It’s almost amazing how warm the water and air temperatures are currently. Ranging between 53 and 55 degrees is rather unusual for this time of the year. The warmer temperatures are helping to keep Speckled Trout around the rocks and in the Carolina Beach Inlet. The best bait is live bait. Black Drum continue to feed on shrimp around the piers and rocks. The other big story is the Striped Bass. After a rather slow week they are back to feeding. The 12.75-pound beauty pictured above was caught on Stretch 25’s. So far it hasn’t been a bad winter. Offshore, sharks are about it unless you run forty or more miles out or maybe run into one of those Bluefins. Make sure you keep up with your boat this winter if you have not already winterized it for the season, then maybe you had better start it once every two weeks. You can buy a set of muffs for about twelve dollars or I have a barrel with a valve in the bottom. I fill it with water and leave it running for a while. Remember gasoline will turn to varnish after a while. That’s an expensive repair and a lot of down time in the spring. Keep fishin and releasin… Steve and Karen Labanec
12.75 pound Striper caught by Jason Schiffer on January 22, 2006.
[tags]Carolina Beach fishing, Carolina Beach Fishing reports, cbfishing, Carolina Beach, North Carolina fishing reports, North Carolina fishing, Carolina Beach Inlet, black drum, Bluefins, striper[/tags]