Capt'n Hook Outdoors

We have released our video of our SKA Nationals in Biloxi, MS. Follow the link below by clicking on the image.

With the low temperatures we have experienced this past week, we saw canals begin to freeze over. Last night Capt. Tripp and myself went down to check it out and saw canals frozen with ice about half an inch thick. We did see a few finger mullets on top and got to talking about a possible fish freeze. Today at noon, the NC Division of Marine Fisheries released a statement calling for the closure of the Speckled Trout season until June 15, 2018. By doing this, the trout will have the chance to spawn to make up for the losses. From what I have read, effective Friday, January 5, 2018 at 3:00 p.m. the Speckled Trout season will be closed. As much as we love the fishery, it will be good to get these fish we love to recover. To see more, visit the Marine Fisheries website. We are still catching redfish though! Call for Sunset Beach fishing charters!

The crew headed out today for the last backwater tourney of the year. Needing to weigh a Redfish and a Trout, we knew that two good ones would be a challenge. We moved around to a couple of different spots with plucking a 5.25 pound trout around 11:00. We still needed a good Redfish even though we had already caught about 10 small Redfish. We went back to the place where we had caught our Trout and like textbook material, we put a 6.35 pound Redfish in the boat. Even though there were not that many competitors due to the cold conditions, we managed to win by a little over a pound. We have Holden Beach charter boats ready for you. Come fish with us in 2018 call today 910-540-7332.

While we strive to be one of the most up to date fishing reports in the area, we are going to start writing a big report at the end of each month to keep you up to date with what happened during the month, and what you can expect to happen in the next month, so here it goes.

November was one of the best months this year for Speckled Trout and as expected it carried over into December. At the beginning of the month we continued catching the bigger trout in the 3 pound and over class. Captain Tripp did achieve his goal of getting a Speckled Trout citation in December, while the rest of us watched on catching respectable 3 plus pound trout. We continued to use live shrimp even though many places near us were running out. Fortunately for us, we made a trip to Charleston in the middle of the month and luckily a shop down there had some live shrimp that were willing to ride back to Ocean Isle with us. As we ran out of shrimp and the temperature dropped, we began running saltwater artificial baits. Just about any color combination will work as long as you tie a lot of fluorcarbon on, you should be good to go with the Trout. As the month drug on, we began to see the high concentration of Black Drum move in, just like they normally do when the temperature drops a little. The best way to get on them is dead shrimp on a Carolina rig. The picture below was taken December 1st. Pictured: Captain TrippWe finally got a nice weather window in December to make a Gulf stream run. We had good reports that some of our friends were catching Wahoos in the 80-90 pound range at the end of November, so we knew there was a good chance to get on some good fish. We were happy to confirm reports of good Wahoo catching one in the high 20s and one in the low 60s. While we were out we heard reports of 69 and 59 inch Wahoo being caught. We lucked out with only about two hours of trolling under our belt. After that, we moved around to hit bottom numbers hoping for some grouper, but were content with a mixed bag of triggers, b-liners, grunts, and porgies. The picture below was taken December 17th. Left to Right: Capt. John, Cole Clemmons, Capt. Tripp Hooks

Tomorrow we will begin to wrap up the fishing for December in a backwater tournament hoping for two big trout or two big red fish. The air temperature may be dropping, but the bite is still on. Call 910-540-7332 to get your fishing adventure started for 2018!