Good weather key to red-fishing success

With frigid weather continuing to hold a vice-like grip on most of North Carolina, fishing success has come at a premium and then only sporadically.

Two places where bites have occurred during mild weather days are inshore waters near Southport and surf areas at local beaches. Southeastern North Carolina usually is the warmest part of the state during winter.

“We’re only catching red drum now,” said guide Jeff Wolfe of Seahawk Inshore Charters of Carolina Beach (910) 619-9580, www.seahawkinshorefishingcharters.com). “There are still big schools of redfish in the surf, sometimes numbering in the thousands, at Masonboro and Lee islands, and there are reds in the lower Cape Fear on the flats and in the creeks.”

Surf reds, usually from 24 to 30 inches in length, have been hitting paddle-tail grubs and Gulp! lures threaded onto 1/4- to 1/2-ounce jigheads, Wolfe said.

Sheltered bays between Fort Fisher and Bald Head Island are producing inshore red drum, Wolfe said, along with creeks off the Cape Fear near Southport. At the bays when the tide is high, reds cruise marsh island and creek edges. When the tide falls out, reds go to the flats. Wolfe said he detects flats reds by watching for their wakes on the surface, making them fairly easy to target.

“The problem is the (redfish) bite hasn’t been consistent,” Wolfe said. “We had an 85-fish day when the weather was nice, with air temps in the 50s, and the water in the mid 40s. We threw Saltwater Assassin paddletails in the 10W40 (motor oil) color.

“Any lure that resembled a mud minnow worked because minnows and crabs are all the reds are foraging on now. So any lure in a dark color works well, maybe with a contrasting chartreuse tail. If they don’t want to hit artificials, I use a 1/4-ounce round Gamakatsu lead-head jig with a live mud minnow.”

But a few days later with similar weather, Wolfe said the redfish bite was extremely slow.

“We did a creek-fishing redfish show for Carolina Fishing TV,” he said. “The weather was beautiful that day too, but we only caught a dozen or so reds. I think the problem was the tides because it was low early in the morning and in the evening. The best time to fish is when it’s low at mid-day, and shallow water gets a chance to warm up.”

Wolfe said light winds, sunshine and temperatures in the upper 40s and 50s are keys to good red-drum fishing during late winter near Southport.

“Having that combination has been rare lately, but hopefully that’ll change over the next couple of weeks,” he said. “March is right around the corner and maybe temps will get back to normal.”