Inshore action cranking up around Sneads Ferry, with flounder taking the lead

Soft-plastic baits, spoons producing plenty of fish as weather cools.

It’s a great time to be fishing in the Sneads Ferry area, according to Capt Allen Jernigan of Breadman Ventures, because flounder, red drum and speckled trout are all in a fall, feeding mode thanks to some recent cool weather.

“The fish were already biting well, but they have gotten even a little more intense in the past week,” Jernigan said. “The mullet minnows moving about and the cooler mornings the past week have them fired up. These fish are feeding, and we’ve been catching several species most days and collecting slams a lot of days.”

Jernigan (910-467-1482) said redfish are in smaller pods and packs varying in size from a few to a dozen, with large schools containing 40 fish.

“Many days, the reds and specks will still hit topwaters, but it isn’t such a wild bite any more,” Jernigan said. “The fish aren’t quite as shallow, and soft plastics, plus diving and suspending stickbaits, are catching more fish now. They still like spoons, and we have been catching all three species on them. Gold has been the best color for the spoons, but they will also hit black.”

Jernigan said the flounder bite has really been on fire. Earlier this week, one of his charters caught 40 to 50 off a single point. He’s been averaging about three keepers out of every 10 caught, with an awful lot of undersize fish in the 14- to 14 ½-inch range – keepers in another month or so. He is occasionally seeing a flounder that approaches 5 pounds, but many of the keepers are 2 to 4 pounds.

“Drum are scattered everywhere,” Jernigan said. “All the bait in the water has them running around. Some are in deeper water down near the inlets, and some are shallower in the New River and the creeks off it. They’ll hit just about anything too. We’ve been catching drum on Mrs. Trout Killer soft plastics, gold spoons and Top Pups and MRs.”

Jernigan said flounder are hitting the soft-plastic Ms. Trout Killers and gold spoons. Reds have been on the suspending MirrOlures, MR17s and MR27, while trout have been hitting the smaller MR17s.

On key, Jernigan said, is that you can fish faster in the call, cover more water and find fish more easily. Fish aren’t anywhere near as particular as they are during the summer or winter; if it looks like food, it will probably get eaten for the next month or so.