OIFC fishing report 3-26

[Fishing Report]

"Reds Galore" | Get Busy | 03/26/11

Brandon Sauls, Jeff Beck and Willy who is a friend of Brandon's fished "the river" Friday and caught 20 red drum and a trout. Getting information out of the guys is like pulling eye teeth. I did good to get "the river".
-Capt. Rickey Beck



"Rodeo and Other Stuff" | Get Busy | 03/25/11

It's good to be back! My computer was at Dell getting some service work done. Be sure to attend our Spring Kick Off today. While you there remember to sign up for the Rodeo. At the suggestion of Capt. Jacob I've added another division...Red Drum. All the same rule apply and the Red MUST be with in the DMF legal slot limit. The heaviest Red Fish will take the money! Hope to see you today!
-Capt. Rickey Beck



""Back at it!!"" | Tiberias - 22' | 03/25/11

Finally found some active redfish yesterday afternoon. I fished many docks up and down the intercoastal waterway looking for some action, but no luck. I ended up in a creek working little cuts and oyster bars. The wind was blowing like crazy and feeling the bite was difficult. The first two hits were short and I missed the hook set. I honed in on my skills and started picking away at them. I landed several fish, probably 10 to 12 fish and lost three more hook ups. Also one trout in the mix. Most of the fish were in the slot. Just a few short and one very nice fish. Probably the largest that I have landed on artificials in a creek. It took me about 5 minutes to land a 32" 12 pound redfish on 10 pound tackle. I love it! See ya on the water!
-Capt. Jacob Frick



"Same Ole" | OIFC World Cat / Carolina Cat | 03/24/11

Todd Helf fished aboard the "Salvation" in 68 degree water the Same Ole Friday the 18th and brought home some sweet wahoo. Let the wind die down and get after em'.

I'm not sure what Todd was using, but we recommend Fishizzle Troll Head, all the Blue Water Candy products and Islanders. They're the staple of the OIFC!

-Capt. Rickey Beck



""Redfish Action"" | Tiberias - 22' | 03/22/11

I had a friend come into town last night and eager to get into some redfish. The bite has really slowed down for me the last few times out, so my confidence has been a bit shaken. We gave it our best effort today. Freddie landed his first redfish today and it was a dandy. After fighting and landing this 28" 8lb. brute on six pound test line, we could never get back on the redfish again today. We hit several spots that have produce well in the past. We headed back to a place where I caught a few blue fish and trout yesterday. No blue fish were there, but a couple of trout were willing to bite. We hit a few more places for reds as the tide was bottoming out. Still couldn't find them again. I will stay after them. Stay tuned...I am sure the action will pick back up soon! See ya on the water!
-Capt. Jacob Frick



""Humbled!"" | Tiberias - 22' | 03/20/11

Not the kind of reporting I like to do, but you gotta keep it real. Things on the inshore scene have been extremely tough to say the least. I fished Friday afternoon for a while only catching one trout. I talked with two other fisherman on the water that day who had not had a bite. I have a friend from the Holden Beach area that fished most of the day on Saturday and reported no action. Our very own Capt. Jeff Williamson fished Saturday morning and spotted a few fish, but again no takers. Today was my chance to redeem us all. I figured I had an ace in the hole. I was able to find and cast net some live finger mullet on Friday. I also had a mixture of baby spots and pinfish. We hit the Shalloute River, got a great picture of a Bald eagle sitting in his usually morning spot. I think he caught all our fish. LOL! We headed back to the wind protected canals with no success. I headed for Sunset beach as the tide started to pull out. We hit every nook and crany between the Shalloute River and Sunset without a sniff! My trip did leave with a wealth of knowledge in knot tying, what rigs to use, and great areas to fish in the future. I believe if the tides and East wind will settle down, we should start to catch a few fish again. The water temperature is getting right for things to start happening. I will make another effort tomorrow to find some action and again on Tueday. I hope to be the first to report that the bite has fired off again. See ya on the water!



-Capt. Jacob Frick



"Offshore Report" | OIFC World Cat / Carolina Cat | 03/20/11

As Brant mentioned before, he needed to sit the day out on Friday as the mojo got a hold of him, Capt. Chris Dew and I took the reigns and led the World Cat offshore with a crew of eager fishermen. The warm water pushed offshore quite a bit so we left knowing that most likely the Jigging bite would be best option. We headed out to the Steeples in search of bounty from the deep. When we arrived at the Steeples, we found 69 degree water and one other boat that had been out there for a little while and had NO bites on the troll so we stuck to the plan of jigging. After scouting a few spots, we settled on one and dropped down to the bottom. In quick time, we were trippled up on fish. Turned out to be a nice class of Amberjacks. We continued to catch fish steadily, including a 300+ lb shark. A little later in the afternoon, we finally started marking fish in the middle column, "tuna's"... We used our color coded line to get to the perfect depth and caught some really nice Blackfins some in the 18-20lb range. Mixed in with the Blackfin's were a bunch of Bonita's, and what I feel certain were a couple of Wahoo bites, based on the initial run and subsequent hook set cut off. All day, we kept tabs on the other boats out there to see if the trolling bite had turned on but alas, it was not gonna happen. We headed in, having had a terrific day of pulling on fish of all different species, and again, jigging saved our tails as it would have been a very long day on the troll. Everyone had thoughts of Sashimi in their minds. I am in the process of uploading a video of the Huge shark we caught to our Youtube page. Check it out. Also on a side note, please use caution on your way out of Shallotte Inlet. At low tide, the outer bar is VERY shallow. We hope to put together another make up trip as it really created some great comradery amoungst anglers and allowed some folks to get to fish for less money.... Stay tuned for upcoming trips.
-Capt. Steele Park



"Today's Offshore Report" | OIFC World Cat / Carolina Cat | 03/18/11

I actually ended up sitting out the offshore trip today. A stomach bug grabbed me in the early morning hours and it would not have been a pretty site if I had been aboard. However, Capt. Chris and Steele were more than up to it. I will let Steele provide the gory details in a soon to come report, but the jist was the trolling bite was non-existent. Several other boats tried, but no action was reported, so the World Cat crew stuck with jigging all day. They brought back 3 Blackfin Tuna and reported a lot of action from False Albacore, Amberjack, Sharks and MANY lost, mystery fish. The crew seemed pleased with the day's action as they reported being very busy all day, and all will have fresh Tuna for dinner. The False Albacore are common to mix in with the Blackfin, and some times, they just overwhelm the Blackfin bite. Anyway, I'll let Steele elaborate on the day. The first trip of the season is in the books. Fish caught, crew happy, boat and fishermen back safe- mission accomplished. We have a half day in the morning tomorrow, so it's a dog-sharkin' we go.
-Capt. Brant McMullan



"Capt. Jacob's Inshore Fishing Secrets" | OIFC World Cat / Carolina Cat | 03/18/11

Capt. Jacob is one of our new inshore guides and a manager at the OIFC. He is a very good fisherman, and particularly excells in using artificial baits for inshore species. He often answers questions by email and copies me on them. And although his below answer states "...don't tell anyone..." as far as I'm concerned, once you put it in writing, its fair game. Fishing live bait for inshore species is certainly proven, but getting live shrimp can be next to impossible. Thus, learning to understand and use artificials is a great asset to your quest for inshore action -- trout, redfish & flounder. See his below comments to a customer, thought they might be useful to all.

"The canals were on fire in Feb. this year. Their are a few puppy drum still hanging out in the canals, but not in the numbers we were seeing. The trout seem to have taken the place of the large schools of red drum (18"-27" slot). The trout have been mostly small with just a few between 2 and 3 pounds. I am sure some larger ones are around. Reminder! Trout closed until June 15th! You can catch them, but must release them. A few flounder are also coming out of the mud. 15" TL The gulp baits are always a good choice. The trout should start hitting the gulp natural shrimp rigged 2 to 3 feet under a popping cork. I would also try live mud minnows under a float, as this should catch trout and red drum if they are in the area. Working something like the jerk bait or bouncing a light jig off the bottom can also be very effective. When I say light...I mean 1/16th ounce to 1/8 ounce jighead with your favorite soft plastic body attached. There is little to no current in the canals and you want your baits to sink as slowly as possible. Trout often hit a bait on the fall. I have experimented over the years with several different soft plastics and colors, I have found that Bass Assassins 4" Sea shads work well on the trout. They have extremely great action and a wide range of colors to choose from. My favorite colors are chartreuse diamond, rainbow trout, and shrimp. The fish have been keying in on chartreuse lately, so chartreuse diamond or electric chicken would be the colors I would try first. I truely believe color does make a difference when using artificials, but having confidence and working the lure correctly is more important. If you work any artificial correctly and get it in the strike zone you will most likely get some hits. Depending on how aggressive those hits are, I will sometimes change colors to see if I can get a better reaction out of the fish. Sometimes you will catch a few on one color and then they seem to wise up. You can change to just a slightly different color and catch a few more. I have also been fishing one color and gotten a lot of short strikes, like they were just not wanting to commit. Changed my color and gotten some aggressive hits. Top secret!! Please do not share with too many folks. A black sharpy marker can make a world of difference on your artificails when getting short strikes. Simply add one medium sized dot just behind the head of your bait followed by two or three smaller dots. They will usually drill the bait next time you get it in the strike zone! Well, enough of my secrets for now. Good luck! See ya on the water! "

Capt. Jacob

Ocean Isle Fishing Center- Ocean Isle Beach, NC – for more reports and upcoming fishing news visit www.OIFC.com ---
910-575-FISH