Ocean run striper

Got out in the frigid air last night to try and stick a striper. Winds were out of the north at 20 mph sustained 36 degree air temp and high humidity. Popped a 33 inch striper on the first cast and decided that after my hands were already frozen from landing the fish that I would end on a high note. The fish ate a soft plastic attached to a jighead. I knew he was a good one when he thumped the offering and started burning drag on my little 2500 shimano reel attached to a medium light st croix rod.

Pamlico Sound Stripers

It has been cold the past week but it has not detered me from pursuing stripers in the Pamlico Sound. I landed two last night in a short 30 minute trip on soft plastics and lost about a 15 lb fish on the fourth cast. The fish came up and rolled over as I was trying to land him and spit the hook. It didn't take long to locate the fish on this trip. The two I kept were 21" and 28" fish. Hopefully the weather will allow me to pursue some of the beach run rockfish as they make their way south.

Tight lines,

Capt Ren

Cold Weather Trout

The weather and water has surely cooled down in the month of December. The speckled trout bite has continued to be red hot if you can locate the fish. There are plenty of fish being caught off the surf and around structure. Inshore the fish are hanging in deeper holes in the more stable water temperatures. I have been catching trout on soft plastics matched up to the smallest jigheads I can fish effectively given the conditions-wind, water depth, current, tides, etc. Most of the trout continue to be over 2 lbs. The past two trips have yielded quick action from aggressive legal trout. All of the trout caught lately have been over 17 inches and up to 24 inches. If you can stand the cool weather there are plenty of fish to catch.

I have a few dates still available for January and February. Book now while the fishing is hot and crowds at the ramp are small. This is my favorite time of the year on the water. The redfishing is hot as well with large schools and the best sight fishing opportunities of the year.

Tight lines,

Capt Ren

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Drew and I capped the Redfish Tournament season with a bang. We went down to Orange Beach, Alabama for the IFA Championship to compete with the other divisional winners across the country. We finished in 13th place overall for the tournament but captured the Cabelas National Team of the Year. We are the first Atlantic Division Team to win the title. The best redfish anglers on the planet were in Orange Beach for the week. The conditions were awful at best for the tournament and pre fishing before. We fished from Destin to Mobile Bay and most areas in between. On Friday morning the tournament director decided to cancel the first day of the tournament and move it to a Saturday and Sunday tourney due to a small craft advisory. The wind blew 35-40 mph all week making it hard to find fish in the area. The wind also blew all of the water out of the inshore areas around Alabama due to the strong north winds driving the water into the Gulf of Mexico. We decided to stay close to checkout in Orange Beach and found several deeper water spots holding fish. Being that close to checkout meant that more teams were beating on the same fish so we had to find a deep water bite that would be consistent on game day. We ended up catching slot fish on day one in a few different areas and on day two decided to stick to our game plan and try to weigh in at least what we had weighed on day one. After starting out slow due to the current ripping we only had a 18 inch fish in the well until about 11:00 am when the current slowed down. At 11am we landed our first decent red and hooked up on the next two casts. Had an upper slot break me off right at the boat and then we landed the next fish with a great team effort. We also did the same thing on day one with our biggest fish. This fish swam straight to the structure and I flipped the bail on my reel so we could go after the fish and pull him out without breaking off on the barnacle lined pilings. The fish came out of the structure once I flipped the bail and put the heat on him and then found a small tree limb outside the pilings and Drew was able to get a net on him. We fished two or three more spots and the bite picked up. We caught about 12 fish in short order and pulled a couple more off of another spot. We upgraded our smallest fish and then moved back to our original A spot from the morning. First cast hooked up and then got broke off on a piling as the boat was drifting on us from not properly setting up in the current and wind. Frustrated but content on the near 10 lbs of fish we had in the livewell we returned to check-in to see how we fared. The only team that had been in front of us on day one crossed the Bay like most of the other teams and failed to get back across. Thankfully our strategy to stay close and weigh in respectable weight each day paid off big time for us.
I am completely booked for the month of December but have openings in January and February. Don't miss a hot trout and redfish bite this winter-book now to reserve your winter fishing trip.

Tight lines,
Capt Ren

2010 Redbone Series Cape Fear Red Trout Celebrity Classic

This year's tournament season ended with a bang. Me and my anglers: Dr George Brinson and Dr Scotty Gould won 6 categories including the overall tournament in the Red Trout Celebrity Classic part of the Redbone Series of tournament to benefit cystic fibrosis research. Day one of the tournament included 35-40 mph sustained winds and a high of 60 degrees. We made a long run north from the tournament checkout. While at our A spot for the day I managed to fall overboard and drown my phone and my watch. My watch continued to work but somehow reset itself 25 minutes slow. This ended up costing us first place on day one in the spin category and just back from the overall leaders.
On day two of the tournament we had beautiful weather with light winds and bluebird skies. At our first stop we landed 20- keeper trout during the first hour of competition. All fish fell for two different types of plastic attached to various jigheads depending on the slowing current at the end of the falling tide. During this time George and Scotty were catching fish two a time and I was unable to process the fish fast enough and take photos of each one. I had over a dozen 2-3.5lb fish stacked up in the back corner of my boat. After the fish moved we moved on to our next spot 20 minutes away and were greeted with perfect conditions to begin the onslaught. Scotty struck first on the mirrodine mini and heavy baits. Next George got a couple on a swimbait. I had pre fished all week at over a dozen spots in the general area and Dr Scotty Gould was very familiar with this area as well. We hit one of his spots first and then moved onto the areas I had pre fished once the tide got a little higher. The guys immediately started wacking trout two at a time at the 3rd spot we hit and I once again had a pile of trout to record and release. (The redbone series is a release tourney and the guide has to measure and photograph each fish before release) Thankfully our disposable camera had only 20 exposure and we maxed it out at our first spot-one less step for me to deal with.
After hitting 3 more spots and catching over 40 trout total for the day we decided to pursue my favorite fish-the redfish. I took the guys to a spot I had found them close by a few days earlier and honey was home. The guys quickly landed about a dozen reds and broke off a couple and pulled hooks on two or three more. They had 8 keepers so we had our reds for the tournament. Your anglers have to catch at least one of each species to qualify for overall tournament winners. We accomplished that and much more with 800 bonus points for catching those reds.
After redfishing for 30 minutes it was back to trout fishing-knowing the tide was perfect at two trout spots we had not hit yet. At the first spot we went it was game on for both guys catching two at a time once again. These were all 2-3.5 lb fish and aggressive. After this we went to another spot on the way to our final spot and picked up a few more. Then the last spot yielded about 10 more trout a piece. Being a little gun shy on time I decided to cut the guys off an hour early and leave the fish biting. I thought they had caught enough to win the tourney so we got back to the dock over an hour early and decided to fish a little more close by until we decided to go ahead and turn our forms in and have a cold one.
Turns out the guys won 6 divisions including overall team champions. Dr George won: Grand Champion, Most trout releases, Most redfish releases, and spin division.
Dr Scotty won Runner up Grand Champion he had one less redfish than Dr George-they both released 28 trout. George caught one more redfish and that was enough to just edge Scotty out in all of those individual divisions.
The two won the overall tournament by a long shot. They had over double the points of the next closest team in one day of fishing in a two day tourney.
Thanks to the volunteers that made this tournament possible. It was a great time for a great cause.
Congrats Dr George and Dr Scotty!!

Tight lines,
Captain Ren

IFA Redfish Tour Atlantic Division Champs 2010

Georgetown pig 30" taken on a popping cork w/ soft plastic

Last Saturday we finished up our last IFA Redfish Tour Atlantic Division Tournament. We pre fished from Georgetown to Charleston and everywhere in between. We found fish on every piece of water we fished and found new fish in several differents spots and water bodies. There is so much productive water down there and some of the most beautiful rivers anywhere with all sorts of wildlife on the banks. We saw several bald eagles up close and too many alligators to count. Some gators were up to 12 ft long and some were just babies. I snagged one little gator and brought him on the boat and released him unharmed. What aggressive little reptiles.














Little gator backing me in the corner

On game day we struggled to find the right sized fish as the tide was not in our favor early. We started out with some undersized fish then I got a 22 3/4 inch red (23" is the top of the slot in SC) then we struggled to find another fish in the slot for an hour or two. Then Drew got a 19" fish in an old standby spot. Then we made a long run to finish the day in a spot that we found numerous slot fish willing to eat earlier in the week. We popped two fish as the water was much siltier and stirred up than the conditions we faced earlier in the week. We both got an oversized fish each then headed back to Georgetown. We were behind one team by one point/place and another one by 3 points going into the tourney. After everyone had weighed in we found out we had just edged out the second place team by one point to capture our second IFA Redfish Tour Atlantic Division Title in a row. Now we have the IFA Championship in Orange Beach, Al where we will compete against the other 4 divisional winners for the national team of the year.

Tight lines,
Capt Ren

Perfect Georgetown slot Georgetown Green Fish

Good prefishing tough tourney

Hurricane Drew and I finished the Redfish Action series with about as poor of result as the previous two tournaments. We finished last season as the Redfish Action Team of the Year and Series Champions and were runner up the previous year. Hopefully next year will be better fishing on the flats up there. Thank God we are done with redfish tourneys in MHC this season. In years past we have been able to roll up to MHC for a day or two of pre fishing and wack 40 to 50 fish on game day. Those days did not happen this year for us. Yes there were a few teams that cashed in fishing a few areas like the haystacks, Core Creek, and the beach but overall MHC as well as our area have not been what they have in the past. I cannot say for sure what has happened this year to the numbers of redfish inshore but I can tell you the obvious answer lies in the cold water temps for extended period of time the past two winters the last one being the worst. I am not saying there have not been any fish inshore. I have had several 30 fish days this season on trips but they have been the rarety instead of the norm as in the past few years. Ok enough of that. We caught about six fish on game day and my first two fish were overslot and Hurricane pulled a fish and had a breakoff on his first two. I knew going into the day from our prefishing that if we did not pull two nice upper slots early in the day the fish would start moving and it would be hard to get anything besides lower slot fish out of the school. We saw several overslot fish in the school we targeted on game day earlier in the week but could not catch anything but slots then. A

We are only 3 points out of the IFA Atlantic Division points race for team of the year. The final tourney in Gtown will determine team of the year. We are striving to defend our IFA Atlantic Division title so we can compete at the IFA Championship for national team of the year once again.

Fun family fishing

Took the girls out for an afternoon beach/fishing trip yesterday. The girls found sand dollars and other shells until the flies about took us away. The surf was flat and the temperature was beautiful but when the wind blows over the dunes the flies are horrible. We decided to do a little fishing in the ocean since the conditions were perfect. The bait is so thick out there right now it has everything eating and following. The mullet run is in full swing as they head south. There are also millions of glass minnows and a lot of menhaden as well. We had spanish macks all around the boat as we came out of the inlet but decided to go a little further offshore to tangle with some real fighters-false albacore. They were so keyed in on little bait that I had to go through about 12 different baits to see what color, size, sink rate, etc. they were in the mood for. I finally found a bait that they were crushing a small suspending twitch bait. The girls and I fought false albacore until sunset and then headed to the dock. The sunset was beautiful and we were content with sore arms and big smiles as we came to the dock.

Sizzling September

To stay September started off with a bang would be an understatement. The trout have showed up in great numbers and they are not dinks. I went out late yesterday afternoon to hit some tailing flats. The reds were there. I pitched baits to several fish and hooked up with a few of them. I erased the pics by accident last night. As I awaited the tide to flood the flats I caught a few trout on the edges of the grass. They were hitting the top all around me.
This morning I greeted several tailing fish on several different flats trying to hit flats I had never fished. I was rewarded for prospecting new areas-reds were all over the flats I hit. Some were crawling through spartina grass with half their backs out of the water. I fished the tide out in several old and some new spots. I saw several fish at low tide and caught 6 or so but most were shut down and not interested in any of my offerings. On the way home I hit a not so "secret" flounder area. I pulled up a nice 21 inch flatty for the grease on a 7 inch jerk bait on a jighead. Caught two other flatties earlier in the day on plastic and spinnerbaits. The reds ate spinnerbaits and plastic. No topwater reds today in the hard southwest wind. Saw several reds crawling at low tide with hald their backs out of the water.
Bedtime now-more redfish stalking in the skinny tomorrow morning.

Tight lines,
Capt Ren

August 2010 Recap

August was another good fishing month. Lots of mixed bags during the month on topwater lures, spoons, hard and soft plastics. The bait was everywhere during this month. Mullet, shrimp, crabs, menhaden were all thick and the fish were aggressive.

July fishing recap

July was a good month for me. My little girl entered the world with good health and no complications for her or my wife. The fishing was good as well. The topwater continued to be strong through the upper stages of high tide. Also had some good days at dead low tide as large schools of fish moved onto several flats in our region.
Hurricane Drew and I struggled our way to a top ten finish in the Redfish Action tournament out of MHC although we had some battery issues that only allowed us to fish for 3 hours during the tournament. We were forced to come back to the dock at 9:00am to work on the battery cables that were fried when we gave a friend of ours a jump before tournament hours as his batteries were dead. Hopefully our next tourney will be less eventful and allow us to fish the entire day.

Long overdue update

Peyton with her 26 incher at HT3 weigh in

Gator trout 29" caught a 25" same day on spinnerbaits and three others around 21"

Nice slot pulled out of a super skinny clear water flat-weightless baits were the ticket

Jody with a nice 30 incher-one of several landed on this day

18 nice sheepshead caught to finish a trip up this day

Well it has been a while since I updated my blog. The short version of why is that I have been busy with charters, tournaments, TV work, and my beautiful baby girl Alexis Cameron entered the world in July. I have been fishing a lot since the past post so I will give an update with pics now.
June was a good month although the mercury was so high the fish were lethargic most days in the early afternoon. The topwater bite was good in the mornings and evenings especially when the cooler ocean water cooled down the flats during the upper stages of high tide. My stepdaughter Peyton and I fished the HT3 Redfish tourney June 19 and finished 10th place. We had a camera on board as we got some nice fish early-most overslot on topwater. That episode of Carolina Fishing TV can be seen at www.carolinafishingtv.com. Were stuck most of the day due to the tide falling faster than I had calculated.
During June I landed several gator trout, flounder, and redfish from Morehead City to Southport and everywhere in between. The sheepshead bite was outstanding during June.

Mike with a fat over slot on topwater

Danny with slot red on a DOA jerkbait

Small flatfish
Had a half day on Monday May 24th with my friend Mike and his brother Danny. They both got a flounder a piece and two decent reds. They got one on topwater that was a 8.5 lb pig and just barely over 27 inches. There were a couple of nice flounder and reds that pulled the hooks on the short 4 hour trip in brutal afternoon winds and some rain. Very successful short trip at Wrightsville Beach.

Hurricane Drew and I won the IFA tourney in Surf City. It has been one we have just missed a few times and was finally great to win one and a Ranger Banshee fully rigged with electronics and power pole to go with it. BTW it is for sale for a smoking deal for anyone in the market for a super skinny flats boat. Enough spam-here's how our week went. I charted the first half of the week and found scattered fish then I switched gears and pre fished two days and found lots of fish on day two. Day one of pre fish for me was finding us some low water spots around structure and deeper areas I usually don't fish. We needed a low tide game plan due to the low tide at 9:30 on game day. Many of my flats would not have water on game day except for the first hour or two of competition. I struggled to find deep water fish and finally finished up hitting one of my flats later in the day and crushing them on topwater and soft plastics for an hour or so in rain and heavy wind. The next day I hit 8-10 of my favorite flats and located scattered fish but not the tourney winners I was looking for. Later in the day I hit my favorite piece of water for the first time this year and found nice mid slots every place I went. Never beat any of the fish up but got 35-40 on topwater, pitching soft plastics to cruising fish, and spinner baits. Drew and I went separate ways and we looked at tides, wind, and water levels to determine our game plan. We were going to put some comfort fish in the boat early at three of the spots I had pre fished but changed the plan after Hurricane found two nice flats holding fish in a place we are not so familiar with. We were able to get into the spot for two hours and fish and get out of there before the tide got us and hit the low water flat. Well we miscalculated and got stuck on the flat for four hours and were not sure we were going to be able to get off the flat before check in. We boated a perfect 27 inch fish early on topwater along with about 12-15 more reds on topwater and subsurface twitch baits in the first two hours of competition. We had over 13 lbs in the well by 8:00 am recirculating at low tide as we were high and dry. Can't tell you tournament guys how important a good insulated livewell and recirculating pump is for situations like this. The water from the morning was a good ten degrees cooler than the sun-baked water that was holding on the flat at low tide-which kept our fish happy and well oxygenated all day. When the tide did start coming up our fish started roaming the flat towards us and we picked off a few 25 inch fish dead sticking soft plastics and then Hurricane stuck a 27 incher to go with our other 27 inch fish. We then left the flat and headed to Surf City for weigh in. We were confident we had two perfect length fish but were not sure how much they weighed. When our smallest fish hit the scales we were confident we were going to have some good weight. Ended up with 14.46 lbs and first place. Thanks to the IFA for putting on a good tourney and to all the anglers that showed up from out of town. I believe we had more teams from SC than NC. Hope to see a lot of you guys at the next tournament-HT3 in Beaufort, NC June19.