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

Go To WWW.CRYSTALCOASTFISHING.NET for the Tournament Info. Hello Everyone! Don't forget about Swansboro's CCFA 2008 Redfish Series. The first of the three tournament trail begins on Sat. June 21st. We're looking forward to a big turnout from both spectators and participants. Don't forget their will be a championship event to be held on Sat. Oct. 11 downtown Swansboro, during the Swansboro Mullet Festival for the top 5 boats in the series! CLICK ON THE CCFA LOGO to go to the tournament information page. Thanks for you support!
Capt. Jeff Cronk
FISH'N4LIFE CHARTERS

I had the Linebaugh family onboard this morning for a few hours around daybreak. We wanted to fish along the beach but the SW blow from the night before and the extreme low/falling tide had 4ft tubing whitewater across the mouth of Bogue Inlet. So, we changed plans and castnetted some mud minnows and tiger side minnows and made a few drifts near Bogue Inlet for flounder. We hooked up with 5 flounder on 3 short drifts. They landed a couple of them along with some bluefish and then we moved on to try some sheepshead fishing. Having never sheepshead fished before, this group from PA did a pretty good job. We spent about an hour trying and had probably 30 strikes. They landed 7 sheepshead from 1 to 2lbs. They even landed a black tip shark in the process. We also got the chance to see a sea-snake as it approached the boat wanting to get onboard. Great morning and back to the dock just before the rain set in.
-Capt. Jeff Cronk
FISH'N4LIFE CHARTERS
252-764-2174
jcronk@ec.rr.com

Well, you've gotta love all the boat traffic that occurrs every Memorial Day Holiday... We try to get our fishing done eeeeaaarly! Sat. morning I had the Britt group on hoping to chase some flounder and reds. First stop we got on a good school of redfish and caught several on gulp baits and light jigheads. We put a 24in. red in the cooler and released a larger one. We then headed toward bogue inlet to try some nearshore live bottom for some flounder. Shortly after we got out there the wind blew up to about 20knts and the skys clouded over as the rain set in. We moved again to the internal waters and tryed to scrape out the morning before heading back. We got on a school of reds in the blowing rain and boated 5 more, boxing our 4 fish from 24 to 27in. By 10:30 the conditions sucked so bad we decided to cut the trip short and head to the dock. Later that afternoon, the weather layed down and got pretty. I couldn't stand it! I hopped back on the boat and shot back over to those redfish and had to hookup a few on topwater baits. Big fish up to 34in. in 1ft of water! These fish were just about jumping out of the water to attack the bait! Sunday morning I had Mike Roh's group on hoping to get into a few flounder along the beach. We spent about an hour looking for some reds first... we hooked up 3 and landed 1 before we moved on to locate some flounder. A few hours of searching and we had several nice sized flounder to show for our efforts. We wound up with a 4.9lb flounder, a 3.4lb flounder, and several smaller ones. We were also lucky enough to put a half dozen large seabass between 1.5 and 2.5lbs in the cooler. We don't usually find seabass that large within a mile of the beach.
-Capt. Jeff Cronk
FISH'N4LIFE CHARTERS
252-764-2174
336-558-5697
jcronk@ec.rr.com

Hello everyone, I appreciate all the calls and reservations everyone is making again for this season. The new boat is here and the wrap is on! As usual, I'll be running full time for June, July, and part of Aug. With that said, I've got many of my mornings and afternoons already booked for Summer. Below is the most updated list (as of 5/22) of open dates aboard my boat, FISH'N4LIFE.

Due to high gas prices and keeping prices low... as of June 1st, All Ocean Trips Require a Minimum of a 6hr Trip

June and July morning trips still available. 5hr,6hr,7hr,8hr, and 10hr trips only.
June 10,12,26,27,29,30
July 1,17,18,20-23,27-31

June and July 4hr afternoon trips still avail.
June 9,10-12,17,23,25-30
July 1,2,15-23,27-31

Capt. Jeff Cronk
252-764-2174 or 336-558-5697
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To inquire about Capt. Mike Taylor's open dates call him at 252-725-2623

Both Capt. Mike Taylor and myself are booking Cobia Trips for June. These fish typically range from 25lbs to 80+lbs. We primarily target these big brutes by sightcasting to fish cruising the surface and by driftfishing over large schools of bait and structure. Cobia are extremely hard fighting fish that are also great on the plate. We'll typically get into King Mackerel and Mahi Mahi as well while targeting Cobia. Mike and I still have some open dates for June if you'de like to give it a try!
Capt. Jeff Cronk
FISH'N4LIFE
252-764-2174
336-558-5697

Capt. Mike Taylor
TAYLOR-MADE
252-725-2623

Well, Sat. started off slow for the Eller group. We were wanting to catch some flounder and seabass on the nearshore bottoms but the SW blow at 30+mph the prior day had the water all stirred up close to the beach and the 15 to 20 NW wasn't the best for moving far offshore... well, the wind layed down about 9:30 and we began moving off farther. We finally got into a good bottom bite that produced a mixed bag of Seabass and flounder. Most of our keeper seabass today were 1 to 2lbs and the flounder weighed approx. 3.5lbs. The flatties are slowly moving toward the inlets!

Sunday morning was another tough day.... what's up with the wind!!!! We've had maybe 4 calm days in two months! I can't wait until the weather subsides... Anyway, I had a regular client (John M.) aboard this morning hoping to find a few redfish to strike topwater baits. John Alexander (John M's father in law) was also aboard and it was his birthday... so, just a little more pressure to put a big redfish on a topwater bait... Well, the fish gods were smiling upon us this sunday morning as both guys got their topwater strikes! The birthday boy put a whopping 31in 10.5lb redfish in the boat for some catch and release photos! Great job!
Capt. Jeff Cronk
FISH'N4LIFE
336-558-5697
252-764-2174

Sunday, May 11th,
I had Don, his wife, and their friend Jim onboard for a few hours today. The weather wasn't the best but we managed to find some reds willing to eat topwaters despite the 25+mph winds. Great job guys!
Capt. Jeff Cronk
FISH'N4LIFE CHARTERS
336-558-5697
252-764-2174

My Crew, Amanda and Jake, hopped on at 6am Sat. morning and we busted it to an area that's been holding some good schools of Redfish to take advantage of the "slick cam" conditions. The tide was on the last part of the falling and there wasn't much current left. We found some broken up schools of redfish almost immediately but these fish were very spooky in less than a foot of water... we kept switching up baits and eventually got them to feed. We had about 16 fish hooked up over several hours and this couple landed 14 beautiful reds from 23in. to 28in. Turns out this was the first time these guys ever caught redfish. Amanda, who is now 14weeks pregnant hooked up 6 fish... tied her own rigs... and off the back of the boat to top it off! Jake, you've got a keeper dude! Congrats on the soon to be baby! Mine is 5months old and wild!

Capt. Jeff Cronk
FISH'N4LIFE CHARTERS
252-764-2174
336-558-5697
jcronk@ec.rr.com

Capt. Mike Taylor and his crew got on some Redfish using topwater baits Sat. morning and then ran out along the beach infront of Emerald Isle and found a few Summer Flounder jigging bucktails.
Capt. Mike Taylor
252-725-2623

Mike, you need to call your client and tell them to reset their time stamp on their camera...- Jeff Cronk

Well, this has got to be one of the best seasons for Big Bluefish around Bogue Inlet in quite a few years. I had the Henry group on this afternoon and we had an awsome time with 8 to 12lb Blues! We got on a big school of fish and had a bunch of double and triple hook-ups. These fish are very aggressive and will strike just about anything thrown at them which provides an excellent opportunity for topwater strikes. They also make good table fare if bled immediately upon landing them. We cut their throat where their gill rakes come together and drop them in a spare livewell with the water running... letting them bleed out for a few minutes... then pack them in ice. Great job guys!

Capt. Jeff Cronk
FISH'N4LIFE CHARTERS
Swansboro, NC
252-764-2174
336-558-5697
jcronk@ec.rr.com

Hello Everyone. I hope this Spring has been treating you well. The 2008 Season has been great thus far. We're catching a lot of Redfish in the backwaters along the Crystal Coast along with some flounder and big bluefish. The nearshore live bottoms are producing flounder, Seabass, King Mackerel, Spanish Mackerel, Grey Trout, Big Bluefish, and some Bonito. I've had many clients asking for avail. dates. Well, here they are... Please call asap for your desired date.

Morning and afternoon trips avail for all dates below. Updated May 14th

May- 19, 20, 22, 23, 27, 28, 29, 30

June- 2,3,10,12,26,27,30

July- 1,17,18,21,22,23,27,28,29,30,31


Capt. Jeff Cronk
FISH'N4LIFE CHARTERS
252-764-2174 (H)
336-558-5697 (C)
jcronk@ec.rr.com (email)

Here's a few shots of what we're catching....





Capt. Jeff Cronk
FISH'N4LIFE CHARTERS
252-764-2174 (H)
336-558-5697 (C)
jcronk@ec.rr.com (email)

Capt. Mike Taylor and myself fished the Redfish Action Redfish Challenge Event 1 put on by Capt. Lee willis out of Harker's Island this Sat. Lee, his wife, and all their volunteers did a great job and provided a lot of food at both the Capt.'s meeting as well as at the weigh-in on Sat. afternoon. Despite the forecast for 20mph SSW winds there was a 31 boat field. Mike and I chose to come back to our home waters even though we would lose several hours of fish time due to travel. We had a few complications in our plan as we got to our first spot and a non-competitor had already been on the fish and spooked them. Then, our trolling motor remote was giving us problems and these fish were several hundreds yards back on a 15in deep flat. We pushed our way back to these fish and hooked up and landed several including a 24in. and a 29in fish. We put the 24in. in the livewell and released the oversized fish. The school was already stressed and shut down on feeding despite what we threw to them. So, we moved on to another location and got on an undisturbed school of fish. We landed 8 reds off this school before they moved off to deep water. We managed to cull out the 24in. fish and upgrade to two 25 1/2in reds. With about an hour left to fish we moved on to a third spot that had been holding 26 to 35in. fish all week and they were still there. After chasing these fish around for almost an hour we couldn't seem to get a slot fish out of them. We released 7 reds from 27 1/2in to 34in. before we had to pack it up and head back toward Harker's Island. With one last hope, we had been tracking a school of reds near Morehead City for over a week and hoped they would still be occupying the area. But, we got there and scoured the bay over and over and the extreme low tide had pushed these fish out of the area. So, with 10min. left, we picked up and ran to weigh-in. Although we didn't land any of the 26 to 27in. fish we had been landing all week, we were lucky enough to have two decent fish to weigh-in and wound up taking 5th place in the event. We are looking forward to the next event. Don't forget that the Crystal Coast Fishing Association Redfish Series begins with the first event on June 21st. Go check out www.crystalcoastfishing.net for details. We look forward to seeing everyone there.
Capt. Jeff Cronk
Fish'n4life Charters
252-764-2174

Capt. Mike Taylor had Lou and a friend aboard for some backwater fishing up river. Mike said the trout bite was good in the morning and they continued to catch flounder and redfish throughout the day. They wound up landing about 18 Speckled Trout, a dozen puppydrum, and 8 Flounder, and a Striper. Great day on the water and great job guys!

-Capt. Jeff Cronk
FISH'N4LIFE CHARTERS
WWW.NCCHARTERFISHING.COM