Reds plentiful at flats, but bite is ‘spooky’

The one constant inshore fish for N.C. anglers this winter and early spring at the southeastern coast has been red drum, said Carolina Beach fishing guide Jeff Wolfe.“I’ve been fishing all winter for reds,” said Wolfe (Seahawk Inshore Charters, 910.619.9580, jeff@seahawkinshorefishingcharters.com, http://www.seahawkinshorefishingcharters.com/).

“Right now the fish are so cold, they’re not really feeding. I had a recent (late February) trip where we saw hundreds of fish (in the shallow bays across from Southport), and we were sight fishing, but they were really slow to bite.”

“We caught 13 one day but only three the next. The guys were still excited, though, to see that many fish in the water.”

Wolfe said he has taken clients fishing four of five days per week since January.

“About the only thing (the red drum) will bite now is mud minnows,” he said, “but the water’s so clear they’re real spooky. You see hundreds of mud boils (fleeing fish) when I pole (the boat).”

Wolfe owns a 16 1/2-foot-long Ranger Banshee Extreme boat that draws just 5 inches of water to reach reds in the bays north of Bald Head Island.

“I can take two clients,’ said the former commercial fisherman who probably could navigate Buzzard Bay in his sleep. “I put a couple of 200-pound guys in (the boat), and it’ll still draw just 6 inches of water. I’m about the only person (at Carolina Beach) who knows the bays good enough and has a boat that’ll go that shallow. I don’t have to worry about getting stuck. Most people won’t chance it.”

Wolfe said the reds he’s caught sometimes hit Gulp shrimp lures he coats with Carolina Lunker Sauce in shrimp flavor.

“I’m finding ’em in low current, still water that’s muddy, and the blackest (mud) bottom you can find, especially on sunny days,” he said. “They really gang up on those black bottoms, I think, because they hold warmth better (than sandy regions) when the sun’s out.”

The reds Wolfe’s clients catch range from sub-slot (less than 18-inches long) to 24- to 26-inch fish. N.C. coastal anglers may keep two fish daily in the 18-to-27-inch slot size.

“When the water warms up (in March), those fish will begin to bite better when there’s a few (brown) shrimp in the water; we’ll have some fantastic sight fishing then,” Wolfe said.

Sometimes he also goes north from Snow’s Cut to fish the ballast-rock islands along the edges of the Cape Fear River shipping channel.

“We also catch black drum and speckled trout,” he said. “They hit the same lures and baits as the reds.”