Find schools of reds and fish slowly, and you’ll pass this winter fishing test.
“The tide is pretty low, and we may bump the bottom getting across this bar and into this creek, but it will only be a tap or two,” Allen Jernigan said as he left the channel of the New River and headed into a small creek. “Even if I have to get out and wade us across it, this is a place I planned on fishing today. I was in here a few days ago and it was loaded with drum. Let’s hope they haven’t been harassed and moved.”
Jernigan, whose guide service, Breadman Ventures, is headquartered in Sneads Ferry, trimmed out his skiff and raised the jack plate to get the outboard as high as possible to cross the shallow bar and back into a couple of feet of water, then dropped the trolling motor to creep into the area where he expected to find the reds.
Just inside the mouth of the little creek, Jernigan saw the telltale puff of mud of where a redfish had spooked, searched for others, and not finding any, pegged his boat down within casting range of where he had last seen the school.
It took a few casts before Walter Wittneben, who was fishing with Jernigan, found a taker for the soft-plastic jerkbait he had tied on. Wittneben only bounced the bait one time before it was slammed, and a fish bolted across the creek, kicking up its own line of mud puffs. The fish made a couple of short runs before Wittneben led it tot he boat and Jernigan slipped the net under it.
Jernigan slipped the brightly colored redfish out of the net, removed the hook and gave it to Wittneben to hold for a quick picture before releasing it, feeling certain there were a hundred or more waiting just beyond where Wittneben’s cast had landed.
“I didn’t see a bunch of fish running wildly when that one took off, but I’m pretty sure the school I found the other day is right there,” Jernigan said. “I don’t believe he spooked them.”
Wittneben’s next cast landed a few feet away from the first, but this time, he twitched the bait three times before a hungry redfish grabbed it. The fight was similar to the first, and after a few minutes, Jernigan scooped it up in the net. The scene repeated itself a couple more times before one hooked fish took off and spooked the rest of the school.
Jernigan spends a lot of time on the waters around his home in Sneads Ferry, offering flounder-gigging charters at night or gigging flounder commercially when he doesn’t have a charter.He finds a lot of fish during the day, but when he is out on chilly winter nights, he sees a lot of things few people ever do — including schools of reds gathering in the creeks and marshes.
Lee Paramore, a biologist who monitors red drum for the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, said red drum school year-round, but schooling appears to be more pronounced in the winter.
“Red drum definitely school in different areas throughout the year, and they tend to school with similar sized fish,” said Paramore. “In the winter, fish are less active and tend to remain more localized for longer periods of time. This likely makes their schooling more pronounced during these months.”
Jernigan often brings his fishing parties back to places where he’s found reds at night, ready to feed them a few lures.
“We are fortunate to have a good population of red drum in the New River and its creeks and bays from Jacksonville down to Sneads Ferry,” Jernigan said. “They are also along the edges of the Intracoastal Waterway from Surf City to Swansboro, in the shallow bays along it and in the creeks that feed into it. This gives us multiple opportunities and locations to fish depending on the wind, weather and tide.”
Jernigan looks for areas in marsh creeks that will get plenty of sunlight, the exposed bottom holding heat and warming up and making the fish more active and more likely to feed.
“You still need to fish your bait slow,” he said. “They’re cold and won’t use a lot of energy to chase a bait that is moving too fast.”
Jernigan and Wittneben found just such an area, a marsh pond, and Wittneben didn’t even get the bail on his spinning reel closed before a fish struck on his first cast. Jernigan got Wittneben to add a little more drag to keep the fish out of the grass, and when he turned the red, it exposed a broad tail with a big, black spot and an electric blue edge to the rear edge of its tail.
The sight of an upper-slot redfish making a turn and showing a tail with an electric blue edge is a sight not a lot of people get to see. In a strange way that’s a good thing. The coastal marshes would be a lot more crowded if they did.
The two fishermen caught reds until the tide rose, then Jernigan picked up a rod rigged with a MirrOlure 17MR MirrOdine, a suspending hard-plastic bait that could be twitched above the bottom and retrieved slowly. On his first cast, he caught a red, then added a couple of specks when the bait washed over a hole at the end of a sandbar.
Finally, the tide rose enough that the school of redfish moved deeper into the marsh and Jernigan lost track of them. He paused for a few minutes to replace a few leaders that had been chafed on the ever-present oysters and to see if the school might be just making a swing around the marsh and return.
When the redfish didn’t return after about 15 minutes, Jernigan said, “Go ahead and make one more cast, but if you don’t hook one, we’re outta here. I just thought of another place I haven been in a while and I’d like to try this afternoon. It isn’t too far from here and the tide looks to be about right to get in to it.”
DESTINATION INFORMATION
HOW TO GET THERE — Sneads Ferry is on the west side of the New River’s junction with ICW. US 17, NC 210 and NC 172 provide access from most other areas. Two popular public ramps are at Fulcher’s Landing on SR 1557 off NC 172 and under the NC 210 bridge where it crosses the ICW onto North Topsail Beach. Fee ramps include New River Marina in Sneads Ferry and Sea Haven Marina near the NC 172 bridge across the New River from Cape Lejeune.
WHEN TO GO — Red drum will bite in the waters around Sneads Ferry year-round, but it’s best in the fall and early winter as the water cools. Fishermen willing to bundle up for cold weather will find fish schooling in shallow bays and creeks off the river and ICW.
TACKLE/LURES — Medium-light to medium-action spinning or baitcasting tackle is ideal for red drum. WIth the subtle bite of winter fish, lighter tackle rated 6 to 12 pounds or 8 to 16 pounds may work better. Class 2500 reels spooled with 10-pound braid and an 18-inch section of slightly heavier fluorocarbon leader are tops. Monofilament in the 10- to 17-pound class will also work, but braid is more sensitive and will cast light baits farther. Soft-plastic baits like Texas Tackle Factor’s paddletails and Fluke-shapes and Salty Bay’s Red Devil are prime winter baits. In deeper water, suspending hard-plastic baits do a good job. Jigheads should have stronger hooks, but 1/8-ounce versions will suffice because the New River’s creeks and bays don’t have a lot of current. Closer to the ICW, you can move up to 1/4-ounce.
FISHING INFO/GUIDES — Allen Jernigan, Breadman Ventures Charters, 910-467-1482, www.breadmanventures.com; New River Marina, 910-327-2106, www.newrivermarina.com; East Coast Sports, 910-328-1887, www.eastcoastsports.com. See also Guides and Charters in Classifieds.
ACCOMMODATIONS — Holiday Inn Express, Sneads Ferry, 888-465-4329, www.hiexpress.com/sneadsferrync; Seward Inn, 910-347-0469; Topsail Shores Inn, 910-685-0969, www.topsailshoresinn.com; Onslow County Tourism Office, www.onslowcountytourism.com.
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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