Water Temps On The Rise

The first to move in should be the flounder. They should start stacking up along the inlets in big numbers. I like to start on the outside of the jetty rocks where the current is minimal and work a 1/2 ounce Jaw Jacker jig head with a fat mud minnow, a Sea Striker grub in silver flake or white with a green tail, an Exude shrimp or a piece of cut mullet. All of these baits will produce nice catches of these tasty flat fish. I like to anchor just about 70 to 100 feet from the rocks, toss my bait as close to the rocks without getting hung in them and work the bait back to the boat SLOWLY. Using a jig head there should not be any slack in the line as with a carolina rig and you should be able to feel every tap from Mr. Flounder. The bite is usually a slight tap not a pull the pole out of your hands bite. This first tap is the fish sucking the bait in it's mouth about 1/2 way. There should be another tap as the fish sucks the bait on down, then it should feel heavy. Like you are hung on something solid. This is the time that you will want to set the hook and crank it in. There should be some nice ones out there so if you catch 12 to 14 inchers, send them back and wait for the 3 to 4 pounders. The limits are ten flounder per angler with a minimum length of 12 inches.

The sheepshead should start firing off and the can be caught on the edges of the rocks with cut blue crab, fiddlers, shrimp and clams. I like to use a Daiichi # 4 or # 6 D24 with a clam fished just on the tops of the submerged rocks. I will rig up a sinker on the end of my line and up from that about 6 inches tie a loop with the hook slipped through the loop. Try to find an area the where the current is not screaming and you should have better success.

For those of us that like to catch a lot of fish, the Whiting are here and should be for a couple of months. Try the end of the inlets, the edges of the inlets and the surf. I like to use as light of a rod and reel as I can get away with and I like to fish where the current is not screaming. When you find an area like this you can scale down to 10 pound test and a piece of lead that is around 1 ounce. This light tackle sure makes it more fun that using 3 plus ounces of lead and big tackle. For the rig, I will use 10 pound Cajun Lightning line on my reel, a Daiichi # 1 Circle Wide hook tied to the end and then a swivel with a 1 ounce egg sinker above the swivel. This rig lets the fish pull line through the sinker and when the fish finally gets a tight line it is too late, the Circle Wide hook has it. The rod tip will start thumping and the fish is hooked. I usually put out four to six rods and set them in the rod holders. I rarely hold the rod with this rig because I find that I get more hook ups if I let the rod holder hook the fish.

BLACK DRUM, where are you. So far this year the black drum have been few and far between. When and if they do show up, REMEMBER THIS, the big ones (the ones over 25 pounds) are the breeders, the future stocks. Put them back. If everyone did this the drum populations would take off in a few years and there would be plenty of 4 to 10 pounders for everyone. If we do not take stock and try to manage of fish stocks, one day there will be none. It is not going to kill you to put a 20 to 30 year old fish back so it can reproduce and make baby fish. Think about it, how good can a 20 year old fish be any way. We do not eat 20 year old cows, chickens or pigs and there is a reason we don't, THE MEAT IS TOUGH. Put the breeders back.

TROUT are coming out of the winter mode and should be eating the shrimp and mullet in the creeks so it is about time to get out your box of MirrOlures and catch some using your hard plastics. Last year I did real well using the MirrOlure S52MR, fished very slow, just off of the bottom. Off course the tried and true MirrOlure 52M works great for trout. I also like the 1/4 to 1/2 ounce Jaw Jacker jig with a Sea Striker grub. I started early in the season with the gold flake color and as the season progressed I switched over to the white with a chartreuse tail. After the water warms up to around 65 degrees, I fished a Daiichi Butt Dragger hook with an Exude RT Slug. This is a weedless rig that can be worked out of the grass and around oyster mounds. It seemed that most of the bites can when the bait was falling and I had a slack line, so be ready for a tight line when you start working the bait. And use a stout rod so you can get a good hook set.