Tar Heel saltwater anglers with cabin fever who want to escape North Carolina’s frigid winter weather have only a couple of choices, and they continue to be at the southeastern coast.
With a fourth winter snow storm blanketing half the state March 2, the best bets to find active fish are offshore and inshore near the South Carolina-North Carolina border.
“Black sea bass fishing has been good about 20 miles offshore in 100 feet of water,” said Steele Park of Ocean Isle Fishing Center. “The World Cat, captained by Chris Dew, Zach Faulkner and with first mate Aaron Dew, recently took a party of Triad-region guys to 22-Mile Rock, and they caught about 150 fish. A lot of them were under-size, but they managed to land 25 keepers.”
Their sea bass ranged from 10 to 15 inches in length. The World Cat anglers found them at rocky bottoms, drop-offs and shelves.
“The bigger sea bass weighed about 3 pounds each,” Park said.
Lures were standard drop rigs with squid and cut bait.
“If you’re adventurous and want to try some bigger fish, you can go to the Gulf Stream (60 miles offshore),” Park said. “People have been trolling naked and skirted ballyhoo along with Yo-Zuri Bonito lures to catch wahoo averaging about 50 pounds each, with some 70-pounders in the mix. They also been catching big blackfin tuna in the low- to mid-20-pound range.”
Best spots for wahoo and blackfin have been The Steeples and Blackjack Hole.
Anglers also have caught a few scattered bonito inshore and offshore using Stingsilvers and Maria jigs.
Park said inshore fishing for school-size (17 to 24 inches) red drum “has been pretty good in the flats and creeks around here.”
“Generally people have been using Gulp! lures and other soft-plastic swimming-minnow lures on jigheads,” he said. “They’re also catching redfish underneath docks by using mud minnows, which are the only live baits available now.”
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