Some cobia will be seen close to the surface, swimming lazily around marker buoys, often in the company of big rays. Sight-casting with bucktails is a productive way to catch those cruisers. However, the most effective way to catch cobia is to fish fresh-cut bait, normally menhaden, on the bottom on an 8/0 hook, a fish-finder rig and a 60-pound leader. Successful fishermen swear by chumming with ground menhaden.

JULY
Muskellunge
French Broad River
The French Broad may be the best muskie fishery south of the land of a thousand lakes, in terms of numbers and big fish.

The biggest fish are normally caught in the winter, but great numbers of fish are hooked -- and some are landed -- during the summer along the river from Skyland (upstream from the Asheville airport) all the way to Rosman, a good 30 miles.

Muskie fishermen normally look for fish in deeper areas of the river, especially around eddies caused by ledges, sandbars or laydowns. Muskies will rest contentedly in the slack water waiting for a baitfish to be washed into range by the current.

Fishermen need to use medium-heavy to heavy baitcasting tackle. Big (1 ounce) spinnerbaits, jerkbaits and jumbo muskie-sized jerkbaits are very effective.

Muskies are very territorial, according to guide Jay Dodd of Water Wolf Guide Service in Asheville (828-281-1538). Once he raises or hooks a muskie in a certain area, he'll visit that spot on most every trip, content in the knowledge that a fish that sets up in a certain hole will not likely leave.

AUGUST
Channel Bass
Neuse River
This fishery is so good that sometimes catching a handful of big drum in one sitting is almost easy.

Almost.

There are a few rules to follow. First, fish near the mouth of the Neuse, where fish will be moving in from the Pamlico Sound. Search chart maps for shoals where the water comes up from 15 or 20 feet to less than 10 feet. Anchor on top of the shoals, and set out a handful of fresh-cut baits on fish-finger rigs at various depths around the shoals.

To attract big drum, fishermen will often chum with an almost liquefied mixture of ground menhaden or other oily fish. The chum slick -- especially on a falling tide -- will spread out on the shoals toward deeper water. The idea is that any drum that cuts the slick will turn its nose toward the source of the slick and work its way up the shoal until it hits the big chunk of cut bait -- fished on an 8/0 circle hook on a fish-finder rig.

Among guides who target big drum, George Beckwith of Down East Guide Service (252-249-3101), Derrick Jordan of DJ's Guide Service (252-322-5356) and Chris Elliott of Crystal Coast Charters (252-808-7067), work out of villages like Oriental and Gloucester.

SEPTEMBER
King Mackerel
Wrightsville/Carolina Beach
King mackerel hang around the North Carolina coast for a good six months every year (roughly May through November), but fall fishing is the peak of the season.

Fishermen with different kinds and sizes of boats can run to different areas in search of kings -- from just outside inlets to 10 miles off the beach.

Masonboro and Carolina Beach inlets normally hold a good concentration of kings, which congregate around the inlets on falling tides to snack on the baitfish that are sucked out of the Intracoastal Waterway.

Farther off the beach, good live bottoms, wrecks and artificial reefs dot the area out to about 10 miles -- or 65 feet of water.

Kings will eat just about anything, but the most productive live baits are big menhaden, with an occasional spot, croaker or bluefish thrown in. Off the beach, they're more likely to hit a dead cigar minnow.

Live-bait fishermen normally slow-troll at a little over a mile per hour, just fast enough to keep baits swimming. Rigs normally involve a single hook in the nose of the bait and a treble hook tucked in the fish's back or tail fin -- with some fishermen using a trailer or stinger hook that swings freely behind the bait.