Cronked for Reds

Crystal Coast anglers know wintertime is prime time to find huge schools of red drum and have a blast.

Red drum are versatile fish.

Now that they’ve returned in large numbers at the Carolina coast, anglers have begun targeting them all year long.What was once a spring, summer and fall fishery has extended throughout the winter months as anglers take advantage of schools of juvenile fish that stay in the inshore and nearshore waters after the big adult fish have departed for deepwater ocean haunts.

One of the best charter captains along the coast is Capt. Jeff Cronk of Fish’N 4 Life Charters of Swansboro. A high-school math teacher, his unbounded energy allows him to take clients fishing an average of 120 days per year during weekends and after-school hours.

“There are three places where we find the reds in February,” he said. “We catch the smaller puppies in the deeper waters up in the rivers. We find large schools of mid-sized fish sunning in the bays. Then there are the bigger fish in the inlet areas.”

Cronk fishes from a 22-foot Triton center-console boat with a 225-horsepower Mercury outboard. The boat has a draft shallow enough to get into the backwaters yet is big enough to get out in the ocean for a run to Cape Lookout or the various shoals near the inlets.

He also makes use of a trolling motor with a rod-mounted remote control. But he has a unique way of using it. He holds the control in his mouth and uses his teeth to work the buttons. This method allows him to keep his hands free for casting.

“I’m surprised some trolling motor manufacturer hasn’t figured it out and made a model that has controls to fit your mouth,” he said in all seriousness. “I couldn’t do what I do without it.”

Cronk eased up the Cape Lookout Rock Jetty. At the south side of Cape Lookout, the worn boulders have gaps between them. Some gaps are sand-filled while others have water rushing between them.

“You have to get here early to get a parking spot,” he said. “Some of the rocks have washout holes that hold fish while the others don’t.

“You want to fish the incoming tide. The fish will usually be on the down-current side of the rocks. But they may move around.

“If you don’t get a good spot one day, you can watch where everyone else is catching fish and get there earlier the next day.”

In the ocean, reds aren’t at all finicky. They strike live and cut baits, along with frozen baits and soft plastic lures in the scented or unscented variety. But they can be size-specific.

“They’ve been hitting small mud minnows,” he said. “The water is really getting cold. When it gets below 50, they get lethargic. As it approaches 40, they completely shut down.”

Cronk fishes at all the central coast jetties or anywhere there is deepwater structure. The Fort Macon Jetty, Shackleford Jetty and the Cape Lookout jetties hold fish. Anywhere with sea walls, such as the walls of the Morehead City Sate Port Turning Basin, hold red drum. These hard-structure areas hold fish between 15 and 24 inches in length.

Once he finds fish biting near one of the rocks of the Cape Lookout Jetty by getting near enough to cast, he makes as many casts as it takes to catch a few fish. He may anchor if it looks safe and if the anchor can be easily retrieved without risk to the boat.

He uses a modified Carolina rig with a split shot or two for weight and a small, No. 4 circle hook to hold live mud minnows or other baits. At times, he catches and releases a dozen fish or more from a single washed-out hole near a rock with as many casts.

The best things to like about February fishing for reds is the water clarity, the numbers of fish, and they’re not as spooky as during the warmer months. In the marshes and along the sand shoals and beachfront, Cronk can get right on top of them.

“The best location for ocean fishing is from Bogue Inlet to Brown’s Inlet all along the tops of the whitewater shoals,” Cronk said. “Any time there’s no wind you can ease into the whitewater and catch the reds in 4 feet of water. Or you can hop out of the boat and put on waders and wade the shoals.

“I’ve seen 5,000 reds in one school in February and these are some of the largest fish. You might get a school of 34-inch fish and a few fish might go 36 or 37 inches.”

The shoal bite starts in December and runs through March, until the winds turn east, south or southwest.

Throughout wintertime, the west to northwest winds or days when there’s no wind are plentiful. The calm water associated with these winds makes the water visibility high, especially in the early part of the day.

In the afternoon, the sun coming from the west makes the fish more difficult to spot. At that time, the thing to do is hop out and wade fish the shoals with the sun at your back. A boat can also be anchored at several spots so the angler can walk across islands to get to the beaches where fish are swimming.

“If you view Bogue Inlet Pier’s Cam on the web site (bogueinletpier.com) and there’s any swell at all, don’t go fishing,” he said. “It’s also affected by the offshore swell, so you have to pay attention to the offshore wind forecast.

“Anytime you have a swell out of the northeast, it takes two or three days after the wind switches around before it knocks the swell back down. I fish from 9 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon. You want the wind and sun behind you. After 2 o’clock, the sun is in your face.

“From land you have better visibility in the afternoon hours. You have to have a boat to get to Bear Island and Brown’s Island. You need to park on the back of the inlet points and hike around to the beaches.

“You can park at Hammock’s Beach State park Landing and hike across. Bear Island is only 3 miles long so you can fish the entire island in a couple of hours.

“You can park at Bogue Inlet and access the east end of Bear Island from there. You can park at Bear Inlet and access the west end of Bear Island or the east end of Brown’s Island. You can park at Brown’s Inlet and access the west end of Browns Island or the East side of Onslow Beach.”

The fish are within 50 yards of the beach.

Sometimes porpoises mark the presence of redfish. Cronk even hooked one last year while making a cast to a red drum.

“The line went zing, it popped and that was it,” he said. “You should watch for porpoises if you can’t find reds. If you see porpoises, you can use them to locate a school of reds if the water is dingy because they’re feeding on the reds.

“But if it’s clear, it’s not necessary. Porpoises eat reds and I’ve seen porpoises run them right up on the beach. You see a lot of the reds marked by porpoises.

“You’ll catch them all winter long with cuts from sharks. Blacktips are also around in the winter. If the sharks show up, they can really eat up expensive baits like Berkley Gulp baits. You may even get a few stripers mixed in with reds.”

Once Cronk hooks a fish in the surf, he may anchor the boat. He keeps a hooked fish at the back of the boat, taking his time in landing it. The other fish in the school will follow and stick around, just like a school of dolphin offshore. By taking his time, he can boat the fish and dozens more.

On days when he can’t get into the ocean, Cronk may stick around the inlets. He said a good tactic for those with smaller boats or for any boat on a rough, windy day is to fish the deeper holes near the inlets.

He uses heavier jig heads and soft plastic baits or natural baits in the holes inside and outside the inlets such as Bogue and Brown’s inlets. These are the same spots that hold red drum all summer.

The inside holes along the waterway side are safer for smaller craft or whenever the wind is blowing too hard to get to the jetties.

Some of his best fishing is done up the rivers and in the bays. Juvenile red drum of 12 to 24 inches suspend above warm bottoms, forming huge schools that are in the same places day after day.

“The reds are in the rivers,” he said. “The smaller puppies are in the deep waters upriver. I target them in all the mainland creeks of Bogue Sound, including Broad, Gale’s and Goose creeks. They are also up in the White Oak River. Petiford’s Creek and the main river channel around Stella in the narrows and in the deeper water in the narrows of Queens Creek and also in the narrows of Bear Creek are all good places to find winter reds.”

Some schools are sunning at midday in the northern bays of Bogue Sound. These schools can have several dozen fish to several hundred fish. But the bite is not good during colder morning hours. The fish may turn on for a couple of hours in the middle of the day when the bottom absorbs heat and radiates it where the fish like to sun on dark bottom areas.

Once the water temperature gets into the low 40s, the fish won’t bite at all. But when it’s in the upper 40s, the fish will strike small soft-plastic lures.

“We catch the reds back in the marshes with 1/16-ounce jig heads and scented baits or artificial soft plastics,” Cronk said. “We sometimes use a weightless soft-plastic jerk bait.

“Zoom Super Flukes, Bass Assassins and Berkley Gulp Jerk Baits are good for suspended redfish. I also like the older style Berkley Powerbait jerk baits.”

It’s primarily a sight-fishing game in the shallow marshes and river channels. But it isn’t at all like the summer.

The water is calm so anglers can see the fish pushing water and use a trolling motor to get near enough to make a cast.

Sometimes a dozen fish can be caught from a school. But it’s not a good idea to keep pounding the same school hard day after day or the school can move or break up. A half dozen fish is enough to land from a suspended school before letting it rest a couple of days.

“You keep the trolling motor on the lowest setting to get to the fish,” Cronk said. “They’re not spooky like they are in summer.

“Look for shelly patches or dark, muddy bottom for soaking up heat of the sun. Boat dock channels and ditches are good. The fish lay around the mouths of the channels. There’s no bait showering or any other clues. You’re just looking for visible fish.

“Once you find them, they will stay there day after day as long as you don’t pressure them too hard. If you see 50 fish in a school, don’t try to catch more than five or six, and you can catch them until the water starts turning warm and the big schools begin breaking up.”

While most red drum anglers like warmer weather, Cronk said they’re missing the best fishing of the year.

“Our winter red drum fishing is one of the state’s best shallow-water fisheries,” he said. “It’s nothing to can catch 50 to 200 fish in a day in February, while in the summer, you’re lucky to catch a dozen fish.”