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

Well, the rain kept me in the house on Sat. moving stuff around and getting the baby's room ready. But, Sunday I went and tried some places out on the other end of Bogue Sound around MHC. The first couple hours went real slow with just a couple undersized redfish and one 2lb trout... I kept looking and finally found some reds and trout along some docks. Wound up releasing 12 more redfish from 24 to 28in. and took 9 Speckled Trout home to eat... weights were 3.8lbs, 3lbs, 2.7lbs, 2.65.bs, and the rest were between 1.5 and 2lbs. Also picked up a 3lb sheepshead. Other than a few redfish that struck Berkely 4in pogies on 1/4oz jigheads, most of the fish today came off live shrimp and mullet minnows. Capt. Jeff Cronk- FISH'N4LIFE CHARTERS -910-326-7512 or email jcronk@ec.rr.com

I had the pleasure of fishing with the Manning Crew aboard late Monday afternoon for some speckled trout. We picked off a few trout here and there. We kept five nice sized fish and lost a couple more. We fished about 30min. into the dark and picked up 2 on mirrolures (purple demon and a pink). Thanks Guys, Capt. Jeff Cronk- FISH'N4LIFE CHARTERS- 910-326-7512.

Jacksonville Trout Tourny Board

Well, the weather started out crappie the morning of the tournament and finished up nicely. There were 30 boats entered into the main division (aggregate weight). I'm not sure how many entered the big fish category. The results were as follows - Team/Aggregate Wt/position (top 8 paid): McElheney and Barfield/34.32lbs/1st, Moore/29.09lbs/2nd, Odum and Powell/21.81lbs/3rd, Gainey and Benedict/20.83lbs/4th, Cronk and Patterson/20.1lbs/5th, Miller and Thigpen/16.55lbs/6th, Gilbert and Green/14.88lbs/7th, Hill and Humphrey/12.25lbs/8th, Floyd x 2/8.43lbs/9th, Hall and Trowler/7.97lbs/10th
Team/Largest Fish/Position (top 3 paid): McElheney and Barfield/6.65lbs/1st, Moore/4.9lbs/2nd, Gainey and Benedict/4.42lbs/3rd, Gilbert and Green/3.61lbs/4th, Cronk and Patterson/3.41lbs/5th, Floyd x2/3.34lbs/6th, Taylor and Parkin/3.26lbs/7th, Odom and Powell/3.11lbs/8th, Fletcher/2.89lbs/9th, Peterson and Baucher/2.81lbs/10th.
Lady Angler/Big Fish/Position: Beth Green/1.89lbs/1st
Congratulations to all anglers that managed to put fish in the boat on a very tough day. The fall trout run really hasn't kicked off well due to the warm temps. and we had a front passing the night before and the morning of the tournament. To top it off we had the tail end of a falling tide the morning of the tourny and by the time the tide began rising well most boats had to make the run for the scales. I know personally, we caught 6 of our fish in the last hour of fishing. But, all in all, Rick and I were satified with our 5th place win.
Capt. Jeff Cronk
FISH'N4LIFE CHARTERS
910-326-7512 or email jcronk@ec.rr.com

This morning I had Randy and his father Bob on and we attempted to get on those White Water Redfish but the Swell was rather big and after covering 9 miles of beach we only found one school of fish. We moved into the backwaters for a short while to let the tide rise up on the beach and the sun warm everything up before attempting it again... about 11:00am we hit the surf again and within 2-3min.'s we were staring at 500 to 1000 Redfish in Gin Clear Water.... You would swear you were in the carribean for the incredible clarity. We boated 10 redfish in about 20 min. using jigheads tipped with Gulp as well as Topwater Baits. Great time Guys! Be sure to try this down your way... ps... folks, please be careful if attempting to do this kind of fishing... you should always have one person at the wheel as waves will come up by surprise and swamp or flip your vessel. I watched one anxious angler trying to fish the same school of fish we were fishing.... they got too close to the beach... and they took a massive wave over the bow with 100 or more gallons on deck. If a second wave had come behind it... the day would've been over for them and they would've had a heck of a towing bill as this would probably be considered a total loss situation...
Be safe,
Capt. Jeff Cronk
FISH'N4LIFE
910-326-7512

WHAT A DAY!!! Ryan Taylor fished onboard with me in the CCA Inside/Out Tourny today. We managed to take home 1st place in Primary Division for Redfish, the TWT for Redfish, and the 1st Place for Inshore Champ (Red,Trout,Flounder Aggregate)!
The weather was perfect! Anyone who likes fishing Trout/redfish/flounder tournaments should've been in Morehead City for this tournament! There was a primary division for biggest trout, longest 3 reds, biggest flounder... and an inshore slam category within the primary... a heaviest redfish division, as well as TWT's on all previously mentioned categories. There were so many ways to win money while still having fun... With only 30 boats in this tournament this year the payouts were higher than most inshore species tournaments. We started out our day trying to land a speckled trout... then hoping to work over the redfish... and finish up with a flounder... our plan worked well today... our first stop produced a decent trout... we moved and within 5 min.'s of searching, found a school of several thousand redfish from 25 to 30+in. We spent 3hours of non-stop wearing them out... with a fish on almost every cast we culled through nearly a hundred reds and released so many 26 to 28in. fish. The water clarity was so good we could pick out the fish we wanted to hook-up with... you could almost count their spots while they were swimming next to the boat... if one fish pulled off... another smacked it! There was no problem landing several hundred reds! But, after sore fore arms we decided to go bag that flounder we needed for a slam... The second stop we made we hooked up with a solid 4lb flounder which pulled off just before we could get the net to him... talk about frustration! Anyway, a short while later we put a decent 19in. flounder in the livewell which topped off our slam. Rather than fish late and make the late 5:00pm weighin, we decided to get to the scales at 3:30 and make sure our heaviest slot red 7.35lbs made it to the scales alive. Surprisingly, we could barely catch the thing from the 60 gal. livewell to weigh it in... it was weighed and released alive like the rest of our fish today. Again, what an awsome day! Great job Ryan! His largest redfish today was 16lbs! Capt. Jeff Cronk- FISH'N4LIFE 910-326-7512. jcronk@ec.rr.com

What a day! I had Bobbie P. on this morning and we made a long run in the dark to go hit some trout. We stopped on several locations and found trout willing to strike mirrolures as well as gulps and live shrimp. We made the trip back to the boro after the trout quit. The tide was falling hard and we located a school of thousands of reds and caught a bunch from 25 to 34in. After we lost track of them in the white water, we eased out along the beach and got into a quick King Mackerel bite. We set out two rods and both went screaming within minutes... we picked up 3 kings ranging from 7 to 13lbs and worked our way back into the internal waters where we picked up a 3lb sheepshead and a 4lb black drum. What a day! Awsome fish'n Bobbie! Capt. Jeff Cronk- FISH'N4LIFE CHARTERS 910-326-7512 or email at jcronk@ec.rr.com

The day started out looking poor with rain and T-storms stacked up for about 70+miles along our part of the coast. I called Howard and Rob, down from W.Virginia, to tell them to go ahead and sleep in and let the rain pass as their wives didn't want any part of the the bad weather. I couldn't stand waiting around at the dock so, I hopped on the boat and went and hit a hole that has been holding some purty redfish. It took all of 5min. to get on these fish and they ranged between 25 and 30in. I couldn't stand being alone during all the action so I called Capt. Rick Patterson, who was also waiting out the storms. After wearing out my right arm for over an hour and releasing many reds, I loaded down the livewell with shad and mullet minnows and picked up my clients. The five of us shot out the inlet and spent the next 5hrs. looking for Kings. It started out slow but as the breeze picked up and the storms moved offshore a little, the bite picked up. We wound up landing a very nice Spanish, and 10 Kings. We had a decent King get ripped in two by an 8ft Bull Shark at the side of the boat too. Our smallest King we kept today went about 11 lbs and the largest was close to 28 lbs. The girls won today! They caught the larger fish! Sorry about that Rob and Howard... Maybe next time... As always guys, I had a great time with your group. Thanks. Capt. Jeff Cronk- FISH'N4LIFE- 910-326-7512 email jcronk@ec.rr.com

This afternoon I had the pleasure of fishing with Bill F. and several of his friends. We attempted to fight the wind and work some live shrimp under float cork rigs. We picked up a couple of small redfish and a black drum. Then we moved on and picked up a couple redfish along the ICW. Before we headed back to the dock we busted through the inlet and got into the surf with the boat. Within a few minutes we found a school of big redfish and got a couple of hookups with fish up to 31in. (9-10lbs)before heading back at sunset. Great afternoon on the water! Capt. Jeff Cronk- FISH'N4LIFE- 910-326-7512