With the month of September upon us, anglers are eagerly anticipating what fall fishing will bring for the local waters. We still have a few weeks of warm weather to endure, but it won’t be long before the northeast winds become more frequent, the water temperatures start cooling down and the fish start biting even better. Until then, though, we will still have some summertime fishing conditions to get through but for the most part the fishing has been rather steady. Water temperatures have dipped just a tad but are still reading in the low-to-mid 80s.
Offshore, sea conditions allowed anglers to head out and find plenty of wahoo eager to bite in areas around the Gulf Steam. There were even a few reports of some wahoo being found well inshore of there, which is not that uncommon during the summertime months, although they are more infrequent encounters. A lot of the fish were reported to be in the 30-40 pound range with a few fish pushing 70 pounds. Areas around the Nipple and Same Ole produced more reports than others, but as always, a temperature break in any area is a good place to drops your baits when water temperatures are so high. There were also plenty of dolphin reported coming from the same areas.
Bottom fishing in the 30 mile range has been very good with reports of snapper, grouper, triggerfish and black sea bass caught. For those seeking some back-breaking, drag-pulling excitement, the amberjack fishing has also been very good around structures like the School House.
Along the beaches, the Spanish mackerel fishing has turned back on with lots of decent-sized fish being reported coming from water depths between 25 and 30 feet. Areas just off of Masonboro Island, Carolina Beach Inlet and Figure Eight Island have all been hot spots for good concentrations of fish. A little further off the beach, anglers are finding some decent king mackerel fishing around 10 miles off of the beach.
Pier fishermen are also reporting some good Spanish mackerel fishing coming from those jigging Got-Cha plugs. While most fish are in the 1Â pound range, some fish are weighing in at 2-3 pounds with a few fish being even larger. Live baiters looking for king mackerel have had some success the past week although the big talk among those anglers are the tarpon that have been seen with a couple of fish landed and released.
Bottom fishermen fishing from both the piers and the surf are finding good amounts of Virginia mullet and black drum while using both fresh shrimp and sand fleas. Some spots and croakers are also being caught.
Inshore, the flounder fishing is getting even better with lots of keeper fish being found along the grass lines during times of high tide. During lower water, the deeper holes and channels containing mud banks are good locations to fish as are the area inlets. Red drum are being found in the creeks and inlets with plenty of over slot fish being reported.
