May take me a bit I sprained my ankle

Good deal....I worked hard for some channel cats Sunday while out with my grandsons.....my water was 43 degrees and it sounds like yours was even lower than that with skim ice near the shore!

Jeff I did it..Biggest fish today on Spinnerbaits. 6lbs 12 oz. January 10th

Wow Derrick...any idea what the water temperature was?

Nope. shore fishing

they are turning red. sure sign they are moving up to stage. Caught these in 2ft of water on a flat

As with many other states, North Carolina is going through another unseasonably mild winter which complicates a challenging period for bluegill anglers. Fish patterns can be attributed directly to rising and falling water temperatures in a specific region or body of water. But during periods of uncertainty and bouncing temperatures the ability to trigger a strike from a seemingly unwilling bluegill can require the utmost patience that an angler can muster. Periods of moderation during the summer in which very warm surface temperatures may fall a bit, whether that be from air temperatures or rain duration, seem to attract willing fish more readily. Just because we have seen jumps in the surface temperatures in recent weeks in my region, this still leaves the temperature in the low 50s which is still not the ideal temperature for active gills here.  It does provide hope that Spring may come early thus the celebration of spawning fish and all that brings takes over our thoughts. But hope is not a good plan so I still must try and although only a few gills cooperated yesterday in the two settings I fished, it provided me some relief from what has always been classified as hunting season, just not for Bluegills.... My belief is that if I continue to endure and fish for my favorite fish, I will be one of the first to capatilize when all things come together rather than hearing it in a local bait shop. Good luck to everyone wetting a line!

Gills, Crappie, and shad are acting different this year. And the truth is they way they act depends on what kind of quality fish I can catch..

Got out yesterday for some late January cold water gill action on the Pasquotank River in the northeastern corner of the state. We were blessed with another shot of mild afternoon temperatures as we reached 58 degrees in Elizabeth City for a high Sunday. The mild winter has allowed me to catch sufficient numbers of live grass shrimp for tipping well into January so far. I used a micro set up on one of my telescopic poles, this time a 12 footer so I could fish down to the fish hanging out on slopes leading to the deeper creek channels. Fished three hours and landed 16 gills, all appeared to be northern strain and mostly hens up to 9 inches. The bite was very delicate so small gear in rippled water was a must.......Most bites would just result in the float leaving the surface by an inch or so.....a balanced set up was key to detecting these light strikes.......

An average gill from yesterday's cold water adventure..

High skies yesterday.

Excellent winter catch! I am fighting flu and lack of safe ice. Pray for me!

Be careful with that stuff...it's evil this year....hope you feel better real soon!

Indeed...Linda just got over it as well as almost the entire family. Matt's got it too. Thanks!

Bluegills0502.pdf

See the below link for a nice write up on catching big bluegills in North Carolina waters........ 

Welcome David......look forward to anything you can add about Fishing North Carolina Style!

Some would dispute the claim, but Winter continues to be a difficult time in most locations of North Carolina to catch decent Sunfish numbers. I braved harsh conditions alone Saturday afternoon to fish the North River near Thoroughfare Island and fishing was tough.....I battled for a few decent Crappie and dink yellow perch but questioned my decision often as the gusty North winds pounded several boat anglers along with the Bluegill Chariot....I communicated with several anglers daring these conditions because of short days and heavy workloads.....all small stringers fishing a variety of techniques from spider rigging to long casting.......live bait to soft plastics....it really didn't matter on this day, the only thing that did was having enough clothes on to survive the trip....I read as many fishing reports as I can but prefer to make my own history when it comes to fishing......Small comfort when I returned home from this trip was to find out the ground hog predicted an early spring....I'm not ready to change my count down date from Good Friday yet...but there is always reasons to hope...Hang on Carolina friends....fishing will pick up very soon and we'll all have a reason to celebrate the new year.....Good Luck and look forward to your inputs...

Nice report David......things will pick up for us all in the coming weeks.....thanks for sharing with the members.....

Another round of wind and rain today after most of coastal North Carolina received 2 to 3 inches from winter storm Nemo........Water temperatures are fluxuating between the lower 40s and mid 40s with current conditions......Many local rivers are slightly stained from recent run-offs especially surrounding creeks. We're roughly 5 weeks from the first day of Spring so things should begin to improve....Eager to get back out, I have changed the line on most of my poles, lubricated my reels as required.....I'm also reading all the articles I can to gain an advantage on early staging gills as these fish will be the first fish I contact in numbers.....Looking forward to getting back out and sharing testimony and reports here on Bigbluegill.com.....Good luck everyone when you get the chance to get out!

Welcome to the group Chris......great to have another northeastern N.C. member talking bluegill.......

Most of the rivers in Northeast N.C. are still slightly stained from up to 6 inches of rain since the beginning of February......Water temperatures around the Albemarle Sound are hanging around the lower 50's with some creeks as high as 54 degrees today.......we will struggle to keep them there as a closing cold front will drive these temps back into the 40s and give us more precipitation.....I always shoot for the new moon in March for Crappie pushing shallow and early staging gills.......I'm really excited about the approach of another spring and all that brings to us sunfish anglers.......Good luck to you all and I look forward to any updates you may have in your region of the state.....Hope you all enjoy "Fishing North Carolina Style".......

Got out today in Northeast N.C. ahead of the latest winter weather to bless us with a couple inches of the white stuff.....The winds were up early so I passed on hitting the river today and instead I borrowed a page from the Bank Busters book and hit a local sand pit here in Pasquotank County.......It is roughly five acres and is 12 feet at the deepest......The land owner has graciously given me permission to fish so I headed to the South side along the wooded shore to get out of some of the wind........The Grass Shrimp have been hard to come by with the recent skim ice so I got a few wigglers to tip some micro jigs from Tooty's batch....There is dead grass beds and flooded willows along this bank so I began at five feet and immediately I was greeted by Mr. Whiskers and that was a common theme today......17 times that I actually landed the fish it was a channel cat and I lost several big ones because of the smaller baits....I also was surprised to catch 2 smaller common carp along with 5 largemouth bass and 11 dink gills.....biggest was 7".....I have caught pound class Coppernose in this pit but couldn't bring any to bite today.....I mopped the bottom in the area I fished but no joy.....the smaller gills were still hitting softly but the predators were very aggressive as well as the carp......Water temperatures were a touch below 50 degrees so it's still going to be a while before things really begin to pick up......I had fun and kept a few channel cats for a tasty dinner this week.......Looking forward to good times in Carolina......

Had a very chilly day in Northeast N.C. this President's Day....After a real blustery day yesterday......I got out to a local sand pit and located a few willing gills and some aggressive Channel Cats.....With stained water, I decided to add a chartreuse shad 1" gulp minnow for additional scent attractant.....I think it helped to lure a few nicer gills and just kept the channel cats busy.....Air temperatures barely got to 40 degrees and the weekend cold front pulled water temperatures back down in the mid 40s.....Late February and early March can be up and down so we'll keep counting down to Good Friday and fish when Mother Nature allows......Enjoyed getting out but I'm ready for a warm up and so are the fish......

Finding and catching fish in the middle of winter is a challenge and very satisfying when you do. Our temps are all over the place and skim ice is almost an on-and -off thing now. I would love to see 3 to 5 days of 50 degree temps and with a little cloud cover and light wind. But I have gotten crappie down to 38 and gills down to 39 degrees in the open water...but it can be tough!

Good job, my friend!

Thanks Jim and good luck Jason....hope you guys are able to get out for a little while after the front....Shorter days in the winter makes it tough when the weather is lousy on your day off.....Applaud your determination to fish and hope your effort is rewarded...Let us know how you did!

I'm excited to be in eastern N.C. as February nears a close and March brings some changes that every North Carolina Bluegill Angler should love.....It starts with the return of Daylight Savings Time on March 10th, a great change for anglers still in the work force as it allows for some weekday fishing with extended daylight hours and this will grow through July as days will get longer and longer.....Followed closely by the first day of spring on the 20th and finally the most important day in March in the coastal region is Good Friday, the 29th...this is historically the beginning of the Bluegill transition period in the tidal waters.....water temperatures normally reach 60 degrees by this date each year give or take a week......Based on what I'm seeing right now and the current forecast we appear to be right on track again.....Another heavy rain event is filling lakes and rivers throughout the state today....this will keep many waterways a bit stained and it would appear that water temperatures will hang between the high 40s and the mid 50s.....We're getting closer!

Got out to a local five acre pond this afternoon for a couple hours in relatively harsh conditions.........Water temperatures at 49 degrees on the surface and stained from a very wet February.....Normally I would still fish micro jigs and baits in these colder conditions but I was impatient and decided to tie on a new style Gronaw Grass Shrimp jig in a 1/32 ounce size.....I caught some smaller crawfish to tip with today and this was definitely to the bass' liking......

Great Blue Herons and River Otters are working the rain swollen ditches in my area so I stopped and grabbed a few to wet a line with.....

This new "Green Darner" colored jig above was pounded by Largemouth Bass and a few gills also.....

I also caught a few fish on this new one in chartreuse and red filament also tipped with live crawfish....

Big fish today was 18.5" and 4 pounds and 11 ounces...tricky on a light action 4' 10" Eagle Claw Rod and a Zebco 11 reel......

Had a total of four largemouth between 14 and 18.5 inches today...

Mouthful of the Green Darner jig...

A Silent Stinger caught some medium gills and some channel cats too.....

Nice report Jason but me personally...I'm ready to sweat a little....bring on the heat! Only 16 days until Spring but it looks like we have to survive another winter storm later this week......

Forecast looks to be better towards the later part of the week.....I'm ready for the heat too!

Jumped out for an hour on the water ahead of Winter storm Saturn......still chilly and breezy with water temperatures below 50 degrees still and stained a bit....Fish were not active.....took 7 small to medium gills on a Silent Stinger tipped with live crickets...

You can really feel a change pending around the water with plants beginning to bud and pine trees starting to produce pollen but pesky cold fronts are keeping the nights colder thus the water temperatures are being held down.........

Hang in there Bluegill fans.....it won't be much longer in Carolina....The coastal forecast has zero nights below freezing over the next ten days and that takes us closer to the first day of spring.....

Went a took a drive this morning looking at the water in a few rivers......rivers don't look too bad just down roughly a foot from the sustained wind tides of the past week.....water will start coming back in overnight tonight and into tomorrow......Many of the feeder creeks are still stained a bit......water temperatures hovering around 50 degrees and are sure to climb this week with high temperatures forecasted to be in the 60s almost every day with moderation at night also.......This will surely start triggering fish activity that we are looking forward to...With all the new creations from the members and ideas shared, it can only be a productive spring with lots of great bluegill stories and pictures....Looking forward to it!

Didn't go out early today since it was 28 degrees at first light.......After breakfast with the family,  I headed down to the Pasquotank River and went to a couple of my favorite creeks....couldn't fish back deep in those creeks because they were still very stained.....water is hanging right around 51 degrees......water had been down more than a foot from the heavy Northeast winds this past week but it was starting to come back in and that water movement near the mouth of the creeks had the Largemouth going nuts.......I caught a five fish bag of bass at 21 pounds and 13 ounces with the largest bass @ 6 pounds and 1 ounce on a new experimental jig that I have named the Green Darner.......Tipped everything today with live grass shrimp......I fished two of the sunken barges too and managed 11 gills but they were all under 8 inches today......Spring was in the air as we climbed into the mid 60s today for air temperatures and the week ahead looks good for kicking up the water temperatures also.....Everything is right on schedule.....the bass are arriving shallow with the water temps above 50 and the gills won't be long behind them.....

This fish and two others over 3 and a half pounds came on a Silent Stinger shallow around structure.....

Thanks Jason.....I was fishing under a float solely from telescopic poles.....I had the micro in this bass' mouth on a ten footer and the Green Garner pattern in 1/32 ounce on another........These bass were ambushing around cover in moving water...I was fishing three feet deep in six to eight feet of water and it actually saved my trip......I also managed 11 gills on the sunken barges at three feet under a float but none of them were over 8 inches....Game wardens were working the river and the launch today with the spring fever in the air....I got checked completely for boating and licensing regulations as well as bait and live well searches......No worries, I actually like to see the enforcement in my region....Glad you got out Jason......it'll get better from here I promise.........

You can see the Chartreuse in this Crappie's mouth.....I caught fish on the Pink Glow 2" Baby Shad tipped with a minnow, Gulp 1" Minnows in Chartreuse Shad and Emerald Shiner on lead jig heads also tipped with a live minnow....

Well the dogwoods are in bloom in Eastern North Carolina and the first day of Spring is next Wednesday.......Water temperatures in most of the tributaries around the Albemarle/Pamlico Estuary are in the low 50s and should continue to hold there and start rising throughout the remainder of March......I set out this morning with marginal weather promised but I had to get on the water.....Light winds and high water in the Northern reaches of the Albemarle sound greeted me as I headed for Deep Creek off the Little River......Within minutes of baiting up with a Chartreuse Shad Gulp Minnow Jig and Live Shiner combination, a solid Black Crappie greeted me and broke the ice on a good day......These fish were scattered a bit but relatively shallow in the stained 51 degree water......I covered some grown catching a few here and there until I had nearly a 20 fish limit of 10 to 12 inch Crappie.....I had caught seven bass along the way up to 14 inches....They were all released as I was looking forward to a fresh Crappie dinner........I shifted to some micros from time to time and managed five small to medium gills, no big Coppers yet......I stopped and chatted a minute with a team from the "Fishers of Men" tourney and then headed to check out another creek on the way home......I managed another 13 Crappie on this stop for a total of 31 for the day.....I got rained on during this stop followed by sunshine which shut down the bite, surface temperatures had risen to 54 degrees at noon when I picked up.......Had a great time and so excited that another Spring season is here.......

HEY JEFFREY , WHATS A GREEN DARNER?

A Green Darner is a common Dragonfly that frequents the Dismal Swamp and many other regions during the Spring through the Fall.......Thousands inhabit the shallow shore lines and provide a food source from the larvae stage all the way through the mature fly.......Most often an olive green color hence the name.....

Had a great ice breaker weekend in Northeast N.C. Combined both days for 73 Crappie, 25 gills and 8 bass all relatively shallow and caught on a variety of baits but a Chartreuse 1/32 ounce jig lead the way and all fish were caught on Telescopic poles......like to ease the bait in when these fish are located shallow.....Water temperatures in both rivers were 54 degrees today but they won't climb much this week with mild days and chilly nights...We may even lose a couple degrees with several overcast days and some more rain....The water jumped three degrees from Saturday to Sunday but that resulted in a little more gill activity on Sunday.....Cold fronts like the one hanging over us don't hurt the Crappie bite, in fact you may see a jump in the bite behind the front if you can actually get out......I fished alone both days as a friend from Virginia cancelled today because of the forecast........He's kicking his self right now because he could have had a mess of Crappie for the pan but tomorrow is another day.....I cleaned 20 this weekend and really look forward to that fresh fish ......Spring is just three days away now but I'm still loyal to Good Friday and that's not until the 29th.....We're right on the verge of some of the best freshwater fishing the tidal brackish waters offer......it's hard to set that clock for work when you know you can go catch a mess of fish......but with longer days now that late afternoon bite is still pretty good....Good luck to you all and please share your testimony and pictures here with us on Fishing North Carolina Style.....Jeffrey

With just a couple hours to wet a line after work on Wednesday....I packed up some small minnows and my telescopic poles and headed back to Deep Creek mainly because it's close to the house but it produced over the weekend......To my surprise the water temperatures had jumped to 56 degrees from the March sun and the water level was still down 6 to 8 inches from the wind tides....I tied on a chartreuse/white collared Joker soft plastic and caught more than a dozen decent crappie and several largemouth bass....Also had a 3 to 4 pound Bowfin hooked but the violence was too much on my telescopic and he got off. Shifted over to a pink pearl with a white skirt and caught several more nice Crappie including the largest one of the day at 12.75".....Several bass and a few medium  gills also liked the slow falling skirt jig.......Fish were still shallow and caught at 24 inches in three to four feet of water.....We are well on our way as the March sun is doing the work of warming our waters.....During these days the creeks and coves will warm faster, also fish the windward side as the wind will push warmer water to one shore line....often only a couple of degrees is enough to make a big difference......for instance 53 degrees in most places and you locate a cove at 55, there's a good chance the bite will be better in the warmer water.

After a couple cold nights including a near record low this morning of 19 degrees, our creeks and rivers were fogging off some of that much needed warmth but sunny skies will hopefully keep the water above 50 degrees so don't despair.....get off the couch and try your luck......The Crappie that have went shallow will still bite after a cold front just not quite as fast....for you folks that like to catch a bass they will still be active but many of these will be the smaller males active shallow getting prepared for the females.....Our water temperatures in the northeast region of the state support gills beginning to stage in areas known to have beds during the Spring and Summer......I'm taking everything with me tomorrow....a few minnows, live grass shrimp and some crickets too.....want to be prepared for any frenzy I may encounter....looking forward to the success stories of other members around the Tarheel State...March madness, nascar, spring fever,  good eats and great freshwater fishing....Good luck to you all Fishing North Carolina Style!

As I was scraping my windshield this morning preparing to hook up for a day on the water, I thought to myself that man that warm bed was comfortable....but on this day I had invited a friend and his son as they have been longing to get on some prespawning Crappie. Following a great trip last Wednesday after work I was feeling pretty good despite the winter strong hold.....I met my friends and we first grabbed a Hardee's biscuit and some rise n' shine coffee before heading  for the Little River.....We splashed the Ebbtide in the fog rolling of warmer water but on this morning that was 47 degrees.....I immediately lost some confidence but hoped we could still coax a few willing Crappie......The bite was slow and scattered all day but we hung in there for 19 nice Crappie and 6 bass.....We all three hooked a chain pickerel and landed two of them.....These fish hit soft plastics tipped with live minnows and were caught at four to six feet as they had pulled out of the shallows until the waters begin to warm again...

Some of today's nice Crappie...

My friend Doc with a nice Crappie and his largest Bass today....

Doc's son Matt with a decent Bass on a chilly day....

At least they can enjoy the memories and laugh about the cold over a nice fish fry....Had a good time and look forward to getting on the gills with you guys very soon!

Only one more day in March of 2013 but we had another cold start in Northeast N.C. this morning with air temperatures in the mid 30s around the Albemarle sound.....I pondered where to go....should I go to Currictuck County where the nights have been milder but the ocean has held down day time temperatures....maybe Pasquotank or back to the Little River where I have had good results for Crappie in recent weeks........I settled on the upper Pasquotank but shifted to the Little River mid morning after I couldn't locate any water above 50 degrees.......When I arrived at the Little River it was 51 degrees and climbed to near 54 by mid afternoon......Tipping jigs with minnows was the ticket for fish suspended in staging areas waiting on the shallows to warm a bit....I ended up having the best results fishing 3 to 4 feet deep in water 5 to 8 feet near creek channels......

Pasquotank River was glass this morning

Had a few gills to go with the mess of Crappie today...

Not bad, Jeffrey. We finally had a day that approached 60 today, topping out at 58 degrees. Went to get bait for the bluecat trip and quickly caught 10 smallish gills and a crappie along with a decent rainbow trout on the jigs w/ mealworms. Cut trout is a great catfish bait...some guys buy them in the stores if they can't catch fresh stockers.

Happy Easter, by the way!

Thanks Jim and Happy Easter to you and your family......we got up into the high 60s today and we should get up there the next several days as well......No real bluegill bite to speak of yet but the Crappie bite has been pretty good for the last couple weeks.......Have a great time Monday and hope you guys battle some monsters on the Potomac!