Winter 2024 Fishing Report

Winter has finally arrived and with it a plethora of weather systems.  While Winter is probably my favorite time of year for fishing it can also be very weather dependent and in turn that can make things challenging.  Regardless it will still remain my favorite time of year for fishing due to the gin clear water and schooling redfish.  In this blog post I will cover the ups and downs of the winter thus far, what I like to target and  my hope for the remainder of the winter.

While winter does not technically start until December generally in November winter fish patters will begin to show if the weather starts to cool off.  Here are a few reasons I love this time of year, less boat traffic, water clarity, schools of redfish ranging from 20 fish up to hundreds of fish which makes for some great sight fishing and fly fishing opportunities.  If you like to catch redfish that you can see in the water before casting to this is a great time of year.  I have been asked often by clients what my favorite time of year is for fishing and being that I have always been highly addicted to sight fishing for reds Winter months will always take the cake for me.

Starting off in mid November the winter fishing had seemingly gotten into full swing.  Fish were starting to school, the water was clear and they were happy and willing to eat just about anything.  Fast forward to mid December and we got hit by a tropical depression.  That Tropical depression came at a pretty unfortunate time to say the least.  I have noticed over the years that if these groups of redfish do not have a reasonable time to sit in their winter area and are pushed out by overfishing and or a weather event it can take some time for them to come back.  Right when they started to reappear in the same areas we get hit with a front that brought a lot of rain and wind.  So two large weather events in the span of two weeks in December really made for some challenging fishing, it was and remains very doable but it has not reverted back to the gin clear water and large grouped up schools of reds quite yet from what I can tell.  That said as of 24 hours after writing this post the water has finally started to clear and a decent amount of those fish have begun to reappear in numbers but I think it will be at least another week until things get back to “normal”.  This is always just a part of fishing you got to roll with the punches and capitalize on windows of good weather and happy fish.  All that said historically my best fishing months in the winter have been January and February, so if the weather will do what we hope and stay mild on the wind and rain then we should be on track to have another very productive winter.

Here is how I like to target winter redfish in the months of Late November - early March.  I’ll start with spinning gear first.  My go to rod and reel combo is a 7’ TFO Professional rod paired with a Flordia Fishing Products Osprey CE spooled with 15 lb power pro braid.  I find that this rod is perfect for those reds in the 18” - 27” range with enough backbone to handle bigger fish if you get so lucky.  For lures, here are what my go to’s include:  Gold spoon for more tanic muddy water, great for blind casting after a big rain or wind event that has the water churned up.  Z Man Paddle tails (3 inch) in various colors depending on the water color and the bottom color.  I like to put these on an Eye Strike Jig Head, generally the Trout Eye in 3/16 oz which I find works great with a 3 inch paddle tail and on red fish in the slot size.  One thing to keep in mind for this time of year is the presence on snot grass pretty much everywhere.  There are a handful of ways to get around this…One is to use lighter jig heads 3/16 to 1/8 oz usually do the trick and generally you just want these to have a constant retrieve so that the jig head never touches the bottom.  If you are still getting grassed up switch to a lighter jig head or increase the speed of your retrieve.  Number two use weedless hooks, there is a plethora of these to choose from and I really don’t have any that I have stuck with in particular but you can get these completely unweighted if you like and that would be the most weedless you could get apart from fishing something under a cork.  Three would be to use suspending baits like a Mirrolure Mr17 or something similar as they sink very slow and allow you to work the boat pretty shallow if retrieved properly.  Lastly you could use a drop shot rig, honestly this is not something I have played around with too much but the times I have it has worked very well keeping the snot grass off your bait.  There is unlimited options for lures that will work in the winter and that will keep you out of the snot grass but that said many times it comes down to not just the lure but also they way you work it.  Finding the right mixture of weight and speed of retrieve along with your water depth is the equation to be solved.

For fly fishing my setup is typically a 7 or 8 wt paired with a floating line.  My go to is generally the Rio Flats Pro line that I think casts very well.  I’ll generally have on around 10 - 12 ft (including tippet) of leader with 15 lb tippet, slightly longer than I would in the warmer months due to the spooky nature of fish this time of year because of the clear water and when they are in schools, if one spooks they all spook.  A wide variety of flies will work this time of year for redfish in the Wilmington Area and surrounding beaches such as Topsail Island, Surf City, Wrightsville Beach, Bald Head Island and Southport.  The color of the flies are mainly chosen based on the water color and bottom same as a soft plastics for a spinning rod.  If the water is tanic and the bottom is muddy I will gravitate towards darker flies in colors such as black, purple, dark brown and copper.  If the water is very clear and the bottom is sandy I’ll gravitate towards tan or white flies.  If the bottom has a ton of green snot grass then something with some olive.  The patterns I like to use are not that dissimilar from what I like to use in the warmer months, all these patterns work (Redfish Gotcha, Clauser, Kwan Slider, Easy Shrimp Patterns).  You will want to make sure you have your double haul down for this time of year as longer casts can be on the menu on schools of redfish that have been fished a lot or catch on early to the presence of a boat.  Once they spook a few time they can become harder and harder to catch so keeping your distance and moving in on them as quietly as possible is very important.

Yes there are other species still around like Speckled Trout and Black Drum and Stripers!  During the winter months, at least for me, this time of year mainly revolves around fishing for reds in shallow water.  Speckled Trout become much more scarce and hold up in a select few areas and the black drum you can find on docks and catch pretty readily on cut shrimp if you find a good wad of them.  You will also find schools of black drum on the flats but they are very hard to get to eat an artificial, if you want to target them I’d highly recommend some dead bait or if you are set on artificial I would use something that is scented like Gulp.

Overall this winter has had its highs and lows like any area on the coast dealing with wild animals that have tails.  If the fishing gets back to where it was, which I believe it will, pre tropical depression then I think we are in for a good winter of sight fishing for redfish and hopefully some opportunities to target other species as well.