NC Fishing - Hunting - Outdoors Reports

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 !

Offshore on the bottom there have been reports of some good catches of red grouper, gag grouper, some snapper, & black bass & some king mackerel on top.

Inshore some fair catches of speckled trout, some gray trout, red drum, stripped bass, black drum, & catfish. On the surf Virginia mullet, red drum, & speckled trout.

Fishing tip of the week: If you want some steady action go up the Cape Fear River or Northeast Cape Fear past Wilmington. Fish around any structure you see with cut bait or shrimp & you should have steady action of some nice catfish. You might hook into a stripped bass in the process. Keep fishing & stay safe.

Captain John Carty
Affordable Charter
910-616-3957

Inshore red drum, speckled trout, a few gray trout, some small Virginia mullet, striped bass, catfish, some small black bass, tautog, sheepshead, & black drum.

On the surf speckled trout, red drum, Virginia mullet, & bluefish.

Piers are closed for the winter so no report until spring when they reopen.

Fishing tip of the week: Speckled trout fishing is a lot of fun. They can be very finicky at times. If you catch 2 or 3 trout and then they stop biting, try switching to different combinations of lures. This strategy worked well for me this past week. The Brunswick river has some nice size speckled trout & striped bass around the bridge. Keep fishing & stay safe.

Captain John Carty
Affordable Charters
910-616-3957