Fish low end of tide when sun has warmed shallows.
Cold and red is an excellent combination in Brunswick County. At least that’s what Capt. Mark Stacy thinks when winter sets in along North Carolina’s southernmost coast.
Stacy, who operates Ocean Isle Fishing Charters in Ocean Isle, has a fascination for the rivers, the Intracoastal Waterway and numerous small creeks that form the estuary system between the Shallotte River and the South Carolina line. When he doesn’t have a charter, he’s often out scouting for places to fish; over the years, he’s found a lot of fish — especially winter redfish — in places that are well hidden in the marsh or so obvious that other anglers ride past and wonder why he is there.
One February morning last year found him heading down the waterway to harass a school of redfish holed up in a deep spot in a creek well back in the marsh behind Sunset Beach. As he rounded a bend, a wake built and surged forward for a handful of yards just off the bank.
“Did you see that?,” Stacy asked, obviously excited. “That was a school of redfish. I’m surprised to see them out here with the tide this high. They usually move out here along the waterway just before low tide, but that’s several hours away, and they’re usually pretty close to the mouth of this creek. I was planning to see if we could find them when we came back out. I wonder if a porpoise has gotten up in there and pushed them out?”
After winding back through the marsh, Stacy cut the throttle and his flats boat came off plane. The electric trolling motor carried the boat around a bend or two before he shut it off and began poling the last hundred yards to where he wanted to fish.
“Winter reds can be very spooky,” Stacy whispered. “They are one of the few fish in these creeks right now, and (they) think anything large is probably coming after them. The pool we will be fishing is just around that next bend, and we’ll ease up to it slowly and stake out rather than using an anchor, so we don’t spook them.”
The pool had winter redfish written all over it. The creek widened out a little, with two large oyster rocks tapering down into it. A shallow bar crossed the creek at each end, isolating the pool at lower stages of the tide. A redfish could get across the bars and be isolated from hungry porpoises except at high tide.
Stacy rigged up with Gulp! shrimp, ready to turn to mud minnows if the fish acted too finicky.
“See where that oyster rock on the left trails down into the pool,” Stacy said. “Cast your bait about three feet off of the end. When it sinks, just take the slack out of your line and let it sit for at least 30 seconds. We haven’t had many sunny days lately, and this water is cold. Give that scent a little time to spread and get someone’s attention.”
It took a minute or so, plus a light twitch of the rod tip, to get the attention of a redfish, as a visible strike resonated up the braided line. Stacy’s rod bent as the fish surged away, and he leaned back and jerked solidly to drive the hook home. The fish rushed down the pool, making the drag of the little reel whine and leaving Stacy grinning as he prepared to boat the red.
This scenario was repeated about a dozen times before the bite slowed; when it did, Stacy went to the live bait, threading a mud minnow through both lips with the same Mission Fishin’ jighead that had held the artificial shrimp. .
“Cast the mud minnows to the base of the oyster rocks, just like with the Gulp!” Stacy said. “This time after letting it set there a minute or so, take a few turns of the reel and move it a little. It is a live bait and should be wiggling, so you don’t have to jig it.”
The live bait produced a few more fish before Stacy cranked up and headed to a spot closer to Tubbs Inlet where he said the water was typically cleaner than back in the marsh.
When he arrived, Stacy positioned the boat just off a pocket formed between the bank and a growing sand bar. He said to cast into it and cover it with the Gulp! shrimp, retrieving it slowly and occasionally twitching and hopping it a few inches off the bottom.
It took about a half-dozen casts to find a pod of smaller redfish, which were a long cast away, feeding in with a few speckled trout and one small flounder. When the bite slowed, Stacy said the tide was right for moving to look for the first school of reds along the waterway.
When he got to the creek mouth, he shut off the outboard, dropped the trolling motor and started creeping forward. Running the big motor, he said, would probably spook the reds, but with the amount of traffic in the waterway, moving into casting range on the electric motor would be possible.
“Cast down the bank and work the baits back slowly, with an occasional hop,” Stacy said. “These fish are usually between the creek mouth and where that piece of bank has tumbled over up there about a football field away. Even though the water is a little cooler out here, these guys are often more aggressive if you can get to them without spooking them.”
As if on cue, Stacy’s rod pulsed, then bent deeply, and he set the hook. Wakes raced in every direction as the hooked fish busted through the school and scattered it. Although the red was larger, Stacy worked it to the boat quickly, lifted it over the gunwale and told other anglers to cast in both directions along the bank to see if the fish that had scattered might be working their way back to the spot.
Sure enough, a cast towards the creek mouth was rewarded with a solid thump and another feisty redfish. A couple of minutes later, Stacy hooked up again. A half-dozen or so red drum and one black drum were landed in a 50-yard section of the bank before the fish had enough and decided they didn’t want to play any longer.
DESTINATION INFORMATION
HOW TO GET THERE — US 74 and US 17 are the main arteries that bring fishermen within hailing distance of Brunswick County. that brings fishermen. NC 179 and NC 904 will connect US 17 to Ocean Island Beach and Sunset Beach. Three ramps along the ICW give fishermen plenty of access: one on the mainland side of Brick Landing near Shallotte Point, another under the Ocean Isle Bridge on the island side and the third beside the Sunset Beach Bridge on the mainland side.
WHEN TO GO — Red drum fishing is good year-round in lower Brunswick County. Fish begin gathering into winter schools in November and December and hold in the marsh creeks and even along the ICW until the water begins warming in late March and April. Black drum are a common additional catch. Speckled trout activity slows greatly from January through March unless it’s a warm winter, but a few are caught feeding with the red drum. Look for reds feeding around low tide on most days.
TACKLE/TECHNIQUES — Red drum are easily handled on medium-light to medium-action spinning tackle. Mono or braided line between 8- and 15-pound test spooled on 2500 to 3500 series Shimano spinning reel mated with 7-foot Stellar Lite or Seagis series Star rods. Live mud minnows or soft-plastic Gulp! baits fished on Mission Fishin’ jigheads are the usual tickets for reds.
GUIDES/FISHING INFO — Capt. Mark Stacy, Ocean Isle Fishing Charters, 910-279-0119, www.oceanislefishingcharters.com; Ocean Isle Fishing Center, 910-575-FISH, www.oifc.com; Jimmy’s Marine and Tackle, 910-575-3600, www.jimmysmarine.com. See also Guides and Charters in Classifieds.
ACCOMMODATIONS — Ocean Isle Inn, Ocean Isle Beach, 910-579-0750, www.oceanisleinn.com; Winds Resort Beach Club, Ocean Isle, 910-579-6275, www.thewinds.com; Comfort Inn, Shallotte, 910-754-3044; Days Inn, Shallotte, 910-754-3300; Econo Lodge, Shallotte, 910-755-6444; Brunswick County Chamber of Commerce 800-426-6644, www.brunswickcountychamber.org.
MAPS — Capt. Segull’s Nautical Charts, 888-473-4855, www.captainsegullcharts.com; Sealake Fishing Guides, 800-411-0185, www.thegoodspots.com; GMCO’s Chartbook of North Carolina, 888-420-6277, www.gmcomaps.com.
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