weekly column - April 10th

This is a copy of my weekly column for the Topsail Advertiser:

One of the questions I often get asked regarding inshore fishing is "where do the fish go in the winter?"

Of course the answer is dependent on the species of fish, but often the answer is "nowhere." They stay here. That message usually brings a retort – "Well I never catch fish in the winter."

I was browsing through my fishing log this past week looking for trends. These days I use a computer-based one, having abandoned the little scraps of papers long ago. With it, I try to record the basics of every outing: time, date, location, species, quantity and size. I also find it useful to track the water temperature and tide. The program I use automatically calculates and displays the solunar information for each day and location.

I noticed that I caught speckled sea trout in each of the last 12 months! It appears that the trout stay here throughout the year. The same is true of red drum and, to a lesser degree, flounder. In fact several of the local guides I spoke with recently mentioned "inshore slams" in January, February and March. This term refers to catching a red drum, flounder and speckled sea trout all in the same outing.

Another trend I noticed is the catching sure slowed down in the winter months, but so did my outings. I imagine the cold had something to do with both. Though I went out less often in the past three months, I tried to go out at the best times to catch fish. That is where the logs from previous years came in handy.

If you hang around with enough fishermen for long enough, you will hear nearly every tide condition, weather condition, time of day and general location mentioned as the "best" for fishing. At first that seems impossible -- how can the best time to fish be the last two hours of a falling tide as well at flood tide?

The answer lies in comparing all of the conditions together, along with fish species and time of year. And once again, a log comes in handy in sorting all this out.

Just when you think you have it figured out, a curve ball is thrown to you. Case in point -- my fishing trip this past Saturday. I looked at the tide charts, the weather pattern, the solunar tables and my log, and I determined the best time to fish was dawn and the first few hours after it.

My fishing buddy met me at the dock at o’dark-thirty and off we went. We went to the best spot I know for specks on a flood tide change and we got to work. Nada. So we moved back to a spot that should be good during the falling tide. Again, nothing. Then we moved to a creek that always holds drum on the flats when it’s sunny. Nothing but empty hooks.

Well after several more "smart" moves but no fish, it was getting close to noon and time to pull out and head home. As a last ditch effort I said, "Let’s try this spot where I caught some small bluefish a few days earlier." This was in hope of avoiding a shutout.

We fished there for about 30 minutes and then the wind jumped from 12 knots to close to 20 knots. About the time I said to my buddy, "Let’s head home …" WHAM – I had a fish on.

Expecting a small bluefish, I reeled him in and was surprised to see it was a speckled trout! At a place and time I never catch trout, no less We caught a few more before the wind blew us off the water. Conclusion: fishing logs help, but you never really know until you wet the line and give it a try.

Sea View Pier reports mullet and spots being caught, with many customers filling their coolers. Jolly Roger also reports Virginia mullet being caught in good numbers and a few spots, too. They report the best fishing times have been on the incoming tide at night but folks are catching fish at all times of the day. Surf City Pier reports mullet being caught in good numbers with some good-size fish in the mix.

On a final note, don’t forget to head over to East Coast Sports in Surf City for their one-cent-per-yard "Spin it On" monofilament line sale this weekend.

Have a great Easter weekend and tight lines to all!