Greetings from Wilmington, N.C. where the Cape Fear River meets the Atlantic Ocean, at one of the sweetest vacation spots you will find along the Carolina Coast.
Saltwater Fly fishermen will easily see more tailing redfish- than the stars up in the sky. After a day of chasing redfish, you can take your loved one to one of Wilmington's nice restaurants, and then take her dancing under a beautiful' Carolina Moon at night.
Wilmington historic city is downtown just off and Hwy 17. It is one of the most popular tourist beach and retirement cities in North Carolina. It has a number of wonderful beaches for your family to visit during your next vacation, and you will also find two massive shopping areas for your loved one to go shopping, if they are not outdoorsy!
Wilmington, North Carolina is the home base of NC author Walter Dinkins, the author of RED FISH ON A FLY, the most scholarly fly fishing book ever written on the Red Drum (RED FISH). The books website is: (www.redfishonafly.com).
The Redfish is one of the most sought after saltwater inshore sportfish that tails like bonefish and feeds on crabs, mudminnows and shrimp along the South Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States.
You will find a great many hotels and rental homes to choose from for you and your family to stay when visiting beautiful Wilmington for your next vacation.
How the guide got his nickname: "Joe Guide"...
Walter (Sonny) Dinkins is a Presbyterian (USA) Minster, US Navy Chaplain and OEF Veteran. He is a member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA), Outdoor Writer and N.C. author: "Joe Guide".Former Captain of the 1984 Intercollegiate Sportsfishing National Championship (USC Coastal Carolina (now Coastal Carolina Unversity) hosts such Universities as:Harvard, Yale, Clemson, Georgia, USC, Universty of Tokyo, University of Toronto in the oldest ongoing US College Sportsfishing Contest held every fall outside of Myrtle Beach, SC. He started guiding sports hunting and fishing at the young age of 9 while living in the low country of South Carolina. In 1968 a outdoor writer nicknamed him "Joe Guide" and that nickname stuck with him throughout the years, and he still writes some articles, using his nickname: "Joe Guide".
What better guide than a Presbyterian minister who is used to working with people from all walks of life, a humanitarian, educator, teacher who pursues fish and fowl.
He is the nicest guide you will ever meet!
He never will promise to do miracles, but will put you on your target and then- its up to you to do the rest. He loves sightfishing for redfish and you will too!
CAPT Walter Dinkins is sponsored by a lot of nice people: Wulff Flyfishing Products, Powerpole, Yeti, Go-Devil Manufacturing of LA, Rivers West Outdoor Clothing, and Creative Feather Fly Fishing Shop. He uses many different rods and reels like G. Loomis, Sage, Tibor, and Okumia.
All my Go Devil tune ups and repair work are done at "Atlantic Power & Equipment" located on HWY 17 in Hampstead, N.C.
They are a authorized Briggs & Stratton dealer & have a great team of certified mechanics that can work on any B&S Engine! They are the only mechanics in North Carolina that specialize on these unique air-cooled Surface Drive Mud Motors like my GDSD 35 hp engine.
Contact them c/o- Mr. Tom Seitz atlanticpowerequipment@yahoo.com
Please take the time to look at their websites on the WWW.
Overview...
"Joe Guide" and "Joe Guide Outfitters"™ is a Fly Fishing and Waterfowl Hunting Outfitter during the various seasons of the year.Fly Fishing for Redfish is done through poling my skiff or wading the saltwater flats while sightfishing for tailing redfish.
Waterfowl hunting seasons run from November - January.
At various time of the year I enjoy traveling all over the USA and the World- to some of the most wonderful fly fishing and waterfowl hunting locations!
In North Carolina during the months of April - September- I can be found on my 16X60 GDSD Redfish skiff fly fishing for Redfish whenever the tide is moving, and the redfish are in the spartina grass! My local saltwater range is from Bogue Sound to the Lower Cape Fear Marsh Complex specializing in sightfishing for redfish!
I don't fish or hunt on Sundays, as it is the Lord's day, and am often away at some PCUSA Church preaching that particular day.
I am a Presbyterian (USA) Minister, and US Navy Reserve Chaplain which can keep me quite busy at times. I've been fly fishing for well over forty years, am blessed to have lived throughout the world and the USA.
What better person to guide you, than a USCG and NC registered guide. If you like to use light tackle that is OK, he has a few light tackle rods too!
My favorite areas to fly fish...
The Lower Cape Fear Marsh Complex (LCFMC) and Bouge Sound Marshes are unique skinny water areas of approximately 34,500 acres of saltmarsh backcountry bayous with flats, creeks, cuts, a couple of thousand acres of spartina grass flats, as well as hundreds of saltwater duck ponds suitable for wading. There are tons of crab and shrimp in these estuaries.We shall seek reds as we explore bays, cuts, creeds with mud and oyster beds that are suitable for poling a skiff, and we will cast to redfish as they push across a area or around edges and points, or as pods of fish feed together. Most of your shots at reds will be casts that will range from approximately 25 - 40 feet. These marsh complexes have hundreds of thousands of red drum (Redfish) and these areas will remind you of southern Louisiana, except in Bogue and the LCFMC there are hundreds and hundreds of acres where you can wade and sight fish tailing reds. As you may already know, you can't wade in southern Louisiana due to gators and deep mud.
Along the lower North Carolina inshore water you will enjoy stalking redfish - they may be "pushing water" along the flats or edges of flats, or "tailing" in the spartina grass. We will get to them by poling my GDSD 16x60 Louisiana Redfish skiff, or we can wade for them - if you prefer to do that.
Perhaps you like to be on a fly casting forward platform, and enjoy being poled across a incoming high and falling tide chasing redfish in pods of 4-8 or 12 or more? No matter the number, you with certainly experience fly fishing in a beautiful part of coastal North Carolina saltwater flats that lay just inside our barrier island's backcountry.
I guide from Bogue Sound - south to the Lower Cape Fear Salt Marsh complex. If you look at these areas on Google Earth, you can see how massive these salt marsh complexes are to navigate.
I hunt waterfowl throughout these same areas of North Carolina in the winter time, therefore, I am on these waters a great amount of time, and know these areas like the back of my hand, and know the local people who live in these particular areas, and they also know me. You will find that I may very well be the nicest guide that you will ever get to know, and one who will always do my very best each trip to get you where you need to be to be successful in your next outdoor adventure.
Wilmington, NC has a great deal of beaches, shopping malls, golfing, tennis, surfing for the kids and young people. Keep that in mind if you are bringing your family down this way.
Fly Fishing & Light Tackle
$500 Full day 8 hrs. *(inc signed copy of my book, lunch, water, fruit)
$450 1/2 day (two persons)
$350 1/2 day (one person)
People enjoy hunting redfish & sight-casting to tailing fish - in skinny water, while they are feeding on crabs or shrimp. This is normally done when the water temperatures are above 70 degrees F and back in flats that are flooding but before the water gets too high.
Along the South Atlantic Coastal inshore; North Carolina has the largest "salt marshes" on the east coast. If you look at a satellite map of the South Atlantic and the Gulf Coastal states, you will note that Florida, and Texas' have larger coasts; however Louisiana & North Carolina have larger salt-marsh complexes.
Waterfowl & Traditional "Rail Hunting"
Half day hunts only!$350 1/2 day (one hunter)
$250 for additional person in that party.
All Waterfowl Hunts are 100% [paid in full, in advance], and are nonrefundable - thirty days before hunt day.
The best H/T days are during the "New Moon" and these days book up early; your second flood tidal period would be during the Full Moon with 80% > lunar viability impacting our tides.
**NCDNR normally posts the new migratory waterfowl seasons on their website by August 1st each summer.
Each guest will coordinate with your guide three days prior - to your booked hunt- as to weather report, conditions, and should dress appropriately, bring your NC Non-Res Waterfowl License with signed Federal Duck Stamp, shotgun and bring one more box of non-toxic shotgun shells than you may think you will need. You will meet your guide at assigned boat ramp, he will have water in the cooler, and will transport you out to hunting area.
Duck hunts are located in traditional N.C. salt marsh back-country, or shallow-water bays, where your guide will have you meet him at a particular boat landing nearest to the area we will be hunting that particular day.
* Half day duck hunts I will provide water, fruit, two sandwiches and the guide will provide calling, boat blind, decoys and decoy placement, and return you to where you met him prior to the hunt.
Goose Hunting is also available during 1/2 day "morning hunts" utilizing boat blinds or leased fields and layout blinds. These hunts are limited to two guests each hunt, and I only offer six goose hunt trips each season to not put too much pressure on the Canada goose population in the areas that I hunt geese.
During the Rail Hunts - we call them "Marsh Hens" in the South; your guide will pole you - throughout the hunt locations, in our special marsh hen skiff duirng the inoming-hight and falling tide periods of your hunt.. Rails hunters should use either a .410, 20 or 28 gauge shotgun. and I recommend non-toxic #6 non-toxic shotgun shells for Marsh Hen hunting. A 12 ga is just too much shotgun for these marsh hens. Water and a snack will be provided for all rail hunts. Less than 300 people hunt marsh hens throughout the NC Coast each year according to the NCDNR. Clapper & Virgina rails are the dominate species, however we do encounter quite a few Sora rails in our region of the state. The daily bag limit is quite moderate to say the least. You can pull up the Rail seasons and bag limits on the NCDNR Early Migratory bird season via their website.
Waterfowl Hunt Camp Weekend
$700 (for one person)
$250 for each additional person - accompaining a hunt party.
I only book "three long weekend - Duck hunting camping trips" each year we will be hunting in flooded timber and camping on a houseboat.These special weekend waterfowl houseboat camping trips do book up quickly. I hunt just one weekend each month of Nov, Dec and January. Camping is done on a houseboat that doesn't have TV, and cell phone service in the back country is limited due to the remoteness of nearby cell towers in the region. The Weekend Hunt includes (2) two - 1/2 days of duck hunting in beautiful flooded timber & camping in the outdoors. Primary waterfowl species are Wood Ducks, Teal, Grey-duck and Mallard.
NOTE: You will meet your guide at your assigned boat landing, and your guide will be responsible for the following: pick up and return of guests to boat landing by boat to your camping location & hunting area and after the trip is over. Price includes: one Dinner and light breakfast each day,. Coffee, tea , water or soft-drinks with each meal and water/soda and a bag lunch will also be provided each hunt day. All guests will bring pillow + sleeping bag, shotgun, shells, licence and waders and approprate clothing for the projected hunt weekend. We will look forward to a good hunting year!
"Save the trees"... contact Joe Guide in Wilmington, NC via email: joe_guide@yahoo.com about your next fly fishing outdoor adventure! Tel # 910. 685.6845.
Mail Address: Joe Guide Outfitters: P.O. Box 11403. Wilmington, North Carolina 28404-1403