Well folks, the days are getting longer and winter is more than half way over. I’m really looking forward to this coming spring! 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 maybe 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 >>>!
With the weather being very up and down lately, the fishing has been that way too! On some of the warmer days we have caught some fish. The large mouth bass fishing has been good the last couple of weeks. We are fishing some of the local lakes and the North East Cape Fear River. Most of the bass are hitting Bass Assassin rubber worms in colors black and red shad “red and black”. Rigging the worms Carolina style seems to work the best.
Redfish are schooling in the surf, 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. Saltwater Assassin “Blurps” in pearl and molting color work very well. You need to use heavier jigs heads, ½ and 5/8 plus for casting. Color of the head is not a big deal Red, white and black all work just fine. Hold on tight, they fight great even in cold water!
There are still a few Cape Fear River stripers biting. The water is really starting to cool 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; Saltwater Assassin (Blurp) jerk shads in colors pearl and electric chicken. We are rigging the blurps Texas style, with a large bass worm hook.
Fishing gear we use:
Stripers and trout: Pflueger Medalist spinning reels in sizes 7035 and 7040. Ugly stick lites 6’6” and 7’ rods in med-light and med action. Bass fishing Pflueger Supreme spinning reels 9030XT and an All Star ASR series rod 7’ ASR844S “great fresh water combo”!
I would like to thank everybody that came out to the Saltwater Sportsman seminar at the Hilton hotel this last weekend. We had a sell out show; I really enjoyed speaking with everyone at the show. I hope they bring it back here next year!
In Other Fishing News: There are a few great boat and fishing expos still 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 20-22, 2009 – Carolina Power & Sailboat Show NC State Fairgrounds – Raleigh, NC. www.ncboatshows.com This show will have lots of nice boats to see!
March 21, 2009 Saltwater Fishing School Saturday, 2615 Jefferson Davis Hwy (US 1 South) – Sanford, NC. www.northcarolinasportsman.com
This all-day event will feature successful tournament anglers, prominent charter captains, top notch guides, knowledgeable pro team members, experienced local fishermen and well-informed industry professionals giving tips, plus explaining lures and techniques used to catch everyone’s favorite fish.
If you get a chance you should really take the time to visit some of these shows and seminars. You will learn lots of great info from the fishing seminars and see some great new boats! For more info on these shows and seminars just go to the links on this page.
Thanks for reading this report; I’ll see ya on the water!
Good Luck Fishing,
Captain Jot Owens
www.captainjot.com
910-233-4139
Wrightsville Beach, NC Fishing Charters
Wilmington, NC Charter Fishing Boats
Posted in Fishing Reports on August 18th, 2011
(Snow day): A good day to sit at the house; drink coffee and write a fishing report! Well folks here is some of that “you never know weather” in North Carolina. Freezing cold and dry one day; the warm and wet another; bam snow! Go figure!! With all this crazy weather sometimes we ask; are the fish still biting? Yes they are; to the fishing report>>>
I’ve really had a mixed bag of fishing lately; a little fresh, salt and brackish water. We did some Speck fishing on 8-1, with some great success. We caught 16 Specks, 2 grays and a few black drum; two of the trout were over five pounds and one was 6.7. They mostly hit live shrimp and a few hit grubs in colors chicken on a chain and chart-diamond. We fished the falling and raising tides.
There are still some very nice Cape Fear River stripers biting. 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; Saltwater Assassin (Blurp) jerk shads in colors pearl and electric chicken. We are rigging the blurps 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”. Rigging the worms Carolina style seems to work the best. On the last trip we caught a nice bream on a bass worm “he was hungry!
Fishing gear we use:
Stripers and trout: Pflueger Medalist spinning reels in sizes 7035 and 7040. Ugly stick lites 6’6” and 7’ rods in med-light and med action. Bass fishing Pflueger Supreme spinning reels 9030XT and an All Star ASR series rod 7’ ASR844S “great fresh water combo”!
In Other Fishing News: There are some great boat and fishing expos coming this winter 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.
January 23-25, 2009 – Raleigh Convention Center Boat Show – Raleigh, NC. www.raleighconvention.com/boatshow/ One of our top Ranger pro staff members will be at this show; C.A. Richardson of Flats Class TV and team Evinrude. This show will have lots of boats for you to take a look at, get in and get a feel for; “maybe you will find your next boat there!
January 31, 2009 – Saltwater Sportsman National Seminar Series – Wilmington, NC. www.nationalseminarseries.com Location: Hilton Riverside Wilmington- Grand Ballroom. This is a great day of seminars from local, regional and national fishing captains and guides! You can learn a lot at this great day of seminars.
February 20-22, 2009 – Carolina Power & Sailboat Show NC State Fairgrounds – Raleigh, NC. www.ncboatshows.com This show will have lots of nice boats to see!
March 21, 2009 Saltwater Fishing School Saturday, 2615 Jefferson Davis Hwy (US 1 South) – Sanford, NC. www.northcarolinasportsman.com
This all-day event will feature successful tournament anglers, prominent charter captains, top notch guides, knowledgeable pro team members, experienced local fishermen and well-informed industry professionals giving tips, plus explaining lures and techniques used to catch everyone’s favorite fish.
If you get a chance you should really take the time to visit some of these shows and seminars. You will learn lots of great info from the fishing seminars and see some great new boats! For more info on these shows and seminars just go to the links on this page.
Thanks for reading this report; I’ll see ya on the water!
Good Luck Fishing,
Captain Jot Owens
Ranger Boats Pro Staff
www.captainjot.com
910-233-4139
Wrightsville Beach, NC fishing charters
Wilmington, NC Charter Fishing
Posted in Fishing Reports on August 18th, 2011
Folks, it’s a new year! Gas prices are down, weather has been pretty warm around these parts and fishing has been pretty good too! I hope fishing will be as good this year as it was last year; but with better gas prices!! I think that would make a lot of us happy; for this up coming summer fishing run! Let’s talk fishing, to the fishing report>>>
Those Cape Fear River stripers are still biting well. Most of the stripers have been in the 18” to 28” range with a few bigger stripers mixed in too. We caught one of our top three largest Cape Fear Rivers ever just before Christmas Eve; she was 31.6 pounds. We were fishing a drop-off on the edge of the river channel; throwing green-back x-raps 4 3/8”. When my friend Duane’s lure got smacked; the fish about took the rod out of his hand! Fifth teen minutes later he got her to the boat; photo, tagged, weighted, and released. That was one striper I’ll never forget!
The stripers are still biting good ole’ x-raps, “blurp” jerk shad (5”) and swim shads. Colors that seem to catch them, green back, blue back and some white hard lures. In the soft bait colors Electric chicken, Chicken on a chain, pearl and fire tiger seems to do the trick. We are casting on drop offs, creek mouths and turns in the river. You never know where you will catch one, you just have got to go and try!
There has been some rather nice catfish coming out of the river as well. Most of the cats are hitting chicken livers (fresh as possible). The cats are hanging around docks and brush piles. Fishing Carolina rigs with forty pound leader and L42 or circle hooks in sizes 2/0 to 4/0 will work. There has been a few cat fish over twenty pounds and larger caught.
The speckled trout have been hit and miss lately, some days we catching some days we don’t. When we do get them; live shrimp has worked, as well as grubs have. Just lately I’ve had a few friends catch some bigger trout around the Masonboro jetties. When I’m looking for bigger trout, I turn too the live shrimp, not to say that big trout will not hit lures; they will! But for ease of fishing with charters; live shrimp do the trick time and time again!
When we are using grubs these are some of the patterns that are catching trout. One grub color by Saltwater Assassin that has really been a great one this season is the new color (Chicken on a Chain). Some other colors that are producing well are salt & pepper, chart-diamond, space guppy and pearl. We rig the grubs on jig heads in colors black and red; in sizes 1/8, ¼ and ½ oz. With a twenty pound fluorocarbon leader, I don’t use a lot of floro, but I do for speckled trout fishing.
The Fishing gear we use:
Trout and Stripers: Reels Pflueger Medalist spinning in sizes 6035 and 6040. Rods: Ugly stick lites 6’6” and 7’ Med & Med-Heavy. 12 & 20 pound Ugly Braid. Bait cast rod and reel combo Pflueger Supreme low profile with an All Star Platinum P845MC 7’ rod. Great striper set up!
In Other Fishing News: Don’t forget starting this coming weekend; 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.
January 9-11, 2009 – Raleigh Bass & Saltwater Fishing Expo NC State Fairgrounds – Raleigh, NC. www.ncboatshows.com This is a GREAT show, with over 160 booths offering everything from the latest lures, plastics, jigs, custom rods, apparel, knives, product sample booths, hard-tops, saltwater charters, fresh water guides, cast nets, gaffs…..by far one of the best shows of its kind in the Carolina’s and Virginia. I will be there along with other Ranger pro staff members who include; Jeff Cronk of Fish’n 4 Life charters and Capt. Mike Taylor of Taylor-Made charters, as well as many others fresh and salt water pros! I will have tarpon and cobia fishing seminars all three days of this show.
January 23-25, 2009 – Raleigh Convention Center Boat Show – Raleigh, NC. www.raleighconvention.com/boatshow/ One of our top Ranger pro staff members will be at this show; C.A. Richardson of Flats Class TV and team Evinrude. This show will have lots of boats for you to take a look at, get in and get a feel for; “maybe you will find your next boat there!
January 31, 2009 – Saltwater Sportsman National Seminar Series – Wilmington, NC. www.nationalseminarseries.com Location: Hilton Riverside Wilmington- Grand Ballroom. This is a great day of seminars from local, regional and national fishing captains and guides! You can learn a lot at this great day of seminars.
February 20-22, 2009 – Carolina Power & Sailboat Show NC State Fairgrounds – Raleigh, NC. www.ncboatshows.com This show will have lots of nice boats to see!
March 21, 2009 Saltwater Fishing School Saturday, 2615 Jefferson Davis Hwy (US 1 South) – Sanford, NC. www.northcarolinasportsman.com
This all-day event will feature successful tournament anglers, prominent charter captains, top notch guides, knowledgeable pro team members, experienced local fishermen, and well-informed industry professionals giving tips, plus explaining lures and techniques used to catch everyone’s favorite fish.
If you get a chance you should really take the time to visit some of these shows and seminars. You will learn lots of great info from the fishing seminars and see some great new boats! For more info on these shows and seminars just go to the links on this page.
Thanks for reading this report; I’ll see ya on the water or at the shows!
Good Luck Fishing,
Captain Jot Owens
www.captainjot.com
910-233-4139
Posted in Fishing Reports on August 18th, 2011
Cape Fear River Striper
Is it the first day of winter? It sure feels like spring to me! Let’s not rush things now! The weather has been so up and down lately warm and wet then cold and dry; welcome to North Carolina! I hope everyone has a Marry Christmas and a good fishing new year! To the fishing report we go>>>
Those Cape Fear River stripers are still biting. Most of the stripers have been in the 18” to 25” range with a few bigger stripers mixed in too. We got another very nice cape fear striper yesterday (12-20) the striper was just over 29” and around fourteen pounds. She hit an X-rap in the color blue back, while drifting on a drop-off. The numbers were not as high as other trips but the fish are nice in size.
There has been a few stripers hitting top water in the mornings, I don’t think this will last much longer with more cold air coming our way. We’ve caught a fair amount of stripers on jerk shad soft baits; Saltwater Assassin’s (Blurp) in colors pearl and Elec-chicken have done the trick. We are rigging the shad lures Texas style.
The speckled trout have been hit and miss lately, some days we catching some days we don’t. When we do get them; live shrimp has worked, as well as grubs have. The water has been little dirty from the rains and wind we’ve had. This has changed my color pattern some with the grubs. The colors I like to use when the water is stained; pearl, chicken on a chain and space guppy.
We’ve caught a good amount of black drum and small sheephead around the Masonboro jetties lately. Some of the drum are over ten pounds. They are hitting live and fresh shrimp; using Carolina rigs with EC L42 #1 size hooks and thirty pound mono leaders. We fish for them up and down the jetties; dropping the rigs along the rocks on the bottom.
The Fishing gear we use:
Drum Trout and Stripers: Reels Pflueger Medalist spinning in sizes 6035 and 6040. Rods: Ugly stick lites 6’6” and 7’ Med & Med-Heavy. 12 & 20 pound Ugly Braid. Bait cast rod and reel combo Pflueger Supreme low profile with an All Star Platinum P845MC 7’ rod. Great striper set up!
In Other Fishing News: There are some great boat and fishing expos coming this winter 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.
January 9-11, 2009 – Raleigh Bass & Saltwater Fishing Expo NC State Fairgrounds – Raleigh, NC. www.ncboatshows.com This is a GREAT show, with over 160 booths offering everything from the latest lures, plastics, jigs, custom rods, apparel, knives, product sample booths, hard-tops, saltwater charters, fresh water guides, cast nets, gaffs…..by far one of the best shows of its kind in the Carolina’s and Virginia. I will be there along with other Ranger pro staff members who include; Jeff Cronk of Fish’n 4 Life charters and Capt. Mike Taylor of Taylor-Made charters, as well as many others fresh and salt water pros! I will have tarpon and cobia fishing seminars all three days of this show.
January 23-25, 2009 – Raleigh Convention Center Boat Show – Raleigh, NC. www.raleighconvention.com/boatshow/ One of our top Ranger pro staff members will be at this show; C.A. Richardson of Flats Class TV and team Evinrude. This show will have lots of boats for you to take a look at, get in and get a feel for; “maybe you will find your next boat there!
January 31, 2009 – Saltwater Sportsman National Seminar Series – Wilmington, NC. www.nationalseminarseries.com Location: Hilton Riverside Wilmington- Grand Ballroom. This is a great day of seminars from local, regional and national fishing captains and guides! You can learn a lot at this great day of seminars.
February 20-22, 2009 – Carolina Power & Sailboat Show NC State Fairgrounds – Raleigh, NC. www.ncboatshows.com This show will have lots of nice boats to see!
March 21, 2009 Saltwater Fishing School Saturday, 2615 Jefferson Davis Hwy (US 1 South) – Sanford, NC. www.northcarolinasportsman.com This all-day event will feature successful tournament anglers, prominent charter captains, top notch guides, knowledgeable pro team members, experienced local fishermen, and well-informed industry professionals giving tips, plus explaining lures and techniques used to catch everyone’s favorite fish.
If you get a chance you should really take the time to visit some of these shows and seminars. You will learn lots of great info from the fishing seminars and see some great new boats! For more info on these shows and seminars just go to the links on this page.
Thanks for reading this report; I’ll see ya on the water!
Good Luck Fishing,
Captain Jot Owens
www.captainjot.com
910-233-4139
Posted in Fishing Reports on August 18th, 2011
Well Folks, it seems like one day its winter and the next its fall or spring! The weather has really been up and down; but there have been some very nice days as well! Those days are the ones we look for to get out on the water and catch a few fish! We’ve had some great catches lately; let’s talk about that in this weeks fishing report.
The Cape Fear River stripers are biting well and some days great! We have caught from ten to over thirty some days. The stripers are hitting hard baits as well as “jerk shad” pattern soft baits. The hard baits that are working for us have been X-raps in colors white ghost and green back. Jerk shads that seem to do the trick have been Saltwater Assassin “Blurp” in colors pearl and electric chicken. In the non-scented shad colors chicken on a chain and white. We are rigging the jerk shad Texas style.
The stripers are holding in around creek mouths, sharp drop-offs and docks. You name it there is probably a striper near by! We’ve caught them trolling as well as casting; the bigger striper we are catching while casting. There are a few trout, redfish and catfish mixed in too.
There is still a trout bite going on, most of the trout we are catching are around the inlets. We are fishing the live shrimp on float rigs and light Carolina rigs. Fishing around the Masonboro jetties and Carolina beach inlet; on the falling and raising tides.
Artificial baits that are producing for us have been grubs, shrimp grubs and hard baits. One grub color by Saltwater Assassin that has really been a great one this season is the new color (Chicken on a Chain). Some other colors that are producing well are salt & pepper, chart-diamond, space guppy and pearl. All these grubs are in the (sea shad) pattern. Don’t forget as the water temps drop fast; slow your retrieve on the grubs for the trout.
Thanks for reading this report, if you would like to go fishing give me a call.
The Fishing gear we use:
Reds, Trout and Stripers: Reels Pflueger Medalist spinning in sizes 6035 and 6040. Rods: Ugly stick lites 6’6” and 7’ Med & Med-Heavy. 12 & 20 pound Ugly Braid. Bait cast rod and reel combo Pflueger Supreme low profile with an All Star Platinum P845MC 7’ rod. Great striper set up!
Good Luck,
Captain Jot Owens
www.captainjot.com
910-233-4139
Wrightsville Beach NC Charter fishing
Wilmington NC Fishing Charters
Posted in Fishing Reports on August 18th, 2011
