Well folks as soon as it gets colder; here comes some more mild weather, hey I’ll take it! Two cold winters in a row, we need it and deserve it! I have got to tell you not much has changed since my last report as what fish are biting and what they a hitting. One thing that has changed is I’m starting to see some very nice size trout biting, with trophy trout coming in the boat on most of my trips.
This season has been a very good grub/jig season with hundreds of trout coming to the boat on grubs. The two hot grubs this season for me has been the Berkley Gulp Fire tail 3” shrimp and Saltwater Assassin 4” sea shad pattern. The colors that are catching the most and biggest trout in the fire tail shrimp are watermelon red fleck, pearl and new penny. In the sea shads; chicken on a chain, salt&pepper silver with chart tail, sweet pea, cantaloupe, chart diamond and 10w40 with chart tail. If you really just want to target bigger trout try a Berkley Gulp 6” Jerkshad or a Gulp 4” Shrimp pattern; you’ll need to work these baits a bit slower, but it might just put that five pound or bigger trout in the boat for you.
Live baits like Shrimp, mud minnows and small finger mullet have caught my charters some big numbers of keeper trout lately. I rig these baits on float rigs in shallow waters of three to five feet and light Carolina rigs for deeper waters of six to over ten foot deep. Lively bait is very important to getting Speckled trout to eat your live bait, take care of your live bait. The livelier the bait the more bites you will get; trust me!
There have still been lots of good by-catches while we are trout fishing; these include Tautogs, Sheephead, Flounder, Black drum and Red drum. These by-catches are hitting the grubs and live shrimp we are using for the trout. The great thing is they are all good eating! My favorites are the Tautogs and Sheephead. If your bait gets close to the bottom, you’ve got a good chance at picking up one of these guys. One client last week put a four pound Tautog in the boat with a Berkley Gulp Fire tail shrimp; I just knew he had a nice trout on the line, but no it was a nice tog!
When the waters start to cool down the Cape Fear River Striped Bass start bite; these fish are not the easiest to catch, but they fight very well even in cold water. Working drop offs on the edge of the river is where you can find the Stripers, using swim bait lures and Berkley Power Bait and Berkley Gulp Jerkshad should put a few Cape Fear Stripers on you line. Don’t forget that the Cape Fear River Striped Bass Fishery is closed; catch and release only!
Large winter Redfish schools are one of my favorite fish to look for during winter mouths. On calm, light wind days you can find these Reds on dark mud flats and oyster rocks. Also you can find large schools around inlets and sand bars just off the local beaches. When you find these schools approach very slow and quietly, for they spoke very easily. Most of the time the winter school Reds will bite pretty easily, but one thing that will help is scented baits like Berkley Gulp! I prefer Berkley Gulp Ripple Mullet in colors Pearl/chart tail, New Penny and Rootbeer gold/chart tail; also the Berkley Gulp 5” and 6” Jerkshad work well too. Sometimes you may need to work the bait a little slower during colder months, so try using a light jig head; this will allow you to work the bait slower.
If you have any questions about the tactics I use fishing the local waters please e-mail me or catch me on Face Book at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Capt-Jot-OwensJot-It-Down-Fishing-Charters-LLC/134340373310487
Don’t forget my special rates will start January 1st2012 and will run to March 31st2012 save on great winter fishing trips for Redfish, Striped Bass, Speckled trout and Large Mouth Bass. Winter fishing around this area can be great and it looks like we are going to have a milder winter; which means even better fishing this winter!
Fishing Gear I use:
Speckled trout, Striped Bass and Redfish: Reels Penn Battle 2000, 3000 & 4000 spinning reels. Rods: Fenwick HMG GS 70ML and Penn Legion rods Line: *new line I’m using and really enjoying for Trout fishing is NanoFil from Berkley, this line is for spinning reels and its very smooth casting line! I prefer eight and ten pound for trout fishing. Fluorocarbon leader material, Stren Tinted Fluorocarbon in tints Gunsmoke for clearer waters and Tannic for river or stained waters in twenty pound test.
Thanks for reading! Don’t forget take a kid fishing and good fall fishing to you!
Captain Jot Owens
Ranger Boats Pro Staff
Penn Reels Elite Staff
www.captainjot.com
910-233-4139
Posted in Fishing Reports on December 14th, 2011
Here it is Thanksgiving and we still have warm weather most days! Finally after two very cold winters we’ve got the best fishing weather we could have for late November! With all this nice weather the fishing has really been on fire; some of the best Speckled trout fishing I’ve seen in while around here and the Redfish as well as the Flounder bite has been good too! I believe that we will see good Speckled trout fishing all the way to Christmas this year!
The Speckled trout has been the name of the game for the last two months and the trout continue to bite very well. With most of my charters coming to the dock with there limit and some days with over seventy trout coming over the side of the boat. It truly has been an unbelievable Speckled trout season and it looks like it will continue for the next three weeks or longer!
When the trout bite is on they are hitting just about any lure or live bait you throw at them, but there are a few colors/lures that are catching more keepers then other colors/lures. This season has been a very good grub/jig season with hundreds of trout coming to the boat on grubs. The two hot grubs this season for me has been the Berkley Gulp Fire tail 3” shrimp and Saltwater Assassin 4” sea shad pattern. The colors that are catching the most and biggest trout in the fire tail shrimp are watermelon red fleck, pearl and new penny. In the sea shads; chicken on a chain, salt&pepper silver with chart tail, sweet pea, cantaloupe, chart diamond and 10w40 with chart tail.
I prefer to rig all my grubs on red, gray or black jig heads in weights of 1/16oz, 1/8oz or 1/4oz; you really don’t need a much heavier jig, a slow sink will catch you more trout! Remember trout typically hit lures that are sinking down or just above them. Keeping this in mind; a slower sinking lure stays in the strike zone longer which gives the trout more time to hit you lure. Another rule I stand by when Speckled trout is the fact that trout have very good eye sight and with this said I always use a high quality fluorocarbon leader for all my trout rigs. I prefer Stren’s tinted fluorocarbon leader material in twenty pound test; with gunsmoke tint for clear waters and tannic for river or stained water applications.
My charters have caught a few nice trout on hard baits like MirrOlures and Sebile baits. We’ve caught trout the 17MR and 18MR but some of the bigger ones are hitting the good old 52M&MR this season. Another bait that has really picked up a few nice trout this season is the Stick Shadd by Sebile in sizes 90 and 114 with colors in white lady, hollow mullet and yellow pepper. The colors for the MirrOlures that are having the most luck are; 17MR and 18MR’s in colors: 11, 26, 808, CFPR, CH, EC and BCH. As far as the 52M & MR in colors: 11, 26, 51, 704, 808, CFPR, CH and HP.
If you would like to go with the live bait for your trout outing, try live mud minnows, small finger mullet or shrimp all of these baits will catch trout. I rig all these different baits on float rigs in waters of three to six feet deep and a light Carolina rig for deeper waters of five to twenty feet deep. Still here again even with live bait I always use fluorocarbon as leader; it will make a difference.
One cool thing that is always fun during trout season is all the ‘bonus fish’ that you will catch while Speckled trout fishing. My charters have caught a good bunch of Redfish, Sheephead and Flounder in the last few weeks of fishing. We even put an eight pound one ounce Flounder in the boat last week; what a pull that was on a light trout rod! So you never know what might be on the end of your rod to you get it to the boat this time of year.
Fishing Gear I use:
Speckled trout, Flounder and Redfish: Reels Penn Battle 2000 & 3000 spinning reels. Rods: Fenwick HMG GS 70ML & GS 70M-MF Line: *new line I’m using and really enjoying for Trout fishing is NanoFil from Berkley, this line is for spinning reels and its very smooth casting line! I prefer eight and ten pound for trout fishing. Fluorocarbon leader material, Stren Tinted Fluorocarbon in tints Gunsmoke for clearer waters and Tannic for river or stained waters in twenty pound test.
*Are you on Facebook? Check out my page Capt. Jot Owens/Jot It Down Fishing Charters LLC for lots of good info on local fishing, fishing tips, detailed live reports, photos and tackle giveaways; yes free stuff! Just Fan (like) the page on I’ll have monthly random drawings of Fans for free tackle!
Thanks so much for reading this report! I’m booking now and booking up fast for trophy Speckled trout trips for December. Don’t forget take a kid fishing and good fall fishing to ya!
Captain Jot Owens
Ranger Boats Pro Staff
Penn Reels Elite Staff
www.captainjot.com
910-233-4139
Posted in Fishing Reports on November 23rd, 2011
Fall is really starting to show its face around Southeastern North Carolina these last few weeks. Some warm days, some cool days and a few colder days with rain mixed in from time to time, but over all good fishing weather. The good part of this is no more hot days but lots of hot fishing to come!
October and November are great mouths for Speckled trout fishing and one of my favorite to fish for. They are good to eat and a lot of fun to catch on light tackle. It really does not matter if you like to fish artificial bait or live bait you can catch lots of Specks either way! So far in the last two weeks I have picked up some very nice Speckled trout as well as good numbers of keeper size trout. The gator trout (big ones) are starting to show up too and more will come with this cool weather we are having.
Here is how I have been catching the Speckled trout lately. On the artificial side of things; MirrOlures and Sebile’s Stick Shadds are working very well for me this season so far. I’ve caught trout the 17MR and 18MR but some of the bigger ones are hitting the good old 52M&MR this season. Another bait that has really picked up a few nice trout this season is the Stick Shadd by Sebile in sizes 90 and 114 with colors in white lady, hollow mullet and yellow pepper. The colors for the MirrOlures that are having the most luck are; 17MR and 18MR’s in colors: 11, 26, 808, CFPR, CH, EC and BCH. As far as the 52M & MR in colors: 11, 26, 51, 704, 808, CFPR, CH and HP.
Soft baits are always a winner for trout fishing and you can catch good numbers of Speckled trout on grubs etc. Berkley Ripple Mullets and Fire tail shrimp are two newer baits on the market and have been real good baits for Redfish but I’ve caught a few very nice trout on them lately. The colors I’ve had the best luck with are Goby magic/chart tail, Root-beergold/chart tail and glow/chart tail in the Ripple mullets. In the fire tail shrimp pattern colors of rootbeer gold, watermelon red fleck and new penny are working great. Saltwater Assassin makes a very large selection of great trout grubs, give one of these colors in the sea shad pattern a try on your next trout outing; chicken on a chain, copperhead, S&P silver phantom/chart, chart/diamond, sweet pea, 10w40/limetail and greenback shiner.
I rig all of these grubs on high quality jig heads in colors red, gray and brown; in sizes 1/16, 1/8, ¼ and 3/8oz. When I say high quality; I mean a jig head with a strong yet very sharp hook, a good jig head makes a big difference in how many fish you catch and don’t miss; trust me! Check out jig heads by Sebile, Bluewater Candy and Saltwater Assassin; all of these companies make great high quality jig heads!
So you like to catch trout on live bait, well give live shrimp a try. The trick to live shrimp is knowing when to stop feeding the trash fish like; pinfish, lizard fish, and small bluefish. Using live shrimp can get expensive but you can catch some good numbers and size trout with live shrimp. I rig live shrimp a two different ways; in shallow water two to six feet I use a float rig. My float rigs consist of twenty pound Stren or Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon about twelve inches long and a number six treble hook for a live shrimp. When I fish deeper waters (five foot plus) or with stronger currents I use a light carolina rig. These rigs consist of a very small swivel, fourteen to twenty inches of fluorocarbon and a number one L42 Eagle claw hook. The sinker for this rig needs to be light 1/16oz or 1/8oz split shot and 1/8oz or 1/4oz egg sinkers should do the trick.
I’m still seeing the Redfish around and a few Bull reds are still biting from time to time around the inlets. There have been a few schools of Reds in the surf but due to very high winds and seas not much action there lately. On some sunny days I’ve caught a good number of Reds along the ICW and oyster flats in local creeks north and south & North of Wrightsville Beach. Live finger mullet and fresh cut bait will catch’em but, give a Berkley Gulp 3” new penny shrimp or a root-beergold/chart tail Ripple mullet a shot and I bet you’ll have no problem catching a few redfish.
In other fishing news, the weekend of October 22nd and 23rd was the Red Bone-Cape Fear Red*Trout Tournament Series. This year again Adam Meyer and Liz Pitts of Charter Lakes Insurance Group fished with me. Liz did very well again this year taking home Grand Champion Lady Angler General Division Champion and Most Speckled trout Champion. Our team came in 1st over all in points, but the elusive keeper size Redfish was no where to be found; we got one as close at 171/2 inches (yes that hurt)! So we could not bring home Grand Champion Angler for Liz; hey there’s always next year! This is a tournament to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis; I look forward every year to fishing this tournament of a great cause.
Fishing gear I use:
Speckled trout and Redfish: Reels Penn Battle 2000 & 3000 spinning reels. Rods: Fenwick HMG GS 70ML & GS 70M-MF Line: *new line I’m using and really enjoying for Trout fishing is NanoFil from Berkley, this line is for spinning reels and its very smooth casting line! I prefer eight and ten pound for trout fishing. Fluorocarbon leader material, Stren Tinted Fluorocarbon in tints Gunsmoke for clearer waters and Tannic for river or stained waters in twenty pound test.
If you are in or around the Morehead City area come by for the Grand Opening of Dick’s Sporting Goods in Morehead City on November 12th. I’ll be there with Berkley, Penn, Fenwick, Sebile and Spiderwire to help answer any questions you have about products or fishing. If you come by, please stop and say hello.
Dick’s Sporting Goods
Crystal Coast Plaza
5130 Highway 70 West
Morehead City, NC 28557
*Are you on Facebook? Check out my page Capt. Jot Owens/Jot It Down Fishing Charters LLC for lots of good info on local fishing, fishing tips, detailed live reports, photos and tackle giveaways; yes free stuff! Just Fan (like) the page on I’ll have monthly random drawings of Fans for free tackle!
Thanks so much for reading this report! I’m booking now and booking up fast for trophy Speckled trout trips November to mid December. Don’t forget take a kid fishing and good fall fishing to ya!
Captain Jot Owens
Ranger Boats Pro Staff
Penn Reels Elite Staff
www.captainjot.com
910-233-4139
Posted in Fishing Reports on October 29th, 2011
Fall is trying so very hard to show up around the area but, with these weather changes comes ‘weather’ and for the last weeks it’s been in the form of rain. One thing I can tell you is that this is no different than most falls around this area; we get rain around here in the fall. Some years its light some years it’s heavier, every season it different and that is one of the reasons I live here, we (most years) have seasons here! Rain is not always a bad thing you just have got to adjust how you fish when the water gets stained form fall rains!
Well the good news is since my last report one of my favorites is starting to show; the good’ole Speckled trout and I love fishing for these guys! A cool morning in the fall; fishing for Speckled trout is one of the many highlights of my fishing season every year! They are a challenge to catch, but some days you can catch over 100 and you never know just what kind of day you are going to have when fishing for Speckled trout. Trout fishing will only get better as the local waters cool down this fall.
I love to catch Speckle trout on artificial lures and you can catch big Speckled trout on lures, another reason they’re fun to catch. My easy break down of what lures I use are by current flow and water death. I prefer baits like MirrOlure’s 17MR, catch 2000jr and Sebile’s Flatt Shad in waters of two to six feet deep with light or no current. In deeper waters of three to fifth teen plus with or with out current I prefer MirrOlure’s 18MR, 52M & MR and Sebile’s Stick Shadd 90, 114 series. I will use grubs in any water death or current when trout fishing, but I’ll adjust the weight of the jig head for the death or current of the water I’m fishing. Try lures like the Berkley Gulp Fire Tail 3” shrimp or the Ripple Mullet for Speckled trout. Another lure that works well for trout is Saltwater Assassin’s Sea shad series, try colors like chicken on a chain, chart/diamond, copperhead or 10w40 with lime tail.
The Bull Reds are really starting to show up in the ocean on hard bottoms and around the inlets. You never know when you might hook one of these giants! When I fish for Bull Reds, I use fresh cut or live menhaden and mullet. I use fish finder rigs with 8/0 or 9/0 circle hooks and eighty pound Berkley Big game mono leaders. Don’t forget to keep your drag tight when using circle hook so they will do there job. One tip I can give you when fishing for Bull Reds, is don’t use to light of tackle for these bigger Reds. If you fight them to long, there is a chance you can tire them out to much and kill them. Try a med/heavy rod and a reel with at least thirty pound mono or braid, this will help you get the fish in quicker; with a better chance of a good release. Check to see if the Red has a tag in its back; there are a fair amount of tagged Bull Reds out there.
This has been one of the better Flounder years we’ve seen around this area in a while and for that reason I’ve run a lot of Flounder trips this season with good success. One thing we have seen this year is that the Flounder fishing has been good inshore as well as the ocean this season, giving us lots of opportunities to flounder fish. Live bait as well as artificial lures has put lots of flounder in the boat for us. Carolina rigs with Eagle Claw L42 #1 size hooks and forty pound clear mono leader works well. Small finger mullets, small menhaden and mud minnows are our choice live baits. Berkley Gulp Jerkshad in 5” & 6” colors pearl, chart pepper neon or new penny work well too! The flounder are hanging around inlets, channel drops and creeks inshore. In the ocean near shore artificial reefs, ledges and hard/live bottoms are holding some nice numbers of flounder too.
Fishing Gear I use:
Reels: Speckled trout and Flounder: Penn Battle spinning in sizes 2000, 3000 & 4000 sizes. Bull Reds Fishing reels: Penn Battle 6000 & 7000, Penn 320LD and Torque 12 & 15. Line: Spiderwire Ultra-cast and Berkley Fireline braid in 8, 10 and 15 pound. Bull Reds Line: 30 or 40 pound Berkley Big Game Mono. Rods: Fenwick HMG GS 70M-MF. Bull Reds Rods: Ugly Stik Tiger Lite Jigging series or Penn Torque jigging series in 30-80 class spinning and casting. Leader material: Bull Reds; Berkley Big Game mono & Fluorocarbon in eighty to one hundred pound. Stren Fluorocarbon leader material in Tannic and Gunsmoke tints; tannic for river and stained waters, gunsmoke for clear water applications.
*Are you on Facebook? Check out my page Capt. Jot Owens/Jot It Down Fishing Charters LLC for lots of good info on local fishing, fishing tips, detailed live reports, photos and tackle giveaways; yes free stuff! Just Fan (like) the page on I’ll have monthly random drawings of Fans for free tackle!
Thanks for reading these reports, if you have any questions or comments just let me know. Don’t’ forget to take a kid fishing!
Good Fishing to you and have a great fall,
Capt. Jot Owens
Penn Tackle Elite Staff
Ranger Boats Pro Staff
www.captainjot.com
910-233-4139
Posted in Fishing Reports on September 27th, 2011
Well folks fall has really tried to show its self around the area lately, but as normal we start to enjoy drier cooler air and here comes the muggy warm air again! Hey welcome to southeastern North Carolina; that’s the weather around here always changing! The good aspect to this is the fish really seem not to care; the weather really does not change in the water to much. Another positive to the cooler are is that it cooled the water down just a little bit and it’s been hot all summer, with this small cool down a few things have changed around the local waters. I don’t know if this means a early fall, but I’m already seeing lots of mullets running south and the fall trends of fishing are really starting to show!
When the water started to cool down a bit, I knew it was time to go look for some shallow water Redfish and with the higher moon tides it would be a good time to go looking! Fishing Reds in shallow waters in the late summer and early fall can be very good and very fun fishing. There is nothing like seeing a Redfish hit a surface bait! I look for shallow water Redfish around marsh grass lines, oyster rock edges and creek mouths with a shallow break. Now not every place you look at like these places will have Reds, the one other thing you have got to have is bait/food for the Redfish; if you put these things together you will find shallow water Redfish!
Here are a few of my favorite lures and rigs for catching shallow Reds; top-water lures are a blast to catch shallow Redfish! One thing I have learned over the years using top-water lures is that color is not the most important aspect of top-water lures; the most important aspect is action! If you don’t good action you are going to have a hard time getting that Redfish to come get your lure! Learning the proper way to work a top-water is very important to catch Redfish. Try a MirrOlure Top-pup or She-pup for a simple top-water action lure to learn with. If you want to try something new or a little bit of a challenge try Sebile’s Ghost Walker lure in calm waters or a Sebile Slim Stick is choppy or stained water applications. If you would like to go with live bait; try a Saltwater Assassin Kiwk-kork set up with a ten to fourteen inch leader and a live mullet or small menhaden.
The Flounder fishing has been very good this year and continues to be pretty good with some very nice fish over four pounds mixed in most trips. Most of the Flounder fishing I’m doing is just off the beach and around the inlets, I’m catching a few in the creeks, but most of the flounder coming out of the creeks are smaller. I’ve caught Flounder on both live and artificial baits lately, what I have seen is more numbers on live bait, but more keepers on
artificial baits. Mud minnows and mullets on light Carolina rigs with #one L42 Eagle Claw hooks are catching the numbers of Flounder, Berkley Gulp Jerkshads in five & six inch sizes are getting the most keeper Flounder. Tip of the day: In most cases bigger bait will catch you bigger Flounder, but you will catch less numbers of Flounder by going with bigger bait.
Casting and trolling for Spanish mackerel has been very good lately, when you find cleaner/clearer waters; I’m seeing Spanish and Blues all up & down the beaches in fifth-teen to forty-five foot of water as well as around all the local inlets. There has been a few very nice Spanish in the three to six pound ranger caught around the area too. Spanish mackerel have very good eye sight and to the catch the bigger ones you really should try a fluorocarbon leader, you would be surprised how this can make a difference sometimes!
I’ve had the best luck with deeper spoons on number one planners, yes I’m seeing a few on the top line but the best has been deeper. Clark-spoons in sizes 00 and 0 are doing the trick in colors silver, gold and pink flash. The Spanish hitting the top baits are hitting Blue Water Candy’s Spanish Daisy chains in colors pink, blue and silver; the great thing about this rig is you can pull it off lighter tackle outfits. When the Spanish are jumping I’m casting spoons in sizes one to three inches long with a fast retrieve and keeping my rod tip low to the water to keep the spoon just under the surface.
Fishing Gear I use:
Reels: Redfish, Flounder and Spanish mackerel casting: Penn Battle spinning in sizes 2000, 3000 & 4000 sizes. Line: Spiderwire Ultra-cast and Berkley Fireline braid in 8, 10 and 15 pound. Rods: Fenwick HMG GS 70M-MF. Stren Fluorocarbon leader material in Tannic and Gunsmoke tints; tannic for river and stained waters, gunsmoke for clear water applications.
*Are you on FaceBook? Check out my page Capt. Jot Owens/Jot It Down Fishing Charters LLC for lots of good info on local fishing, fishing tips, detailed live reports, photos and tackle giveaways; yes free stuff! Just Fan (like) the page and you will be entered in to the monthly random drawing for free tackle!
Thanks for reading these reports, if you have any questions or comments just let me know. Don’t’ forget to take a kid fishing!
Good Fishing to you,
Capt. Jot Owens
Penn Tackle Elite Staff
Ranger Boats Pro Staff
www.captainjot.com
910-233-4139
Posted in Fishing Reports on September 7th, 2011
