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

Fished the neuse river with good friend Drew Getman recently. The conditions were tough with a steady 15 mph north wind blowing. We wound up with 15 trout in about 5 hours.You can tell Drew caught the biggest by the way he is smiling.

The redfish and blackdrum bite has been good all winter. Seems like the best bite has been on the coldest days. We caught about 35 reds and 4 blackdrum on this trip with the temp. about 38. Man it was a good day!

Sat. Today, I had Rob and Wes onboard and it was a little chilly with air temps at 27degrees at daybreak. Fortunately, the water temp. was still between 46 and 48 degrees in the Backwaters and about the same along the surf. We fished the backwaters for several hours and had a tough go at it with about half a dozen small puppydrum about 16 to 17in. The forecast was off a little (in our favor today) and the wind didn't seem to be picking up. So, we made the long run to the shoals to take advantage of the full sun, calm seas, and the little water clarity we had. After covering miles of shoals and sloughs, we hit the mother load! We found a school of 4000 to 5000 redfish in 12 to 16in. of water. This was a massive school of redfish and an AWSOME SIGHT in late February. We worked them for a couple hours and Rob, Wes, and I were able to land and release a mess of fish ranging from 25in to 30in. Great Job Guys! See ya this summer!

Capt. Jeff Cronk
FISH'N4LIFE CHARTERS
336-558-5697 Digital
Ranger Pro Staff
Berkley/Pure Fishing Pro Staff
Co Host for Carolina Fishing Tv

One client couldn't make it today so, I made a call and quickly got some locals from the area onboard for a morning of fun! Ricky, Ryan, and Mallory got onboard around 7:30am this morning and we eased away with a wind howling about 25 mph out of the N. There was very little swell and the Ocean was calm as well as the mainland bays and creeks. We fished live bait, artificials, and shrimp and got lucky on the redfish and black drum. We fished from about 7:45am until noon and and wound up landing about 20 redfish and 18 black drum. Ryan wore out the Reds which ranged from 17in to 25in. and Mallory had a steady Black Drum blitz for about 2 hrs with most of these fish ranging from 2 to 3lbs. Ricky spent a good part of the time chillin out in all his warm gear and would occasionally take a break from relaxing to pull in a fish. A beautiful day on the water despite the morning wind. Great job guys... Ryan, you definately got the biggest red for the day... Mallory, congrats on your first fish ever... and all the rest! Ricky, don't know how you can relax with all those fish nibbling! See ya again soon guys!

Capt. Jeff Cronk
FISH'N4LIFE CHARTERS
Swansboro, NC
Ranger Pro Staff
Berkley/ Pure Fishing Pro Staff
252-764-2174
336-558-5697
jcronk@ec.rr.com

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.

Well, The winds were blowing today but I couldn't stand it anymore... had to go fish'n! I gave Dion Lynn of Swansboro a call... we grabbed a few rods and got on the water for about 2hrs. We went looking for some redfish and wound up finding a mess of black drum too. We worked Berkley 3in silver mud minnows as well as live mud minnows and wound up landing 6 redfish and 20 black drum. We released all the reds today and kept our black drum for the frying pan. The black drum ranged from 1 lb to 3lbs. Great Winter Action! Thanks for hanging out Dion!
-Capt. Jeff Cronk
Fish'n4life Charters
252-764-2174 or 336-558-5697
Ranger Pro- Staff
Pure Fishing Pro Staff