NC Fishing - Hunting - Outdoors Reports

Hi folks, Capt. David here with this weeks outdoors report. Well duck season is over and about the only games in town are rabbit and quail hunting. Coon and possum season is still in as is Snow, Blue and Ross’s goose. Now is a good time to go predator hunting as well Bobcat are in season and you can check you local fox hunting laws. One of the newer large predators in the area are Coyotes. These critters have been spreading eastward for years and are in every county in N.C. and there is no closed season on them. Heck I’ve seen them in Landfall in Wilmington! A distressed rabbit squeal is a surefire way to get any small game predators in range. Any good centerfire rifle or rimfire above a .22 longrifle will do the job. Now don’t feel bad for them they are a invasive species that will feed on everything from small dogs and cats to young deer. Now if you are done till next season go ahead and clean and oil you firearms and put them in storage. Be sure to use gun locks if you have small children and if you don’t have any most all of the police departments have them for free. Remember that gun safety begins with proper education and properly securing your firearms. Don’t hide them from the kids, teach them the right way. Folks guns don’t kill people, people kill people! I almost forgot next Saturday Feb.2 is a special youth waterfowl day which means you can’t hunt but the kids can. Load them up and take a video camera and have some fun! Leon Phelps and I went on the last day of season and didn’t shoot any duck but we did bag a couple of geese on the sound. It was Leon’s first goose and he was about as happy as anybody I’ve ever seen. He waded about 300 yds across the marsh to retrieve his trophy. It will be at the Taxidermist very soon. The cool thing about it is the memories created when hunting with your buddies. Priceless!
Now lets talk about fishing! Ain’t nothing biting much so the best thing to do is get ready for spring. Like I said last week, you might catch some fish but It’s way too cold for this old boy to go fishing! I’ll wait till the water temps and air temps get a little warmer. Folks thats it for this week so remember to be safe and take a kid with you. Capt. David

Capt. David
Headhunter Outdoors
(910) 329-0818

The inshore fishing has produced lots of small redfish for me the past couple of days. On 1/26 I had Eric and Seth from Wilkes county on a cold and rainy day fishing in the Banshee. These guys were real troopers and toughed it out on a seven hour trip. These guys were excellent anglers and we had a blast even in these conditions. We caught twenty reds, all undersized but a lot of fun on light tackle. On 1/27 I had my son Christian, and his travel baseball coach Richard for about three hours of fishing. We caught fifty three reds, all but three were undersized but still a lot of fun. All of these fish were caught on artificials. Check out the photos, especially the sunset on 1/27. Sometimes it is not all about the catching.

Jeff
Seahawk Inshore Fishing Charters
910-619-9580

In the surf still reports of red drum & speckled trout, mostly caught on mirror lures.

Inshore red drum, speckled trout, a few black drum, &some small Virginia mullet.

In the Cape Fear River (North) speckled trout, stripped bass, & catfish.

Offshore grouper, snapper, black bass, & some king mackerel.

Fishing tip of the week: My family & I belong to a great organization for meeting people & learning about local fishing called Got em on Live Bait Fishing Club. We will be having the Got-em-on Chowder Cook-off on February 16th & that makes this a great time for some of the local fishing families to join. There’s no better time than now. It’s mid-winter..not much fishing goin’ on..you could take a few bucks that would be spent on fishing anyway & join a great organization. It’s just $45 per year per family & it’s money well spent for anyone associated with fishing on the island. For those interested in joining up, or if they just want to know more about the club & what we do can get information & membership applications at www.got-em-on.com, or just call Mike Harrison at 458-0240. Keep fishing & stay safe.

Captain John Carty
Affordable Charters
910-616-3957

Blast from the past. C.B. (Bo) Holden grandfather of Debbie Carty from 1952 with this nice Red Drum caught on a local pier.

Blast from the past. In 1982 John Carty & friend Mark Jackson who is no longer with us with 2 of many beautiful red drum caught in the surf at Bald Head. All of us old locals miss you Mark !