NC Fishing - Hunting - Outdoors Reports

Hi folks Capt. David Baxley - Headhunter Outdoors with this weeks outdoors report. In the near future I will be interviewing one of our local wildlife officers and will try to pass on some great info for our local sportsmen and women. The next hunter safety course will be held on Dec.12-14. Contact NCWRC Officer Doug Jones at 910-270-1042 for more info.
All you duck hunters its time to get your mess together!! Get the boat cleaned up and get it running right. Check your waders for leaks and touch up those decoys. Season comes in on Nov.11 till Dec.3. On a lighter note, I finally one-upped my buddy that I wrote about in last week’s column but I can’t rub it in cause he’s gone to Montana for 10 days. That’s O.K. because I got a 165lb. 7 point buck on Saturday and I’ll show him when he gets back. Remember to send some pictures of your fish or game to me or the Gill Wetter and we will try to put them on the outdoors page. Well that’s for this week so here’s hoping all ya’ll tight lines or a buck in your scope.
Capt. David Baxley - Headhunter Outdoors 910-329-0818, hhti130@aol.com

by Adam Burton
The most frequent question asked to me at my Dad’s bait and tackle shop would most definitely be, “ What’s the best place to catch flounder and, what do I use?” Well here’s where it gets tricky. You want to give your customer the best advice, and not step on too many toes. I usually start with the realistic approach of letting them know that the information I’m going to provide isn’t written in stone.
I usually approach the question asked by finding out if they are going to fish from the hill or take a boat ride.
Sometimes that will affect the bait and tackle situation. If going out on the boat, you should go with at least two to three dozen mud minnows. Hook the mud minnow through the lips, if not you’ll drown the minnow in the process of reeling back in.
You will need to ever so often take back in one to two feet of line to keep your minnow from burrowing back into the mud.
(Note: they call’em mud minnows). If your local tackle shop is out of these little flounder delicacies, my personal favorite would be the ole mullet minnow. A lot of guys swear by live mullet minnows, whereas myself, I tend to prefer the precaught frozen ones. In my book there’s nothing worse than spending any fishing time hunting bait. Also with frozen mullet there’s no need for extra equipment, no bubble box, no cast nets, no turbo trolls and save gas not having to look for bait.

As far as the rig I fish with, the ole trusty multy species Carolina rig is my choice. Probably the easiest and cheapest rigs in salt water fishing. Carolina rigs consist of four basic parts, weight, swivel, leader and hook. In years past, I was partial to the egg weight, until last summer when a fisherman and his buddy came into te shop. The fisherman was using a quarter ounce bullet weight and his buddy was using the same set up except he rigged on an egg weight. They fished together all day using the same bait fishing the same spots. The fisherman using the bullet weight had out fished his partner in crime, bag limit to five. After trying this method, I can testify that my flounder strikes have increased by at least ten to fifteen percent.

Part two of the Carolina rig would be a # 7 barrel swivel. I prefer a black swivel to try and prevent a lot of useless bluefish hitting my bait. Nickel and brass tend to reflect and sparkle in the water attracting the blue fish.

The third thing to figure out is what kind of leader to use. I prefer to use a 20lb. test Cajun Red Line, 18 to 24 inches.
Some people prefer braided, steel, titanium, or iron silk. Just give me the Cajun red line,’ cause I can get 16 to 17 leaders off of one 300 yd filler spool for around $ 5.00. Can’t beat that!

Probably the most important piece, I’d say, to the Carolina rig is the hook. The most commonly used
hook by flounder fisherman in my area is the # 2 Lazer Sharp Eagle Claw. But just to keep myself honest,
I do sometimes tie on a 2/0 L042/G Eagle claw hook while I’m trolling. It seems to work better because it’s a bit bigger.
Try and run at least an eighth of an inch out of the mullet minnows head. It seems that with the a little extra hook, it helps to hook the flounder’s top jaw on the strike, giving you precious seconds to try and set your hook while the fish is trying to spit your minnow out after that initial pull.
When fan casting, the #2 L042/G works just fine, when you feel that bite fan casting, you need patience to prevail.
You may wonder why patience plays such a roll in flounder fishing. Well, a flounder is an ambush predator. It sneaks up and hunts its prey like a cat does a bird, waiting to pounce. When you feel the bite, do yourself a favor,
flip your bell housing giving out about 2 to 3 feet of line, let him get the bait, Grab a drink or tell a fish story to a friend. Some people like to wait until they see their line moving.
A sure sign that a fish is on, but has probably swallowed your hook. That’s okay if the fish is legal size, and you’re gonna eat him.
But what if he’s not and you’re using a stainless steel hook? That could be fatal to under sized fish thrown back and less citations for future flounder fisherman. So from my point of view, let’s stay away from stainless steel hooks if you use that type of fishing style.

As far as where to fish…the first area that comes to mind would have to be Snow’s Cut. The flounder capital of North Carolina.
The North Carolina state record was caught in this little slice of heaven. Snow’s Cut has an array of hard structures for the ambush of a big flat dog.
‘The Cut’, as we call it, is a spot that usually holds a consistent bite. But there are days when the biting slows and on days like that,
I make my way toward the north courtesy of the ICWW.
Traveling in the direction of Wrightsville Beach from Snow’s Cut, working my way towards the Carolina Beach Inlet, I try most of the docks, pilings and piers. If I don’t catch any keepers within 6 structures, I move to the east side of the ICWW, more toward the sand bars, shell bottoms, and marsh grass, and just keep working my way towards the Inlet.
If you use a depth gauge or fish finder, go halfway up into the inlet and begin looking for the drop off. A good friend, Joe Cox, and I work that drop off like no tomorrow, and almost always pleased with the time spent there. So go try it!Well, enough of my rambling, hopefully some of this info will help you land your first one or the Big one.

Till next time…. keep your gills wet. Adam Burton

John Ameri from County Line Bait & Tackle reports:
The river is unusually high causing the fishing to be not all that great.
Last Wednesday was the first day he had seen the landing above water in some time.
At this time private ponds have seen some Catfish and Panfish.
The main river however, has had perch, bream, and a few catfish in the 12 to 15lb range.
The Black river is also very high, but with last weekends warm weather things are going to start looking up. Hopefully, with the water slowly trying to get out of here and a recent full moon, some better fishing will settle in. The crappie should begin to come to the top when the water temp. comes down to around 70 degrees, but with last weeks weather still in the 80’s, the Crappie may not start to bite. However, with the bit of luck and a bit of rain the water temp. may come down sooner and the bite pick up.
John Ameri from County Line Bait & Tackle, (910) 675-8940

(pictured above) Vick Germanaro and Mickey Furr with two nice Cat Fish.