McCray runs the Rod & Reel Shop, a tackle shop in the village of Supply, which is just across the waterway from Holden Beach. "It holds bait the best when it's real cold." "Walden Creek is good in the dead of the winter, in the late fall and the early spring," he said. Price said that he fishes Walden Creek when it's cold, because those are the only times of year that the creek holds enough baitfish to attract sufficient numbers of flounder, trout and drum. Walden Creek is a long, winding creek that flushes into the Cape Fear River about four or five miles upstream from Southport. When I go over there, if the fish aren't tailing, I'll look for birds working the surface," Price said. They seem to hold fish in that shallow water. "They'll get behind Battery Island, where there are lots of oyster rocks. Price said that Dutchman Creek in Southport and the Elizabeth River behind Oak Island are excellent creeks for puppy drum as the water warms up. "And we'll catch a combination of drum, flounder and trout." We look for little points in the marsh grass, little places that stick out a little farther into the water that might create a little eddy that can be an ambush point for fish," he said. Some of them have more oyster rocks than the others. Price fishes most of the Baldhead Island creeks, often working several of them in a day's time as he tries to find the greatest concentration of fish. As it warms up in April, they'll start to come back out toward the mouth of the creek." "The colder it gets, the farther you want to go up the creeks because the baitfish will go farther back up the creek the colder it gets. "The best fishing is in May and June, when they're back in there spawning, but you can catch 'em in July and August and on through the fall you can catch speckled trout here 12 months a year," he said. Those are some of his favorite creeks in the spring when speckled trout are spawning in them. Price's knowledge of the creeks that drain Baldhead Island, particularly Cape Creek and Cedar Creek, borders on intimate. A lot of the tidal creeks around here have little ditches that run off into the marsh, and when the water is falling, they're perfect places to catch fish. The fish have to move into a more compacted area. When the tide is falling out toward low tide, water levels of course drop and the number of locations that are prime feeding stations drop with it. He believes that normally fishing a falling tide is better because in high water the fish can become dispersed and therefore harder to pattern. And any bend on the outside of a creek will have deeper water, so you fish it you fish the deeper holes." "So you're really looking for anything that breaks up the bank: either old, rotten boats, docks, laydowns - if they're around deep water. He'll pull the shocking boat up to a laydown, hit the (electricity) button, and all kinds of fish will pop up. Division of Marine Fisheries that there will be all kinds of puppy drum and trout holding around a laydown. "I know from going (electro) shocking with a buddy of mine who works for the N.C. "When you're back in the creeks around here, you don't have a lot of oyster rocks, so you'll be looking for wood - laydowns, piers and docks," Elliott said (25). He believes that jerking a lot of puppy drum, speckled trout and flounder out of creeks in his area is a matter of understanding what kinds of places hold fish and how the rising and falling tides affect their feeding habits. Elliott is a pro bass fisherman from the coastal town of Gloucester, and he works the waters around Cape Lookout regularly.
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