Fishing Report 12/30/2015

First of all, we want to thank everyone for such a great 2015 Season.  We are truly blessed with such a great customer base.  Without you there wouldn’t be Chasin’ Tails Outdoors Bait & Tackle and we sincerely appreciate each of you supporting our small local business.  We look forward to the 2016 Season and to seeing our loyal customers and hope to see some new faces this coming up year.  So, “Happy New Year”  to everyone and we hope everyone has tight lines in 2016.

 

 

Hard to believe we have the Christmas Holiday behind us and we’re getting ready to bring in the New Year plus seeing such mild temperatures. Truly this past weekend felt just like early spring days we see in May. With the warm weather, the fishing has been good for late December going into January, I don’t think we’ve ever seen a winter like this but we’ll take it. I remember last year, we had already seen quite a bit of ice in the canal behind the shop and just yesterday the water temperature was reading 65 degrees.  It looks like we do have a cool down coming Friday but what I’m seeing it’s just going to be like late fall weather with highs in the 50’s and lows in the 40’s which isn’t bad fishing weather at all.

 

Inshore / Nearshore:

The best area over the last week that we’ve seen has been the Cape Lookout Rock Jetty. Anglers have seen some good action on Speckled Trout, Gray Trout, Sheepshead, Black Drum and Red Drum over the last week off the rocks.  It’s been slow on the Speck Trout at the rocks this year so far but I know of some very nice limits being caught within the last week.  There’s been some big Sheepshead pulled off the rocks up to 8lbs along with some very nice Black Drum and some schools of Red Drum coming through. The best baits have been Bait Shrimp, Live Mud Minnows (which we have in stock) and Berkley Gulp baits fished right along the rocks. Also, there’s been some very nice Taugs in the same area long with Puffer Fish coming off the bottom.  

We’re still seeing lots of Speckled Trout in the marsh areas. Unfortunately, most are smaller fish but still there’s plenty to catch with some keepers mixed in. Hoop Pole Creek, Bouge Sound, Haystacks, Middle Marsh, Radio Island and Core Creek wouldn’t be bad places to try over the New Year’s Weekend.

With the warmer water temps we’re still seeing good numbers of Sea Mullets. Just this past weekend, I know of full coolers being caught around the Turning Basin and with most of the action being around the Inlet area. Spec-Rigs tipped with Bait Shrimp and Fish bites are getting the job done.  Along with these bottom feeders you’ll  catch a mixed bag of Hog Fish, Gray Trout and Puffer Fish.

Sea Bass fishing has been pretty good in the 10 to 15 mile range off the beach.  Anglers saw great action last weekend with good numbers and nice size bass.  Good areas to look are AR330, AR285, Atlas Tanker, 17 Rock, North West Places and Big 10 / Little 10. This time of the year, the bass get grouped up and you can see some great action on the nearshore bottoms.

There’s been some nice Old Drum caught that’s shown up under the bait balls along the beach, most of the action has been over on the East Side of the Cape.  Anglers even have seen a few Cobia mixed in with the Drum.

The Bluefin Tuna action has slowed down since the weather has been like summertime. What I’m hearing there hasn’t been any caught for a week or so. Maybe with the cold front moving in this weekend it will push some fish down back to our waters.  North of us has had some really cold snaps in the last week so, that just might send some more giants our way.

 

Surf:

Puffer Fish has been the name of the game from the beach, Fishbites and Bait Shrimp fished on the bottom has been getting plenty of action from the Puffers.  I talked with a customer yesterday that had some good action on Gray and Speckled Trout at Fort Macon Coast Guard side of the beach over the last few days. Anglers are still catching some Specks around the Radio Island beach at times, along with a mixed bag of bottom feeders.

 

Offshore:

A few boats took advantage of the pretty weather we had last weekend,  I didn’t hear of that many Wahoo caught but a few were landed. We did have a few nice Black Fins come to the scales over the weekend.  

Anglers saw good numbers of Bass, Snappers, Trigger Fish and a few Grouper. Most of the best action was in the 30 to 35 mile range around the 14 Buoy and out toward the 90ft Drop. Reminder Grouper Season is getting ready to close January 1^st.

 

 

Braggin Board: