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

I had Spence H. and his father, Bill aboard this morning for the second coldest morning of the winter. We pulled away from the dock at 7am with air temperatures at 18 degrees. Fortunately, there wasn't much wind to make it feel colder. we began by breaking 1/8 to 1/4in of ice as we hoped to speed the thawing process and get to the fish below. We ran out the inlet and got into the shoals with the good ole' Ranger 2400 and scoured the surf zone from 12in. to 3ft of water for 6 miles and then we struck gold or Red... We found some schools of 50 to 100 or more reds ranging from 23 to 25in. and got them to take Berley Gulp 4in. baits on 1/4 oz. jigheads. The bite was slow with the 45degree surf temps but we caught a handful of fish before the winds quickly shifted to the SW and made it tough to see them. We made our way back into the backwaters and the icy channels had thawed. It enabled us to get to the schools of reds we've been tracking. Over the course of the next 3hrs Spence, Bill, and I landed about 25 Redfish and 8 black drum. Great job guys! Great morning on the water!
Capt. Jeff Cronk
FISH'N4LIFE CHARTERS
Ranger Pro-Staff (2400 Ranger Bay)
Berkley Pro-Staff
Yamaha Pro-Staff
Carolina Fishing TV Co-Host
1-336-558-5697
jcronk@ec.rr.com




2/7 Got back out on the water this morning with writer and photographer, Mike Marsh onboard. We went looking for those winter puppy drum and black drum. First stop about 7:30am and second cast with a live mud minnow and we had the redfish biting. Mike and I landed 22 reds with the larger ones about 24in. today and were also able to bring 5 black drum to the net. The larger black drum are about 3lbs. Fish hit both live mud minnows and Berkley Gulp baits on light jigheads.