(Finally) is this week’s word; finally the weather is warming up. Finally we are starting to see more fish inshore; FINALLY!!! We have been waiting all winter for weather like this; let’s hope it stays this way and spring is really springing! With the warmer weather we are starting to see and catch more fish around the area waters. Let’s talk about that in this week fishing report.
I know I have talked about them all winter but the surf Redfish are still there and going pretty strong most days we can get to them. On Tuesday 3-9, we had a good day; we went 16 for about 25 bites. Six of the Redfish were over the slot, with the biggest coming in at 33”; not a bad (winter) Redfish! The Reds were hitting Saltwater Assassin grubs in colors 10w40 with lime tail and Copperhead. They also were hitting Berkley Powerbait 5” jerkshad in the color Golden Sardine. We were using 3/8oz red jig heads, with 20 pound Stren gunsmoke tinted fluorocarbon leader material. The water was pretty clear that day and the fish had seen a lot of lures.
The local fresh water fishing has picked up lately with catches of large mouth bass and catfish. On winder days we have gotten out on the river and some of the local lakes. The best luck we have had for the bass has been worm fishing; Carolina and Taxes rigging. I’ve been using a new worm lately by Berkley; it’s the Powerbait Heavy weight series in 5” and 7” Fat. The colors that are working well have been; Grn Pumpkin/Wmln, June bug and Watermelon. We have also caught a few Bass on MirrOlure 17MR series in colors red back and silver.
Catfishing has been up and down, some nights fifth teen or more catfish but some nights just a few cats. Most catfish are hitting chicken levers and Berkley Gulp blood/shad dough. We are using 2/0 EC bait holder hooks with forty pound mono leader about eight to twelve inches long and a ¾ to one ounce river sinker (Carolina rig). Fishing at night has produced the best numbers and biggest catfish. Now that the weather is warmer, night fishing is not too bad.
Speckled trout fishing should really start to fire off very soon with the warmer weather and water temps. In the spring I like to throw quite large list of lures. The reason for this is; I’ve found that trout are eating different kinds of baits in different places IE creeks, channels and inlets. With bait being a little short in the spring, they will hit about anything. Presenting the bait can be the harder part; the reason for all the different baits! Here is a list of what works for me in the spring.
MirrOlures; 17MR and 27MR in colors: 18, 50, BCH, BKGCH, BNSBO. Catch 2000 20MR & Catch 2000jr 22MR in Colors 18, 808, BNS, CH. I use these styles in depths of one to five feet of water. Classic 52M & 52MR in Colors 18, 19, 23, 808, CH. MirrOlure Series III S52MR in Colors 18, 808, BCH, BNGBO, GR. I use these styles in depths of four to ten feet of water. These color codes are right from MirrOlure’s web site. www.mirrolure.com
Soft plastics: Saltwater Assassin Sea Shads, (4) four inch size. These colors are for clear blue/green waters; S&P SLV.PH/CHART.TL, CHART. DIAMOND, PINK DIAMOND, GREENBANK SHINER, CRYSTAL SHAD. Dirty, Stained or River water Colors: CHICKEN ON A CHAIN, PUMP SEED/CHART. TL, TEXAS ROACH and MORNING GLORY. In shrimp pattern soft lures I prefer Berkley Powerbait shrimp in colors pearl white and natural. I rig all these soft baits with 1/8oz to 1/4oz jig heads in colors red, gray and black.
There has started to be a Black drum and small redfish (rats) bite the last two weeks, most days we are catching six to over ten on a half day. This type of fishing will get better very soon. Most of the drum are biting around docks and creek mouths in the ICW. The best bait has been fresh cut shrimp in small pieces. We are using small two hook drop rig, with a number 2 bait holder hook and one or two oz bank sinkers.
Fishing Gear we use:
Reels Penn Conquer and Sargus spinning in sizes 2000 and 4000. Spiderwire
Ultra-cast braid in 10 and 15#. Rods: Ugly stick lites 6’6” and 7’ Med & Med-Heavy and the All Star ASR spinning rod ASR844S and ASR845S.
In Other Fishing News:
Don’t forget; there are some great boat and fishing expos coming to North Carolina. If you like fishing and boats you don’t want to miss these shows and fishing seminars! Here are the one’s that myself as well as other Ranger boats pro staff members will be at this winter.
March 20-12, 2010 Cape Fear Wildlife Expo, at the Coastline Convention Center. http://www.capefearwildlifeexpo.com Outdoor enthusiasts will enjoy two days of hunting and fishing exhibitors, wildlife art, decoys, boats and accessories, truck and ATV displays, Hunter Safety Certification Class, fly fishing demos, camping, guides, outfitters, sportfishing simulator, contests, archery demos and fun for the entire family.
April 23-25, 2010 Tex’s Tackle Spring Tackle Sale and Show. I’ll be there with PENN Reels and Pure fishing. We will have some of the new Tackle from Penn and Pure Fishing, if you have any questions about any products from Penn or Pure fishing we’ll be happy to answer them for you.
June 5-6, 2010 “In the Water Fishing School” Myself, Capt. Rick Bennett
and four other of the best local guides are putting on this school on. This school will be real-time hands on fishing experience! There will be one day of hands on classroom instruction and the next day on the water, real-time fishing experience. The school is limited to the first 24 participants! If you want to learn from the best local guides and see how we do it, take the time to check it out; http://www.rodmancharters.com/inthewater-fishing-school.htm I’m really looking forward to being part of this school!
Thanks for reading this report, if you would like to go fishing drop me a line. Don’t forget that special winter rates end on March 31st, so if you have cabin fever and want to get out on the water; give me a call. Book now for this coming summer fishing season and don’t forget to take a kid fishing!
Good Luck,
Captain Jot Owens
Ranger Boats Pro Staff
PENN Reels Elite Staff
www.captainjot.com
910-233-4139
Posted in Fishing Reports on August 18th, 2011
A Nice Winter Redfish
I love Southeast North Carolina for the seasons, but I’m really starting to get over this winter FAST! Man; up and down but mostly down as far as water and air temps go! The good news is we are in to March and hopefully it will start warming up soon. Just like the weather the fishing has been up and down lately; we have good days and slower days, for the most part we are catching a few fish. Let’s take a look at that in this weeks fishing report.
Redfish has been the main shot lately for my trips. On some of the warmer days, the bite has been good to even great! Here are some tips that will help you catch inshore winter Reds. Take your time when looking for winter Reds, they are less likely to get up and move when there cold. You want the lure to get to them before they know you are close by. Check every hole and oyster rock edge; we have found Reds in some of the smallest holes this year because of the cold waters. You have got to cover area to find winter inshore Redfish; it takes time and patients to find and catch winter Redfish.
Lure’s that seem to do the trick have been, Saltwater Assassin grubs in colors 10w40 & lime-tail, Chicken on a chain and copperhead. In Berkley Power baits; 5” jerkshad in colors new penny and pearl white have worked well. We rig the grubs on ¼ Red jig heads with Stren’s 20# tinted fluorocarbon in tint “tannic”. When the fish are spooky this floro is the trick! When we rig the Berkley jerkshads, we rig them Texas style, with a bass worm hook and a bullet weight.
The Redfish are schooling in the surf and we are always looking for a nice day to get out and chase them. They are pretty easy to catch; you just got to find them. That part can be a bit harder, trust me! A sunny, light wind day and good polarized sunglasses are the keys to catching these Reds. Try to keep your boat as far form the school as you can!!! If you can’t cast real far; learn to or get a better casting rod & reel, try a PENN Conquer 2000. Trust me this will help you catch these Reds. I’ve seen a lot of boats running over the schools lately because they don’t know what they are doing. Take your time don’t get in a hurry the fish are not going anywhere but they will stop biting if pressured! Grubs seem to be the easy go to bait for surf Reds. Lures we are using are SWA 10w40/ Lime-tail and Berkley Powerbait’s Ripple shad in colors New penny and Smelt. You need to use heavier jigs heads, 3/8 and ½ oz plus for casting.
Speckled trout fishing has been more miss than hit lately but, it should get better with the warmer weather we have coming. We have caught a few specks lately while we are Drum fishing. The best bet for the trout this time of year is mud minnows and working artificial baits very slow. MirrOlure’s 17MR and 52M are a good bet this time of year. I like the colors 11, 51, CFPR and EC. SWA grubs in colors chicken on a chain, chart-diamond and silver-ph & chart tail. Berkley Powershrimp in colors Pearl and Natural; using 1/8oz jig heads have caught a few two to three pound trout lately. I use twenty pound Stren tinted fluorocarbon leader; I prefer gun smoke tint for clear water applications.
On some of the windier days when it’s been hard to get out on the coast to fish we’ve been doing a little bit of fresh water fishing. The river fishing should pick up as long as we don’t get to much rain. Lake fishing has been OK to good and should get great in the next few weeks. On good trips we are catching nine to over fifth teen bass a day. The size of the Bass are running one to over five pounds, most fish are two to three pounds. Bass are hitting Bass Assassin rubber worms in colors black and red shad “red and black”. We are also catching some of the bass on Powerbait senko worms. Rigging the worms Carolina style seems to work the best. A very slow presentation, is working the best on cooler days.
Fishing Gear we use:
Reels Penn Conquer and Sargus spinning in sizes 2000 and 4000. Fire line crystal braid in 10 and 20#. Rods: Ugly stick lites 6’6” and 7’ Med & Med-Heavy and the All Star ASR spinning rod ASR844S and ASR845S.
In Other Fishing News:
Don’t forget; there are some great boat and fishing expos coming to North Carolina. If you like fishing and boats you don’t want to miss these shows and fishing seminars! Here are the one’s that myself as well as other Ranger boats pro staff members will be at this winter.
March 20-12, 2010 Cape Fear Wildlife Expo, at the Coastline Convention Center. http://www.capefearwildlifeexpo.com Outdoor enthusiasts will enjoy two days of hunting and fishing exhibitors, wildlife art, decoys, boats and accessories, truck and ATV displays, Hunter Safety Certification Class, fly fishing demos, camping, guides, outfitters, sportfishing simulator, contests, archery demos and fun for the entire family.
April 23-25, 2010 Tex’s Tackle Spring Tackle Sale and Show. I’ll be there with PENN Reels and Pure fishing. We will have some of the new Tackle from Penn and Pure Fishing, if you have any questions about any products from Penn or Pure fishing we’ll be happy to answer them for you.
June 5-6, 2010 “In the Water Fishing School” Myself, Capt. Rick Bennett
and four other of the best local guides are putting on this school on. This school will be real-time hands on fishing experience! There will be one day of hands on classroom instruction and the next day on the water, real-time fishing experience. The school is limited to the first 24 participants! If you want to learn from the best local guides and see how we do it, take the time to check it out; http://www.rodmancharters.com/inthewater-fishing-school.htm I’m really looking forward to being part of this school!
Thanks for reading this report, if you would like to go fishing drop me a line. Don’t forget that special winter rates end on March 31st, so if you have cabin fever and want to get out on the water; give me a call. Book now for this coming summer fishing season. Don’t forget to take a kid fishing!
Good Luck,
Captain Jot Owens
Ranger Boats Pro Staff
PENN Reels Elite Staff
www.captainjot.com
910-233-4139
Posted in Fishing Reports on August 18th, 2011
Hello folks, I hope all is well with you and I hope you got through the snow “storm”. It was nice to see some snow around the area; but I’m ready for spring now. Sunny days, warmer weather and of course FISHING!!! With that said, it is now time to get the tackle, rods, reels and line ready for spring fishing. Not to say that we are not catching any fish now, (we are) you just have got to work for them a little bit! To the Fishing report>>>
Redfish has still been a good bet lately, but the dirty waters from all the rain, snow and wind are making it a bit tough. It looks like we have a dryer pattern of weather coming soon; this should help the bite pick up some. I lure patterns that we are using are the same as the last report. These colors seem to do well for us most winters. I always try new colors and patterns all the time, just to see what works or work better. I always recommend you do the same on any kind of fishing trip.
Saltwater Assassin grubs in colors 10w40 & lime-tail, Chicken on a chain and copperhead are still working well. Also Berkley Power baits; 5” jerkshad in colors new penny and pearl white have worked well. We rig the grubs on ¼ Red jig heads with Stren’s 20# tinted fluorocarbon in tint “tannic”. When the fish are spooky this floro is the trick! When we rig the Berkley jerkshads, we rig them Texas style, with a bass worm hook and a bullet weight.
With all the rain, wind and snow the water has been cloudy to down right dirty lately in the ocean. The good news is that we are starting a dryer tend for the next few days; this should start the process of the water clearing up. With this said the schooling surf Redfish should be a target soon again. A sunny, light wind day and good polarized sunglasses are the keys to catching these Reds. Grubs seem to be the easy go to bait for surf Reds. Lures we are using are SWA 10w40/ Lime-tail and Berkley Powerbait’s Ripple shad in colors New penny and Smelt. You need to use heavier jigs heads, 3/8 and ½ oz plus for casting. Pick a very nice day when looking for these Reds and always be careful in the surf.
There are still a few Cape Fear River stripers biting. The water has really been up and down with water temps; because of all the rain and wind. When the water is warmer due to warmer and sunny days the fishing seems to be better. Most of the fish are in the four to twelve pound range, with a few bigger ones mixed in as well. We are catching the stripers on hard and soft baits. In the hard bait range; X-raps and mid-water crank baits are working well. As far as soft baits; Berkley Powerbait jerkshads in Pearl color and Saltwater Assassin (Blurp) jerk shads in colors pearl and electric chicken. We are rigging the jerkshads Texas style, with a large bass worm hook.
On some of the windier days when it’s been hard to get out on the coast to fish we’ve been doing a little bit of fresh water fishing. The large mouth Bass have been biting well. Most trips we are catching nine to over fifth teen bass a day. The size of the Bass are running one to over five pounds, most fish are two to three pounds. Bass are hitting Bass Assassin rubber worms in colors black and red shad “red and black”. We are also catching some of the bass on senko worms. Rigging the worms Carolina style seems to work the best. A very slow presentation, is working the best on cooler days. On one of our last trips a Carp around fifth teen pounds got in the way of a crank bait; and the fight was on!
Fishing Gear we use:
Reels Penn Conquer and Sargus spinning in sizes 2000 and 4000. Fire line crystal braid in 10 and 20#. Rods: Ugly stick lites 6’6” and 7’ Med & Med-Heavy and the All Star ASR spinning rod ASR844S and ASR845S.
In Other Fishing News:
Don’t forget; there are some great boat and fishing expos coming to North Carolina. If you like fishing and boats you don’t want to miss these shows and fishing seminars! Here are the one’s that myself as well as other Ranger boats pro staff members will be at this winter.
February 20, 2010-Cape Fear Christian Sportsman Fish Fest.
http://www.capefearsportsmen.org/Events/FishFest10Registration/tabid/719/Default.aspx I will be speaking on Shallow water Redfishing and working MirrOlure’s. For all the info on this day of seminars, take a look at this link.
March 20-12, 2010 Cape Fear Wildlife Expo, at the Coastline Convention Center. http://www.capefearwildlifeexpo.com Outdoor enthusiasts will enjoy two days of hunting and fishing exhibitors, wildlife art, decoys, boats and accessories, truck and ATV displays, Hunter Safety Certification Class, fly fishing demos, camping, guides, outfitters, sportfishing simulator, contests, archery demos and fun for the entire family. I’ll be there with Cape Fear River Watch and will be doing seminars on local inshore fishing.
Thanks for reading this report, if you would like to go fishing drop me a line. Don’t forget to take a kid fishing!
Good Luck,
Captain Jot Owens
Ranger Boats Pro Staff
PENN Reels Elite Staff
www.captainjot.com
910-233-4139
Posted in Fishing Reports on August 18th, 2011
Well folks, the days are getting longer and winter is more than half way over. I’m really looking forward to this coming spring! With the weather we’ve had lately; so up and down! I think that groundhog needs to get a new job! Hey that’s weather in North Carolina! Don’t forget, this is a great time to check over all your fishing gear. Clean up your rods and reels, oil the reels and put a touch of wax on your rods. It also a good time to put new fishing line on your reels and check those hooks on your artificial lures. A little work now; will make spring fishing a little easier on you! To the fishing report >>>!
Redfish has been the main shot lately for my trips. On some of the warmer days, the bite has been good to even great! The main tips I can give you is get out there and look, lately we’ve hit four to six spots and have not got a bite. The next spot we check, boom cast after cast; Redfish. You have got to cover area to find winter inshore Redfish.
Lure’s that seem to do the trick have been, Saltwater Assassin grubs in colors 10w40 & lime-tail, Chicken on a chain and copperhead. In Berkley Power baits; 5” jerkshad in colors new penny and pearl white have worked well. We rig the grubs on ¼ Red jig heads with Stren’s 20# tinted fluorocarbon in tint “tannic”. When the fish are spooky this floro is the trick! When we rig the Berkley jerkshads, we rig them Texas style, with a bass worm hook and a bullet weight.
The Redfish are schooling in the surf and we are always looking for a nice day to get out and chase them. They are pretty easy to catch; you just got to find them. That part can be a bit harder, trust me! A sunny, light wind day and good polarized sunglasses are the keys to catching these Reds. Grubs seem to be the easy go to bait for surf Reds. Lures we are using are SWA 10w40/ Lime-tail and Berkley Powerbait’s Ripple shad in colors New penny and Smelt. You need to use heavier jigs heads, 3/8 and ½ oz plus for casting. Hold on tight, they fight great even in cold water!
There are still a few Cape Fear River stripers biting. The water has really cooled down. Most of the fish are in the four to twelve pound range, with a few bigger ones mixed in as well. We are catching the stripers on hard and soft baits. In the hard bait range; X-raps and mid-water crank baits are working well. As far as soft baits; Berkley Powerbait jerkshads in Pearl color and Saltwater Assassin (Blurp) jerk shads in colors pearl and electric chicken. We are rigging the jerkshads Texas style, with a large bass worm hook.
was
Speckled trout fishing has been more miss than hit lately but, it should get better with the warmer weather we have coming. The best bet for the trout this time of year is mud minnows and working artificial baits very slow. MirrOlure’s 17MR and 52M are a good bet this time of year. I like the colors 11, 51, CFPR and EC. SWA grubs in colors chicken on a chain, chart-diamond and silver-ph & chart tail. I use twenty pound Stren tinted fluorocarbon leader; I prefer gun smoke tint for clear water applications.
Fishing Gear we use:
Reels Penn Conquer and Sargus spinning in sizes 2000 and 4000. Fire line crystal braid in 10 and 20#. Rods: Ugly stick lites 6’6” and 7’ Med & Med-Heavy and the All Star ASR spinning rod ASR844S and ASR845S.
In Other Fishing News:
The second annual Cape Fear River Watch Striped Bass Tournament was held Saturday Jan 16th. This Tournament is an effort to raise awareness of the declining number of striped bass and other fish native to the Cape Fear River and to tag CFR Stripers for fishier studies on rebuilding the stocks of native fish.
Winners of this year’s tournament were: Capt. Jamie Rushing, along with fishermen Robert Bungard, and Kevin Bloom caught 10 Stripers winning most tag fish award. The largest fish of the day was a 27.5-inch striped bass caught by Capt. Jot Owens and fisherman Duane Auman, followed closely by a 26-inch striped bass wrangled in by Capt. Owens and fisherman Todd Byrd. First aggregate honors (meaning total length of collected fish) went to Capt. Owens, Auman and Byrd with a collected length of 53.5 inches. Second aggregate went to Capt. Stu Caulder and fishermen Phil Metz and Bruce McGunahan, with a collected length of 50 inches.
Don’t forget; there are some great boat and fishing expos coming to North Carolina. If you like fishing and boats you don’t want to miss these shows and fishing seminars! Here are the one’s that myself as well as other Ranger boats pro staff members will be at this winter.
February 12-14, 2010 – Raleigh Convention Center Boat Show – Raleigh, NC. www.raleighconvention.com/boatshow/ This is a great show with lots of the “top of the line” boats form around the world. I’ll be there with other Ranger Pro’s to show you all the great benefits to the Ranger Saltwater line of boats.
February 20, 2010-Cape Fear Christian Sportsman Fish Fest.
http://www.capefearsportsmen.org/Events/FishFest10Registration/tabid/719/Default.aspx I will be speaking on Shallow water Redfishing and working MirrOlure’s. For all the info on this day of seminars, take a look at this link.
Thanks for reading this report, if you would like to go fishing drop me a line. Don’t forget to take a kid fishing!
Good Luck,
Captain Jot Owens
Ranger Boats and
Pure Fishing Pro Staff
www.captainjot.com
910-233-4139
Posted in Fishing Reports on August 18th, 2011
Hello form “finally starting to warm up” Southeast North Carolina! It has been cold; to cold, we did have some local fish kill. It was a little worse north of us, but it s not good for anybody! We are very happy to see warmer temps for the next five plus days. The good part of all this is we have been doing pretty good fishing lately. Let’s go over that in this weeks fishing report>>>
When the weather or more important the wind has been right, we have done very well on the winter Redfish. These large schools of Redfish hang in the ocean around bars, inlets and shoals. We have seen schools as small as ten fish to over 1000 fish; and some times more! It’s a really cool thing to see, but you need to be careful; these fish can be hard and dangerous to get too. A good par of polarized sun glasses and a reel that you can cast a country mile will help to catch these winter Reds.
We are catching the Reds in the surf on Saltwater Assassin sea shad grubs; in colors 10w40 with chart tail and chicken on a chain. We rig the grubs on ¼oz and 3/8oz; red or new penny color jig heads. We have caught them on MirrOlure’s as well; 17MR and 27 MR, in colors 26, 808 and BNSBO are working for us.
The Cape Fear River Stripers are biting from time to time; it got a little cold for them as well. The Stripers are hitting Berkley gulp jerk shad in colors pearl, new penny and electric chicken. We rig the jerk shad Texas style, with a large bass hook. Rapala X-raps work too, in colors glass ghost and green back.
Speckled trout fishing has been more miss than hit lately but, it should get better with the warmer weather we have coming. The best bet for the trout this time of year is mud minnows and working artificial baits very slow. MirrOlure’s 17MR and 52M are a good bet this time of year. I like the colors 11, 51, CFPR and EC. SWA grubs in colors chicken on a chain, chart-diamond and silver-ph & chart tail. I use twenty pound Stren tinted fluorocarbon leader; I prefer gun smoke tint for clear water applications.
Fishing Gear we use:
Reels Penn Conquer and Sargus spinning in sizes 2000 and 4000. Fire line crystal braid in 10 and 20#. Rods: Ugly stick lites 6’6” and 7’ Med & Med-Heavy and the All Star ASR spinning rod ASR844S “Best Trout rod I ever have fished”
In Other Fishing News: Don’t forget; there are some great boat and fishing expos coming to North Carolina. If you like fishing and boats you don’t want to miss these shows and fishing seminars! Here are the one’s that myself as well as other Ranger boats pro staff members will be at this winter.
February 12-14, 2010 – Raleigh Convention Center Boat Show – Raleigh, NC. www.raleighconvention.com/boatshow/ This is a great show with lots of the “top of the line” boats form around the world. I’ll be there with other Ranger Pro’s to show you all the great benefits to the Ranger Saltwater line of boats.
February 20, 2010-Cape Fear Christian Sportsman Fish Fest.
http://www.capefearsportsmen.org/Events/FishFest10Registration/tabid/719/Default.aspx I will be speaking on Shallow water Redfishing and working MirrOlure’s. For all the info on this day of seminars, take a look at this link.
Thanks for reading this report, if you would like to go fishing drop me a line. Don’t forget to take a kid fishing!
Good Luck,
Captain Jot Owens
Ranger Boats and
Pure Fishing Pro Staff
www.captainjot.com
910-233-4139
Posted in Fishing Reports on August 18th, 2011
