February fishing continues to be excellent.  I've put in a good amount of time searching the local marshes and have a handful of areas that are holding large amounts of redfish.  The air temps have been ranging from around 50 - 60 degrees on most days and the water temps are holding high enough to keep the reds hungry and active.  I picked up a go pro camera recently and plan to start adding videos along with the photos in these reports. 

Give me a call if you want to come chase these reds while they're still schooled up in their winter patterns.

Capt John Mauser   910-340-4811

The fishing continues to be great...

It's the first week of February and the fishing continues to be great.  I've got a few spots that are holding big numbers of fish.  Except for a few really cold days sprinkled in here and there, the winter has been pretty mild and the fish have been eating pretty consistently.  The forecast for the next week is for temps in the 50's and 60's so the bite should stay strong.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, as Spring is getting closer.

 

...a few shots from this week.  Thanks for the pics Thomas.

2013 is off to a great start!

During the winter months last year I saw a large influx of young 12-15" redfish in the marsh. These are fish that have spent the last year of their life in the rivers and are now moving out to their new homes in the marsh.  It's always great to see a lot of these young fish in the winter, because it means that barring a tough winter, the following season should be a good one.  By the next summer, most of these small fish have grown into decent size quarry. 

Although I saw a good number of these young fish in the marsh last winter, I have seen even more this winter.  I have high hopes that this coming season will be the best one in the last few years.  In some of the creek systems we've seen hundreds of drum in several schools, ranging from singles and doubles, to over a hundred in a school.  Seeing these fish in a foot or less of crystal clear water is a heck of a site.  We've had a lot of luck catching these fish on both spinning and fly.

Our water temps have been in the low 50's lately, but this week our unseasonably warm temps pushed the water up into the low 60's.  I knew the warm temps would have the reds on fire, and with sunny skies and no wind this past weekend, it was a no brainer to go find some redfish.

 

The first creek we visited has been holding several hundred drum over the last two months.  I have been very careful to not spook these fish and not hammer the schools and over fish them.  I'm a big believer in catching a few and moving on...otherwise with too much harrasment the fish will move on.  We've treated the fish well and because of that, we've had no problem locating them every time we've come back. 

This past Saturday was a different story.  I had Jason Barnes onboard and we entered the creek with anticipation.  We spent about 30 minutes working through areas that always hold fish, but saw nothing.  No blue tails, no pushes or wakes, no mud puffs.  We finally found a few reds working bait but they never slowed down long enough to investigate our flies.  We pushed on and found a red here and there, maybe 10 fish total in the creek.  All but one of these fish had the same thing in common.  Net marks...white banding around their neck where the monofilament cut through their scales and skin as they struggled to get free of the nets.  The marks on these fish were obvious enough that on every fish we saw, we could spot the white cuts in them before we actually saw the fish.  The week prior, none of the fish in this creek had gill net marks, nor had I even seen a net in the area.  Obviously at some point during the week prior, someone netted the creek and took out the hundreds of fish that have been wintering there.  Let me say, that I am not against commercial fishing, but the purposeful targeting of red drum for commercial sales is against the law.  It really stings to know that the fish that you have followed for the last two months, can be taken out with so easily by one person with a gill net and no regard for the law.

I asked Jason if he wanted to hit another spot that has been holding fish, or if he wanted to go scout out some new spots.  He made the call to hit some new spots, and I am glad for that.  I ran a ways and made a turn into a little cut into the marsh hoping to find some reds.  I hadn't fished this creek since last summer so we were stoked to find that the back of the creek was crawling with hundreds of fish.  It didn't take Jason long to hook into his first redfish on fly for 2013. 

The following day I had the pleasure of having Kristen and Michael Cook on my boat.  Kristen and Michael have a daughter and weren't able to find a babysitter so they made a request to have one of them fish and then come back half way through the trip to trade off places on the boat.  We only had 4 hours and at least an hour of it would be spent running back and forth, so I knew it would be a challenge to get them both on fish.  Fortunately I knew where the fish were, so it was a challenge I was excited about. 

Kristen was first up and we made a quick run to the spot Jason and I found the night before.  The water was so low that we had to spend a good bit of time poling through sections of water that we could normally run through without a problem.  Once we got to the back of the creek, she jumped to the front of the boat and started pitching out a DOA shrimp.  Kristen has been on several trips with me and although we've caught several species of fish, the redfish has been eluding her since last summer.  Well not today...Kristen hooked up on her first redfish within five minutes of fishing.  Although Kristen was super excited about finally landing her first red, I'm pretty sure I was every bit as excited watching the whole thing go down.  Kristen is a pro and ended up landing about a dozen fish in the short hour and a half we had to fish together.  Although it's always tough to leave happy fish, we called it quits and made a run back to the ramp to pick up Michael. 

Thirty minutes later I had Michael up on the front of the boat and casting the first fishing rod he'd casted in 10 years.  He picked up on it pretty quick and before long was casting to redfish as they pushed their way through 8"s of water.  After about 10 minutes Michael hooked into his first redfish ever and his first fish in 10 years.  We stuck with it for about an hour landing around 5 redfish, and then snuck out of the creek with the last bit of daylight fading out of sight.  We made the run back to the ramp in the pitch dark and arrived just as the flounder giggers were starting to line up a the ramp.

If you've got that itch to go catch some quality fish, and are holding out until spring, you are missing out on some of the best fishing of the year.  These fish will continue to hold tight in certain creeks and bays over the next few months.  We get plenty of decent weather days throughout the winter and those days can produce some of the best sight fishing of the year.

Capt John Mauser

www.TailingTideGuideService.com

Expectations...

When I talk to potential clients about a fishing charter, I like to see what their expectations are for the trip.  I want to know what they hope to get out of their day on the water.  Once I know what they are hoping for, I do my best to meet, and if possible, exceed their expectations. 

I just wanted to to talk a little bit about what you can expect to get out of a guided trip with Tailing Tide.  You can expect to get a Captain who will give his 110% to show you a good time.  I will do everything possible to put you in the right place to catch the fish you are looking for.  I will teach you everything I can about the right way to find fish, approach them, present a lure to them, etc.  I will share my love of the marshes, estuaries, tidal creeks, barrier islands and all the animals that inhabit these places.  I will show you natural places that most of the human population will never get to see.

I can't make any guarantees on how many fish we will catch or how big they will be.  Every thing changes on a daily basis on the water, and these fish are always moving and changing patterns depending on the weather, tide, food source, etc.  I put a lot of time and pride into being able to locate and read fish and get them to eat.  Sometimes fish will eat anything near them, and sometimes we have to work really hard to convince them to take our offering.  Sometimes fish will let you get close enough to touch them, and sometimes they are so spooky they won't let you get within sight of them.  It's all a game, and it's always changing, which is why I love it so much...for the challenge and for the reward. Giving you as many shots as possible at catching fish is a big part of my job, but I also want you to have a relaxing time, learn something new, and take home some lasting memories of the experience.

If you judge a good day by how many fish you can put in a cooler, there's nothing wrong with that, and there are guides who cater to that.  If you enjoy the entire experience of fishing, the sights, the sounds, the memories...then give me a call and we'll have a great time.  Not to say that we don't catch a lot of fish, we have plenty of days when we catch obscene numbers of fish.  But when you book a trip with any guide service, and show up with expectations that a memorable day can only be achieved by catching huge numbers of fish...you have already set yourself up for disappointment.

On another note, winter redfish is in full swing.  The backwaters from Beaufort to New River have become crystal clear.  When everything lines up...sunshine, calm winds, mild temps....the sight fishing has been ridiculously good.  Even on nasty days....heavy cloud cover, windy, and rainy....the fishing has still been very good.  The other day, we found over five hundred redfish in a single creek system in crystal clear water.  You could watch them swim up to your lure, investigate it, and inhale it.  The marsh is full of young redfish that have moved in over the last month or two...along with slot size fish mixed in.  It's been awesome lately, and should stay that way the entire winter.

Exceptional Trout and Reds

The redfish and speckled trout fishing has been exceptional the last week or so. 

Here are some pics of Randy and Jake with a few of the trout they landed.

Josh and Andrew with a few of the fifty redfish they landed.

I've even gotten in on the action a little lately.

We've seen a lot of young redfish showing up in the local waters lately, which is a great sign for the 2013 season.  Unfortunately a lot of them have had gillnet damage.  For every one we catch with gill net cuts, I wonder how many weren't lucky enough to escape alive.