From the OIFC website:To add to Barrett's report; there is a legitimate fishing crisis going on right now right on the beach. Can you imagine a situtation where you can't catch a king mackerel feeding on a school of pogies within 100 feet of the beach because you can't get a bait past monster 20-40 lb redfish. That is what a number of anglers fishing the Rumble in the Jungle King tourney experienced this weekend. The Kings are right on the beach at the inlets and so are the pogies, and so are the giant redfish. I heard of one boat quading up on 4 giant reds while trying to catch a king that was skyrocketing on the same pogy school[in 15 feet of water!].Congrats to all the local boats that did good in the tourney. The hot bite continues off Ocean Crest Pier, but after Team OIFC ran over 100 miles trying to invent a fish offshore, we stopped at Shallotte Inlet for one last gasp and immediately caught a nice junior angler fish that took us to the scales. The fish are wherever the pogies are at and right now they are everywhere.Come on down folks, it don't get any better than this and should continue thru the month of October.
With the perfect conditions we are looking at for this years Fall Brawl; probably a good idea to put out a warning for anglers to watch out for Kings jumping into your boat. Seriously, this was a problem few years ago in Biloxi at nationals and i can see the same happening at OIB this weekend. The fish are thick and when a bunch of boats fish the same area and put out a bunch of bait, the competitive thing kicks in with the fish, and they go nuts, skyrocketing. Probably best not to fish with a surface swimming bait like a mullet as you may be inviting a intruder into your boat. The fall bite is traditional, but it normally heats up and cools off with changing weather systems. This year weather looks very stable throughout the tourney, and stable weather sets them on fire. Plenty of bait up and down the beach; Kings from the beach out to 65 feet water. They're everywhere. Come join us at OIFC and help us set a new tourney participant record!
