Fishing Forecast: Cold, windy weather brings Carolinas angling nearly to a halt

Lake Norman and backwaters near Charleston appear the best choices for anglers willing to go fishing in cold, windy weather.

Norman continues to yield good catches of hybrids to anglers trolling Alabama rigs near the mouth of the Plant Marshall hot hole and in the Mountain Creek arm. Limit catches were reported Monday with quite a few other hybrids boated and released.

Reds, or spottails, remain the No. 1 catch in the Charleston area. Cold temperature has led the fish to gather in schools of 25 to 50 and they are being found sunning on the mud flats during low tide. Best bet for hooking them is using a Gulp! Shrimp lure sprayed with a scent.

Fair catches of striped bass are being taken 20-70 feet deep at Lake Harwell on trolled umbrella rigs.

The few fishermen trying at Fontana Lake continue to catch smallmouth and spotted bass on Creepy Crawler soft plastic lures cast to points.

Anglers braving rough sea conditions have scored fair catches of snowy grouper, a bottom species, near the Black Jack Hole offshore of Ocean Isle and Little River.

Winds reaching near gale force have disrupted most fishing along the coast.

Generally, it’s a period of little activity.

This story was originally published January 20, 2016 at 3:59 PM with the headline "Fishing Forecast: Cold, windy weather brings Carolinas angling nearly to a halt."