Heck of a trout bite today

Sportsman

Old Mossy Horns
darenative nailed it. Darenative touched on it, but I'll add that you (or at least I do) want to find shallow water (2-4') over dark mud bottom adjacent to deeper (6-10') water. That dark mud bottom will warm up faster than a sandy bottom. Yesterday we started fishing in an inland creek, up in the creek but closer to the mouth than to the back. We caught a few trout but more stripers. Water temp was 44.5*-45*. We moved about a mile up into the creek, and found 46.3* water. We stayed in one 75 yard stretch for 2 hours and caught them steady.
 

PTman

Four Pointer
Im fishing the warmest water i can find. Some days it's in the back of creeks, some days it's not. In my neck of the woods if it's not a day with full sun, as low as our water temps are, i will simply not fish.
I'm marking tons of fish suspended on cloudy days in deep water, but those fish on my end are not feeding. The sunny days after lunch, those same fish move shallow up toward the bank (into warmer water) and start to feed. A few more weeks the sun will be more intense and warm the water a little more in the shallows and the fishing will be more predictable in the creeks.


ok, that's basically what happened to us yesterday. as it got later in day, we found them a little bit better but still scattered. still new to this and live a couple hours away so dont get as much on the water practice as i'd like. this time of year we do try to only fish on sunny days if we can help it. i was surprised how much the water temp increased during the day. started out breaking ice to get out of the ramp and ended up seeing temps close to 51 in the afternoon.
 

darenative

Twelve Pointer
ok, that's basically what happened to us yesterday. as it got later in day, we found them a little bit better but still scattered. still new to this and live a couple hours away so dont get as much on the water practice as i'd like. this time of year we do try to only fish on sunny days if we can help it. i was surprised how much the water temp increased during the day. started out breaking ice to get out of the ramp and ended up seeing temps close to 51 in the afternoon.
The more ya do it and the more time ya spend on the water chasing em, you'll find the areas that hold the bulk of the fish each winter. When the conditions get right you can hit a few hotspots and can be on the fish with minimal effort.
My advice is to start keeping a journal and note the pertinent info. It doesnt take long to see patterns developing based on weather, wind, temp, for spots. They are creatures of habbit and pretty easy to figure out if you track the data and have decent electronics on the boat.
 

Sportsman

Old Mossy Horns
Thursday will be day 3 of this little sunny, warm spell we're enjoying. Experience has shown that day 3 of a mid-50's/60's warm up during the winter months can produce pretty good trout fishing. This coupled with the lunar phase has me seriously considering taking the day off Thursday. Chomping at the bit to break in the new boat!
 

dc bigdaddy

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Thursday will be day 3 of this little sunny, warm spell we're enjoying. Experience has shown that day 3 of a mid-50's/60's warm up during the winter months can produce pretty good trout fishing. This coupled with the lunar phase has me seriously considering taking the day off Thursday. Chomping at the bit to break in the new boat!
Isn't there a pre-bid that we need to attend some where?
 

darenative

Twelve Pointer
Thursday will be day 3 of this little sunny, warm spell we're enjoying. Experience has shown that day 3 of a mid-50's/60's warm up during the winter months can produce pretty good trout fishing. This coupled with the lunar phase has me seriously considering taking the day off Thursday. Chomping at the bit to break in the new boat!
We fished today. Water temp on my end is a couple of degrees away from a good bite.
We fished shallower than we should have today. Gonna try it tomorrow closer to deep water points with some shallow flats close by.
 

darenative

Twelve Pointer
how about a report darenative?
Got our butts handed to us on the weather.
They were calling for 10-15, we had gusts to 30+ the last few hours before dark.
Zero trout, but it was about impossible to fish a MR in that wind.
It wasn't a good day to scout for specks🤕
 

Sportsman

Old Mossy Horns
Had 4 bites today. 2 rock, 1 trout, and lost a decent trout in some pilings. So much fresh, dirty water. Fishing conditions weren’t ideal, but it was a great shakedown trip on the new sled. Looking forward to better conditions.
 

HotSoup

Old Mossy Horns
I'm sure oak island looks like tea thats been steeped way too long.... anything south of the cape fear will be.
 

Sportsman

Old Mossy Horns
I'm sure oak island looks like tea thats been steeped way too long.... anything south of the cape fear will be.

I'd take that over what I saw yesterday. Found some decent water, but most of it looked like paint. Couldn't see more than 12" below surface.
 

Sportsman

Old Mossy Horns
10-4. Will be fiddling with it for sure. I've heard mixed reviews. No one really saying it's useless, just some saying it hasn't helped them much. Others have told me they've been able to locate fish holding tight on cut banks or on some sort of structure beside them. We'll see.
 

darenative

Twelve Pointer
Anybody been?
We fished last sunday after lunch. Lots of fish, just most of em were short by a 1/4" or so. We probably had 60 or so in a few hours of fishing. Couldnt get em to hit a mr, but an 1/8oz jig tipped with a mud minnow fished slowly over a deeper water oyster rock produced about every cast. We kept 5 or 6 legal fish for dinner. Sure felt good to get out of the yard
 

Sportsman

Old Mossy Horns
Me and a bud fished 4 reliably consistent creeks on Saturday to get 7-8 bites and catch 4 measly trout. 7 more buddies were on 3 other boats and they also fished 3-4 good creeks, so basically we covered 12-15 creeks between us. They all had similar catches to ours. Looking forward to the effects of this week’s warm, sunny days.
 

nchawkeye

Old Mossy Horns
Thanks guys...My wife and I and my brother in law and sister have all had our shots so we are just waiting for the water to get right for us to take a trip to Little Washington and get back at it....Right now, he isn't doing much good either so hopefully things will get right in a couple of weeks...
 

HotSoup

Old Mossy Horns
Thanks guys...My wife and I and my brother in law and sister have all had our shots so we are just waiting for the water to get right for us to take a trip to Little Washington and get back at it....Right now, he isn't doing much good either so hopefully things will get right in a couple of weeks...

they give shots so you can catch more fish?
 

Buxndiverdux

Old Mossy Horns
Me and a bud fished 4 reliably consistent creeks on Saturday to get 7-8 bites and catch 4 measly trout. 7 more buddies were on 3 other boats and they also fished 3-4 good creeks, so basically we covered 12-15 creeks between us. They all had similar catches to ours. Looking forward to the effects of this week’s warm, sunny days.

You should have fished every creek in the system with that hot rod boat. ;)
 

Sportsman

Old Mossy Horns
Another lesson in perseverance and patience this weekend for me. Had my nephew and daughter onboard Saturday. The wind made for tough fishing winding up with 4 trout. I made a quick solo trip yesterday after church and caught 2 trout, 2 puppy drum. To say I'm baffled is an understatement. I'm hearing about guys catching a decent number of small fish by bouncing jig heads/grubs on the bottom in deep water, but I'm just too stubborn to fish that way. Oh well....gotta get better soon.
 

Starfan

Eight Pointer
Me and a buddy fished Sunday evening for about 3 hours and most of Monday. We caught 115 trout with 12 keepers. Biggest was 3.60 lbs. There's still fish in the creeks. 17MR
I saw the same thing this past weekend. Pops and I caught over 70 on Friday and over 50 on Saturday. Had 10 good ones on Friday and only 4 big ones on Saturday. By far the most little ones I’ve caught all winter and I’ve fished every weekend.
 
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