Big redfish schools in Cape Lookout surf

After a recent warming trend and light winds followed an early January cold snap, Crystal Coast anglers witnessed huge schools of red drum in the surf near Cape Lookout.

“Schools are running from 50 to 3,000 fish,” said Dave Dietzler, a veteran Morehead City saltwater fishing guide (Cape Lookout Charters, 252-240-2850).

“We had a bunch of nice days last week when the wind blew from the west, the surf was dead, slack calm and the water was gin clear, so we could see those fish,” he said. “And one school had, I’d estimate, 3,000 reds. It’s the biggest school I’ve seen in years.”

Only three or four boats were on the ocean that day, and Dietzler said his clients caught 30 reds from 25 to 32 inches in length before tiring of the action.

They used Slurps, Blurps and Trigger X soft-plastic lures with 1/8- to 1/4-ounce jigheads “but any kind of soft-plastic (lure) probably would have worked that day,” Dietzler said. “Although most of the fish were slot- to just-above-slot (size), when we crossed the (East Side) shoals I saw one red that was so big I thought it was a striper.”

Dietzler also said anglers at Cape Lookout are using 7- to 7 1/2-foot surf rods to cast to visible redfish.

Also mixed with the CALO reds are black drum and a few speckled trout.

“There are schooling reds in the marshes from Bogue Inlet to Newport to the North River,” Dietzler said. “And I also came across a nice school of black drum in Middle Marsh (behind Shackleford Banks) near some oyster rocks while I was using my trolling motor during a redfish trip.”

The black drum weighed from 4 to 8 pounds.

“We used pieces of frozen shrimp on small bucktail jigs to catch them,” he said.

Dietzler said he wasn’t totally sure a prolonged January freeze killed as many speckled trout as reported.

“(Sub-freezing weather) killed some fish, but I don’t know if it was as many as people claimed,” he said. “I’ve still been able to go up the creeks (behind Morehead City and Beaufort) and use popping corks with Gulp lures and suspending MirrOlures, especially the MR17 model, to catch specks weighing from 2 1/2 to 5 pounds.”