Angler finds specks and reds in some unusual places

Mild winter weather at the N.C. coast has meant good fishing days and spotted seatrout for most anglers.

“The trout bite has been very good,” said Capt. Jot Owens of Wrightsville Beach (www.captainjot.com, Jot It Down Fishing Charters, 910-233-4139). “The latter part of the week after Christmas I’ve got bookings (to take clients fishing) every day.”

The last time Owens went just before Christmas, his party boated 20 keeper specks (14 inches or longer).

“I think it’s because the water has started to get clearer as it’s gotten cooler,” he said.

Owens chooses light-colored jigs and hard baits, including Berkley Gulp! pearl, natural and molting shrimp soft-plastics on 1/4- to 3/8-ounce jigheads. A 5-inch Gulp! Jerk Shad in pearl or chartreuse-pepper also has worked well.

“I’m using MirrOlures in shallow water, the MR 17, and the 52 and 52MR (4 3/4 inches in white, electric chicken and natural mullet) in deeper water,” he said.

The 52MR has ratttles while the 52M doesn’t. Live shrimp and mud minnows also work well. His best fishing has been at inlets, using float rigs or Carolina rigs.

“The bigger fish seem to be around the inlets,” he said, “but you can have plenty of fun catching small trout in feeder creeks.

“But the surf fishing (for specks)  has been great, too.”

At inlets he anchors to fish ledges that drop from 6- to 15-feet deep. He also uses MirrOlures as well as soft plastic lures.

“If the current’s ripping, I use the 52Ms and 52MRs,” he said. “I throw across current and retrieve on down current. If you throw into the current, the lure will sink, and you’ll get hung up. If I do get hung up, I’ll switch to the MR17.”

Red drum fishing also continues apace.

“They’re at black mud banks and oyster rocks after the water’s got hotter from steady sunshine,” Owens said. “But the surf drum fishing has been good too — when the weather’s calm and you can get out there.”

A lack of rainfall and warm temps have allowed salty water to push inland, and Owens said he and his clients have had some unusual catches.

“The other day up the (Cape Fear) river while we were fishing for stripers I caught a 30-inch drum near downtown Wilmington,” he said. “Usually you catch a few (reds) in early December up there, but nothing this late. Then we were in the Northeast Cape Fear (river) and we caught seven stripers, five drum and a 3 1/2-pound speck,” he said, “all on Berkley Jerk Shads.

“It’s just been a mild year so far, not so much rain, and salt water is way up the rivers.”