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
