Fishing

This has been such an unusually mild winter that right now, when I am usually writing a column telling you not to despair because spring will soon be here, I am instead writing to inform you that winter seems to finally have slowed down the inshore bite.
I guess I can do both, since the water is now cold enough that the fishing has indeed slowed, but it isn’t that long a wait until spring. Strange but true.

The extremely mild winter continues and Brunswick County anglers are still enjoying unusually good catches of speckled trout and redfish, and I have never seen a winter when so many flounder were still inshore. The usually high activity of baitfish, shrimp and crabs in the water is making this winter a little like an early spring.
Redfish schools are hanging around in the backwaters, feeding and hiding from dolphins, and you can find schools that number in the hundreds of fish.

The mild winter is certainly having a positive effect on Brunswick County inshore fishing, especially compared to last year’s harsh stay-at-home conditions. I can’t remember a January in local waters when I have gotten so many reports from anglers catching flounder. The redfish schools roaming the shallows are huge and accessible just about every day.

Staff report

U.S. recreational and commercial fishermen will gather March 21 beside the U.S. Capitol in an organized demonstration supporting the amendment of the Magnuson Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson Act).
A rally on Feb. 24, 2010, under a United We Fish banner, attracted about 5,000 recreational, commercial and party/charter vessel owners and folks in associated businesses from all over the country to Washington.