Week 18. Gary Dubiel: Spec Fever

The Neuse River flows from the piney woods of the North Carolina piedmont to the choppy shoals of the Pamlico Sound. Along its course, it goes from being a freshwater bass fishery, to a brackish nursery for speckled trout and rockfish, to a salty superhighway for migratory red drum. 

““In six months, you can fish three very different environments and never leave the Neuse River system.””

In the middle of it all is the riverside hamlet of Oriental, where Captain Gary Dubiel runs Spec Fever Guide Service. From there, he can launch upriver or downriver depending on the conditions and season, or can cruise down the intercoastal to the ocean if the saltwater gamefish are running. 

It’s not uncommon to catch a half dozen different species in a day on the Neuse, though the real king of the river is the red drum. They’re born and raised in the creeks and return years later as adults to spawn. Gary’s there to meet them each fall with an innovative technique called the “pop-n-fly.”

I caught up with Captain Gary on a Saturday afternoon recently after Beau Beasley, author of Fly Fishing the Mid-Atlantic, put us in touch. Gary walked me through the geography of eastern Carolina, his various fishing seasons, and perhaps most important, the correct name for the red drum. 

Below are my questions in bold, followed by his answers.

It sounds like you fish a diversity of water from freshwater to brackish to saltwater.  What would you say our some of your “home waters” and can you give me a quick geography lesson of the eastern Carolina waterways? 

Capt. Gary with a Neuse rock

Starting from freshwater and heading downstream, the Trent River and the upper stretches of the Neuse River above New Bern are fairly narrow, and anywhere from half a mile to a few miles wide. There’s a bit more of a channel, and the water ranges from about 8-10 feet on the shoreline to 35 feet, and there’s more current than downriver.  The river here is lined with very old bald Cypress trees with very little development and is a pretty remarkable place. There’s a lot of Spanish moss and it has a swampy southern look about it.  You get a mix in the fresh water of largemouth, very large panfish including yellow perch and white perch and crappie, and in the winter, pickerel.  In fact we just caught a very large 7 lb. chain pickerel. 

Downstream of New Bern and in the lower 20 miles of the river, we sort of get a mixed environment. We have very large creek systems that are relatively shallow and have dark, muddy bottom, and tend to warm up quickly in the spring. The bait fish will get in these, and the spotted sea trout fishery is very good. These are surrounded by marsh grass and pines and hardwoods, and almost look like a lake. They have no tidal flow either, to it’s almost like lake fishing for saltwater fish. We’ll get the occasional flounder or redfish, but these are really tremendous for speckled trout. 

Our NC river systems have a resident population of striped bass that has nothing to do with the oceanic stock.  They live and spawn and spend almost all of their life on the river. They’ll mostly stay on the Neuse but swim up and down and migrate out toward the sound. When you get into the eastern sound, there are very large marsh areas. It almost has a Louisiana look, with miles and miles of spartina trees in the distance on the shoreline. It’s a very unique, very different environment. 

So in six months, you can fish three very different environments and never leave the river system. 

What are your major fishing seasons? What are some of the seasonal cues you look for and anticipate? 

Spring

Very early spring, in late February until about late March, we’ll get the first big push of hickory and American shad that will work their way upstream and pass through the striped bass. 

They usually start hitting when the water is in the upper 40s and gets above 50, but the migration seems to be much more associated with time than temperature, so perhaps it’s related to length of daytime. However, sometimes there are local effects from the temperature — for example, you might have a hard time catching fish when cold front comes in and get skunked, and then two days later it warms up you catch a bunch of fish in the same exact spot.  The other thing you can do is head out in the morning when it’s a bit cooler and darker and go striper fishing — which tend to fish a bit better with low sun and colder temps — and then when you have the warmer sunny afternoon, fish the shad a bit when they turn on. We get very big shad up to a 6 lb bull shad. A big striper for us is about 30”, with most of our residents averaging about 16-24”. 

Into March, we have a very good creek system that are relatively shallow at about 4-6 feet with a dark, muddy bottom, and these warm up quickly. The bait fish will stack up in here, and it’s a tremendous speckled trout fishery. You’ll get the occasional red and flounder in there but it’s really amazing for trout. 

Summer

That pattern will continue through May, and until the water gets warm and up into the 70s.  At this point, the specs will pull out into the main river and into the sound, and the push of reds will start up the river. Post-May, the striped bass that have spawned will also start to move down, and there is just explosive top-water fishing on the main river shorelines just down from New Bern. 

Around this time, you’ll start seeing the reds in the lower portions of the river and in the sound, and it will only improve through June and July. In the high summertime, we get an influx of reds in late July of adult red drum that will move up the river to spawn. Adult means a fish above 38” — a small big fish is about 38”, an average is about 44”, and a big big fish is 54-56”, with some occasionally bigger. 

Fall 

The reds will push with increasing numbers in August and September, and peak out in mid-August to September, and then will tapper back off in first part of October.  It’s remarkable, world-class fishery for reds with relatively deep water.  It’s not a sight-fishery, but we are able to get on big schools that are busting bait.  The bait get very nervous, and we’re very successful fishing around the nervous water. We’ll occasionally get 4-6 adult fish, but will usually get 8-12. 

The rest of season, we’ll target smaller reds, trout, and striped bass around the river shorelines and mid-river. We’ll stay were we have marsh grass and tree mix around Oriental, up and down some. 

Winter

I’ll keep fishing into later November and December when the trout will move into the creeks and once the temp drops below about 50, the striped bass will start to congregate in the deeper water. 

The cool thing about the winter is that it’s not unusually to catch 5-6 different species.  If you have he right day, you can catch sea trout, false albacore, drum, striped bass, and others. 

What’s a year in the life of a red drum look like? 

Capt. Gary and red drum

It really depends by age. The fish that are five years and under, are going to be about 28” of less, and are fairly stationary.  The are born in the Neuse River and the first two years are not traveling much. They’re spending most of their time in the creek system where they grew up… maybe venturing into the river, but not really traveling. 

After the fifth year, they become more migratory and push out into the sound and the ocean. They’ll work along the ocean banks, and then sort of fade out of the picture. They’re somewhat scattered in the mid-range years, and fish that are 5-15 years old appear in some places but are hard to keep track off. 

The adult fish become sexually mature in their teenage years, and will grow as old as 40 years. When they’re adult, they become very migratory. The spend the winter in the ocean in 60-100 feet of water, and then push in to the sound in the spring. 

Our fish will typically stay around North Carolina … some will push up into Virginia, but there’s no southern migration. In the spring, they’ll move around beaches and inlets, and in the summer, will start pushing up into the inlets and the sound. They’ll start working way up to spawn in August and September, primarily in the Neuse but also in the Pamlico [River]. 

Fish have been radio tracked have been found to swim 25 miles a day.  Once they’re adult, they are much more like ocean fish that come back into estuaries, and are constantly moving. 

Do you go for other saltwater fish too? 

It’s about an hour ride for me from Oriental through the intercoastal waterway to the channel at Beaufort, and I’ll go down there often from about April through November.  

Albie run

Starting in April and May, the Atlantic bonita start running, and there’s also the occasional false albacore and Spanish mackerel off Morehead City. I start to see a few cobia in May, and a reasonable amount of cobia in June. 

We also have the best sight-fishery for sharks on the planet. When the shrimp boast are working off the beach in late May, June, and July, the sharks will get in behind them. We can pull up behind a shrimp boat and cast a fly or an artificial lure, and we can catch 400-500 lb sharks till you make your clients cry.  

In early October when the water temperatures drop, the bait moves out, and the reds will move out along the beaches. This is a peak surf-fishing for reds in mid to late October into mid to late November.  

The false albacore run also typically starts in late September or early October but peaks in mid October to mid November.  I fish those fish often during that peak time.

What are your go-to techniques and favorite flies and lures? 

I’ve developed a technique called the “pop-and-fly.”  The Neuse fishery was historically done at night with cut bait, and I started using a popping cork with a fly or artificial lure during the day time to get them to respond to noise — the popping cork drastically improves what is a day-time mediocre fishery at best and helps us consistently catch big fish. I’ll use a 10-weight floating line, with a six-foot leader to the cork, followed by a 18-24” leader after the cork.  I’ll then use a larger fly, typically tied on a size 3/0 hook with a lot of weight and motion.  I’ll give it short, sharp pulls to make noise on the surface and then stop to allow it to fall.  They’ll come up off the bottom and almost always attack it on the pause. Sometimes you’ll see them roll on it as its falling underneath. If you give it a strip-pause, it can can be tremendously effective. 

If I had to pick three specific flies, the little Haden is probably my go-to, and also Clouser minnow and the shrimp fly under the popper is pretty lethal too.  For spinning, I have a hard time putting down soft plastics unless I can get topwater action. 

That “pop-n-cork” sounds like it would be deadly on the Chesapeake too.

Our reds act like the ocean fish in the Chesapeake. They don’t do a lot of rooting around with their nose. You’ll see a little more of tailing fish in Morehead City and south, where their behavior is much more impacted by the lunar cycle and tides and they’ll push up in the shallow. We’re sort of a transition point where they’ll mostly bust bait, but rarely tail. 

Lastly, can you help me settle what is the proper name for a red? 

Red drum is official name, and in North Carolina we refer to them as drum. We do sometimes attach additional naming. For example, a puppy drum is juvenile, 28” and under. You’ll hear the term yearly drum, which is 28-32”.  Above that is old drum, or just drumfish. Redfish is Gulf of Mexico terminology, which has become popular through the country. In the lower Chesapeake and Outer Banks, they’re also often called channel bass. In South Carolina, it’s spot-tailed bass.