Wintertime Red Drum Fishing
Most people when they think of wintertime fishing they think of freezing their butts of for very little reward. Although the freezing your butt off can be true it’s definitely not always the case here in South Eastern North Carolina. We have plenty of days in December – February that are in the 50’s and occasionally into the high 60’s. Also, another piece of good news is there is no need to start early in the morning like we so often do in the warmer months. So know that we know it’s not bitterly cold everyday here in the Wilmington area and we don’t have to start at first light what is there to fish for and how good is it?
I’ll be honest, winter is probably my all time favorite time to fish and I believe for good reason. The water brings gin clear water, there are far fewer boats on the water and I’m not sweating from sun up to sun down. Those are the small reasons I love winter fishing…the biggest reason is I love fishing for redfish aka red drum and in the winter they school up and by school up I mean really school up, like in the hundreds on occasion. Combine the gin clear water with a large school of redfish and you are setup for a good time. If you like sight fishing with a spinning rod or you are a fly fisherman, this is one of the best times of year for you to have a day you will remember forever.
The downside to fishing in the winter is yes it can be cold and yes it’s nice to be able to see the fish in order to catch them so that means good sunlight and lighter winds or fishing wind protected areas are recipes for success but not absolutely necessary. The other downside to wintertime fishing is if it has been cold for multiple days in a row and the water temps drop quickly the redfish can get a case of lockjaw which can be frustrating but is not something that happens regularly. Lastly the other downside is other than redfish there is not much else to fish for, at least for sight fishing in the marsh, other than speckled trout which in the dead of winter can become increasingly difficult to catch. If you love to catch redfish though than this is not really a downside.
Redfish in the winter time around areas like Wrightsville Beach, Topsail Island, Surf City, Masenboro, Bald Head Island will start to school up in the fall and as fall progresses into winter the schools tend to start growing and growing in numbers. They will move out completely occasionally to reside in the surf and many times once they are in the surf they will not return until the early spring and this tends to happen to schools that are closer to inlets. If the water temp drops off significantly and quickly many red drum will move into deeper water to find that cushion at a certain depth where the water temp is not as affected by cold air temperatures. Once that air temp starts to rise though they are headed straight back to their shallow loafing areas. The reason for this being that the shallow water will heat much faster than the deep water. It’s a little scientific to think about but if you remember anything from this remember that if a cold front has just come through most likely the fish are going to move deep. Once that front is through and temps begin to rise most likely those red fish are going to move into shallow water which is right where we want them. These fish especially on the warmer days are eager to eat because there is not much bait around and the bait that is around is very small like little fry bait. So when a well placed fly or soft plastic makes it’s way into the path of a large school of redfish it will rarely be turned down.
There are some caveats to this of course and the main one being pressure on the fish and I do not mean biometric pressure but fishing pressure. It’s no secret that redfish like to school up in the winter and if you have a shallow running boat you can find these fish on shallow water flats in the winter if you put in the time. Fishing pressur is becoming something that is increasing year over year and I’ll be the first to say I have no problem with that at all but what I would suggest is to try your absolute best to not push the fish around like crazy. This is a really hard thing to do believe me I am quite guilty of accidently poling right into a large group of fish that slipped out of deep water onto a flat and ran right into the boat and it was like someone dropped a bomb in the water. This can be unavoidable but in cases where you can see them from afar I would suggest a very slow approach and as soon as you hook one slowing backing up off the school to let them resettle. Secondly try not to beat them up too much and again I am guilty of this as well but have really tried to instill this in my fishing. I am totally fine with catching 4 or 5 fish out of a school but after seeing this happen too many times it’s something that needs to be brought up. If you or I sit there and catch 30 to 40 of these fish that is an incredible amount of pressure on these fish and very likely you are not the only person who knows about this school so very likely there might be getting fished multiple times a day. If they get an overabundance of pressure they will move to a new location and that location might be deep water where you won’t be able to find them again. My suggestion to this if they are really chewing catch 4 or 5 then go to another school or start to check new areas that you have not explored. This way these fish will mostly likely stay in that exact spot for the entire winter, and you’ll have a school to fish anytime you go out.
In conclusion I leave my readers with this. Winter is a fantastic time to fish for redfish in North Carolina and if you are willing to put on some thicker pants and a down jacket I promise you will have a good time. If you are looking to book a trip just shoot me an e-mail or give me a ring, you can find all of that info on the contact page of my website.
-Capt. Cam – BlackBird Guide Services
