The baitfish schools and the bottom are prospected with a jigging spoon, jig, or strip of cut bait on a bottom rig. If there are gray trout down there, the response is usually instantaneous. The only problem with gray trout fishing is that there are so many other fish in the same types of structure in fall and winter when gray trout are most numerous.

Anglers will hook and catch toadfish, grunts, pinfish, sharks, seabass and bluefish. They just have to sort through the riffraff to catch a limit of gray trout.

Most North Carolina gray trout are juvenile fish weighing up to 4 pounds. But the fish are capable of weighing several times that in the Northeast where the adult fish migrate after spawning. Adult gray trout spawn a few miles offshore of Cape Hatteras in the winter, then move northward, leaving Tar Heel anglers to catch the smaller fish.

But the young fish make up for size with numbers that boggle the brain. Some anglers fish a two-hook dropper rig and catch gray trout two at a time.

Artificial reefs and natural ledges offshore of Morehead City, Topsail Island and Wrightsville Beach are great places to catch gray trout. Bogue Inlet also has excellent gray trout fishing in the deeper holes.

GUIDES, CHARTERS & OTHER INFORMATION
Capt. Carl Snow, Capt. Shane Snow, Fish Witch II Charters, Carolina Beach: gray trout, flounder, offshore trolling, (910) 458-5855.

Capt. Butch Foster, Yeah Right Charters, Southport: trolling or light-tackle fishing for gray trout, Spanish mackerel and other game fish, (910) 845-2004.

Capt. Dave Dietzler, Cape Lookout Charters, Morehead City: red drum, speckled trout, flounder, Spanish mackerel and other inshore and nearshore fishing, (252) 240-2850.

Capt. Fisher Culbreth, Capture Charters, Carolina Beach: sight-fishing and fly-fishing for red drum and speckled trout, (910) 262-1450.

Capt. Jeff Cronk, Fish’n 4-Life Charters, Swansboro: light-tackle fishing for all species, (336) 558-5697.

Capt. Charles Brown, Old Core Sound Guide Service, Cedar Island: light-tackle fishing for all species, including giant red drum, (252) 728-2422.

Capt. Rick Patterson, Cape Crusader Charters: light-tackle fishing for red drum, speckled trout and other species, (252) 342-1513.

Also, see the NCDMF Web site at www.ncfisheries.net for gray trout and other saltwater game fish regulations, which are subject to change as plans are amended.

Editor’s Note: Mike Marsh is author of Inshore Angler, Coastal Carolina’s Small Boat Fishing Guide and Offshore Angler, Carolina’s Mackerel Boat Fishing Guide. To order either book, mail a $23 check or MO to Mike Marsh, 1502 Ebb Drive, Wilmington, NC 28409.