NCCHARTERFISHING-Capt.'s Jeff Cronk and MIke Taylor-Crystal Coast, Swansboro, Emerald Isle

Hey Guys and Gals, Sorry I haven't been online much lately to show and tell... been real busy most days trying to show folks a good time. Above are a few pics from some trips over the past week or so. The bite has been very good in the ocean for Kings, Spanish, and Mahi as well as big AJ's and some Cobia. We've been wearing out the 5 to 15lb Kings within 5miles of the beach and landing quite a few 5 to 10lb Mahi along with the Kings. There are still a few Cobia showing up in the spread and around area bouys and structure. The 3 to 6lb Spanish are all over the live bottoms and AR's within 3miles of the beach and everyone will find much more success on these larger females if they scale down their tackle to 10lb braid and 6in. 20 to 30lb steel leader using a single no. 6 or no. 4 gold treble through the nostril or through the top of the head and out the mouth of 4 to 5in. finger mullet. Get a coulple hundred live finger mullet and use a few a live chum over nearshore livebottoms, ledges, or AR's and either toss your rigged minnow into the busting fish or slow troll "like kingfishing" with a very light drag. You'll be amazed at how many more big spanish you keep hooked up and land. 4in. pogies work well too. Larger pogies are often turned down by these spanish.... I'm not talking about landing 1 or 2 big spanish all morning... we're often hooking up 15 to 25 large spanish in several hours along with nice size kings on the same rigs, bait, and tackle. The Summer Flounder fishing along the beaches and live bottoms is slowly picking up. The numbers aren't up to last year's standard but we also had a very warm winter which allowed many of these flatfish to stay well north like the Striper this winter. The flounder bite should get better throughout the summer and early Fall. Aboard Fish'n4life and Taylor-Made we're putting up about 8 to 15 flounder in 6 and 8hr trips and mixing it up with some kings and spanish.... The backwaters around Swansboro are producing a lot of redfish from 17 to 28in. right now and we're doing best on Topwater baits and Spinner baits tipped with Berkley Gulp Alive baits. The Sheepshead bite has been very good too. We're averaging about 8 fish per hour ranging from 1 to 3lbs with a few big fish mixed in. Live fiddler crabs has been the ticket and Dudley's Marina is stocking live fiddlers for a buck a dozen... Make sure you've got atleast 5 to 10 dozen for a few hours of fishing! There are plenty of smaller flounder around the inlets right now... Most of these fish you'll have to measure. Remember the limit is 14in./ 8 per person per day inside the colregs and 14.5in/ 8 per person per day outside the colregs. Also, Seabass has been bumped up to 12in. min. South of Cape Lookout as of June 1st.... Lots of folks check the regs at the beginning of the year and have been getting cited for violations with the latest change. For up to date fishing reports for Swansboro check out http://www.fishermanspost.com/ or http://www.droppinganchor.com/ (online magazine). Thanks for checking out the site and our catch... I look forward to having you onboard in the future.... ps... my cell phone fell into the drink last week and I finally got a chance to step off the boat and pick up a new one.... If I missed your call I apologize and I Hope to hear from those folks again. I've got limited avail. for July so call with your desired dates and If I can't get you onboard I'll refer to you several other very knowledgeable local captains who have done their fishing homework.

ps... Great Job on the Redfish'n in the Newport River Nikki! Had Fun!

Thanks,

Capt. Jeff Cronk

FISH'N4LIFE CHARTERS

910-326-7512

336-558-5697