area with my fishing partner BParker. We stayed at a small cottage at the mouth of Dawson Creek, in the Janiero area, just 5 miles from Oriental.

24th....arrived at the cottage and put our gear in the house and launched the boat. The cottage has a nice dock so we didn't have to do anything but run to the boat, get in and fish for the time we were there. Man that is the way its suppose to be... Started out into the Neuse but the winds were whipping and white capping, we went about a 1/2 mile or so across and decided to nix that and go back to Dawsons Creek to fish.

Looked around and found a few spots to check out. Called it a little early, went back to the house and fixed supper. Later the winds and rain decided to turn on us and we went fishing anyway. Caught a few small red drum on Carolina rigs. We fished until about 9:30Pm and called it a night.




25th....headed back up Dawson Creek looking for an early morning topwater bite, we are still looking for it.. We did manage a few more rat reds.


After lunch we headed back out and worked our way on the Neuse River. Found a few big menhaden and put em in the livewell for the nights festivities. We sat out and went to a shoal we had checked out earlier in the afternoon. We dropped anchor about 7Pm and sit til 9PM. Pulled anchor and moved about a 1/2 mile farther down river. No fish, just a lot of bait stealers. We called it quits about 11PM when the winds got up and put a good chop on the water.

26th.....Made a run down river and checked out a new area. Casting gulp and grubs we managed to catch a lot of small flounder and a couple of keepers. We wanted some fresh fish so we kept 2 for supper.


We found the mother load of menhaden in the 5-8 inch range and grabbed a quick cooler fun for that nights festivities.. We headed out for another action packed night with high expectaitions...the moon was bright and full.


We headed to our first place for the night and sat up right before dark. This was a location we had caught a lot of bull reds last year and hoped to repeat that performance.We put 5 lines in the water and started the waiting game. Lots of bait stealers.....check the bait every 15 minutes or so. Finally we had a hit and game on....41 inches


Released this fish and put lines back out. Sit there for about an hour and then line rips and screams again.. I grab the rod and fish is tearing drag. Finally get it close to the boat and big old cow nose ray.

We pulled up anchor and checked 2 more areas we had checked out with the depth finder from the following afternoon. Still no fish but plenty of bait stealers. We called it a night about 3am.

27.....headed out about 8:30AM to the Neuse again and headed towards Oriental looking for a big shoal I had heard about. We found the shoal and a nice 5 to 7 to 9 to 13 foot quick drop. Great location for reds to follow. We anchored up and put 5 lines in the water. Tons of bait stealers. Winds are picking up and the chop on the water is getting kinda rough. Perfect conditions for red drum fishing.

Finally one of my rods got hit and grabbed it as it screamed out........finally get it close to the boat and low and behold... another big cow nose ray. I've got to leave these things alone.. We fished til about noon and called it a week.


We found a lot of great places to fish and stumbled across a few fish to bite our hooks. We didn't exactly stock up and bust the red drum open but we still had a blast. Always good when you are out with a good friend. We will be back again next year and try our luck again. We did hear some reports and a few people on the radio chatter of some being caught. However they didn't give out the locations.

This is only our 2nd year of chasing these magnificient fish and we have learned a ton of information. We continue to study up on them and hope to put this info to the test again next year. We fished a little later last year, September time frame, an may adjust for that next year. Give the fish time to get farther up the river.

Be safe out there and watch the winds....the Neuse can get bad real quick.



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Thanks for the great report-Scott