Oak Island Ray

wolfpacker

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
Spent the last week at Oak Island. Didn't catch a ton of fish but enough to make it interesting. Caught a little bit of everything. (Sharks, sea mullet, croakers, blues, trout, pompano, ladyfish, pinfish, and rays). Caught this one Old man and the Sea style Friday morning. None of my family was out there and nobody walked by on the beach the whole time I was fighting this thing. One of the best battles i have had on rod and reel. Ran back to the house after i was finally able to get him out to get some pictures taken. It was 65 inch nose to tail and 31 inches across. Also, i am pretty sure i saw a manatee and then found a about a 4 foot gator out on the beach Saturday morning before i left.


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darkthirty

Old Mossy Horns
That's good times there. I'll be headed down on the 25th and staying the following week. Last year on those dates was the most phenomenal week of surf fishing I've ever had!!!

It's great this time of year. No screaming kids anywhere to be found and there's about 300yds separating you from the next closest person!!!!!!!

Did you see any mullet starting to migrate down the surf??
 

wolfpacker

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
yeah, there werent as many of them going down the beach in the morning, but by the afternoon it was a continuous stream of them.
 

NCGunDude

Eight Pointer
Yeah, not likely a manatee that far north. A gator, maybe. They get lost sometimes from the Cape Fear. Cool ray!
 

darkthirty

Old Mossy Horns
yeah, there werent as many of them going down the beach in the morning, but by the afternoon it was a continuous stream of them.

Good!

Don't know about the manatee, but when we were down there in July there was a 3-4 foot gator hanging out at the docks around the fishy fishy restaurant and Yacht basin in southport. It was already doomed cause it just laid there waiting for patrons to throw food over the rails.
 

HotSoup

Old Mossy Horns
Yeah, not likely a manatee that far north. A gator, maybe. They get lost sometimes from the Cape Fear. Cool ray!

Yes a Manatee is possible....they have been spotted up here for the last couple years. As far as gators...they are everywhere on Oak Island, we saw on 2 weeks ago on Davis Canal and the property owner said there were 3 currently hanging around with the largest one being 10-13ft.
 

NCGunDude

Eight Pointer
They have been seen in Wildlife Creek as well!

That's the first I've heard of them being seen. I grew up in Wilmington, hunted and fished. Had family in FL we visited, so I'm quite familiar with the manatee, and I've been closer than anyone would feel comfortable to them in a jon boat.

Back in the day, there didn't used to be any pelicans on the East Coast, now they're quite abundant, once DDT was banned in pesticides.

I still don't know how a manatee would come up the coast, the ICW? Since I think they prefer rivers or brackish water. But, wikipedia has a map of their range, and SE NC would be just above the northern most extension of it. They also appear to be sea going, so there you go.
 
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