With the Labor Day holiday behind us and the unofficial end of summer, local anglers are once again a happy bunch. They are happy because their favorite fishing locations will not be inundated with an abundance of boaters and Jet Skiers, happy they don’t have to worry about someone being anchored up in their favorite fishing hole and really happy that the fight for parking at the boat ramp should become a little more bearable. Water temperatures are reading in the lower 80s and with every passing week, those too should start to provide some relief to both anglers and the fish themselves.
Offshore, the wahoo bite was once again fairly consistent in areas around the Gulf Stream with the Devils Hole and Swansboro Hole producing some decent-sized fish, with most averaging in the 30-pound range and a few pushing the 60-pound mark. Fishermen also reported a good number of dolphin being caught in the mix as well as a few blackfin tuna. Some billfish were also reported but much better bill fishing occurred in the waters to our north, mainly off of Oregon Inlet.
The bottom fishing offshore has been fairly good lately with better reports coming from water depths over 100 feet. Anglers finding and then fishing even the smallest of ledges have been having decent luck with grouper, snapper, grunts and triggerfish. Most of these locations are being found while anglers are trolling and then marking any sort of structure or ledge they run over to come back and fish at a later time. This is an excellent way to have some locations to fish so you don’t have to rely on the charts and well-known locations such as 23 Mile Rock.
Closer to the beach, the first reports of mullet running the surf have been filtering in for a couple of weeks. What this means is predators are not far behind, as witnessed by several large king mackerel caught off of area piers the past week and also a few tarpon. Those trolling the beach from boats have also had good luck with king mackerel and those looking for Spanish mackerel have not been disappointed with lots of fish being found in water depths starting around 25 feet.
Surf anglers are reporting some red drum coming from cut bait with black drum being caught on fresh shrimp and sand fleas. Some decent sized Virginia mullet are also being reported by those using sand fleas and fishing the deeper holes and sloughs.
Inshore, the fishing just continues getting better with lots of flounder coming from the creeks and inlets. As is usually the case, the better chance for a very large flounder is from the waters of the Cape Fear River, however there are also plenty of opportunities in the local waters to land a fish over 5 pounds and with the amount of baitfish being present, that chance will be increasing as the weeks go by and the fish fatten up. Local anglers will tell you there are plenty of big fish around, you just have to put in the time and patience to get one.
