Inshore / Nearshore:
Our fall Flounder bite has been great over the last week or so. It’s that time of the year, when they start to stack up around the Port Wall and High-Rise Bridges before making their way to the inlets. This time of the year, the Port area acts like a rest stop for these fish. Tim, from the shop has been fishing that area a lot over the last few weeks and catching Flounder every trip, also catching fish over 5lbs just about every trip. Anglers have been having the best luck fishing Live Minnows and Live Shrimp, plus some of the fish have been caught on 4” Gulp baits also. We haven't seen much action over the last week at the AR reefs, not saying the fish aren't there it's just been to rough to get out there and fish it right. Keep in mind most of these Flounder that move out in the fall will stop and start to winter over at the nearshore AR reefs. So, if you can catch the weather right this time of the year you can really catch good numbers at the reefs by jigging Spro 2oz Buckatils tipped with Berkley Gulp 4” White Shrimp that's the way to go.
Speckled Trout fishing has been good also, lots and lots of fish around to be caught. Numbers are for sure in the area, anglers reporting having no problem catching 50 or more fish a trip. Seeing lots of small fish but getting a limit on keepers hasn't been hard to do just because there's so many fish around right now. All the normal areas have been holding fish, all the Rock Jetties, Haystacks, Core Creek, Middle Marsh, North River and up Core Creek into the Neuse River waters. I talked to a few anglers this week that's been catching plenty of fish at the Cape Lookout Jetty also. It’s that time of the year when the fish will stack up out there but again we got to have good weather to fish it right.
Live Shrimp has been working well and we do have them in-stock. As far as artificial, we've been selling lots of Z-Man Baits, don’t seem like one certain color is working better than other. But we've seen here in the shop plastic with pink in them have been working better than others. Also, anglers are having good luck on Mirrolure 17MR and 18MR lures, we just got a new shipment in this fall of a lot more custom colors that already have been working great. We have a pretty good cold front coming tonight, temps are going to get colder than we've seen all fall. So, that should push more of the larger fish to us and get them more active. I've been talking to some shops up north of us and they're still seeing good numbers of trout. So, we still got a lot of fish that will be coming our way the rest of the month going into December.
Redfish bite has been on fire over the last few weeks, Nick, that works at the shop was out yesterday catching bait and ran across a school of fish, stopped and caught quite a few before moving on around to the Haystack area. Schools also have been holding along the Railroad Tracks, they have been there day in/day out. Also, anglers are reporting seeing good numbers on up Core Creek along the docks on the ICW. Weather hasn't been that great to get out along the beaches and up to Shark Island area but I can't believe there aren't schools of fish out there. I've heard of some Red Drum caught at the Cape Lookout Rock Jetty. With these cold fronts coming through and water temps dropping these fish will starting going onto their wintertime pattern and start to school up, so when you find them it makes them pretty easy to catch. Live Shrimp, Berkley Gulp and Z-Man Plastic is what we've been having the best luck on.
I've been getting a lot of calls this week about the False Albacore, anglers seem to be having trouble finding the large schools that were here a few weeks ago. I did hear of some schools working right in front of Atlantic Beach. I really feel like the bad winds we've had has pushed the fish more off the beach. The winds and bad weather has them messed up, anyway that's what we are thinking.
All the Bluefish still around you want to catch, the stock probably got depleted a little bit over the last week with the SKA anglers in town lol. They've been all over the place from the inlets, bridges and along the beaches.
King Mackerel bite this week was as good as it's going to get in our area, we finally saw that epic fall bite that we're known for. It’s kind of stinks because the fish are here in full force and the weather will just not work with us. The only pretty day we had this week, Northwest Places and the East Side of Cape Lookout area was both on fire. I talked to a few boats that could only fish two rods at a time, the bite was so good. We still have plenty of Cigar Minnows, Mac a Hoos, Pirate Plugs and Dead Bait Rigs in stock, just have to keep an eye out on the weather, if you see a good day now's the time to go before the fish move on down the beach from us.
We're still seeing some Spots over around the Beaufort area, I think the main run is over but I'm still hearing of good numbers of fish coming down the beaches so anglers are still going to see fish in our area. The Sea Mullet bite still not been all that great, I really think the hurricane really messed our fall run up. But rule of thumb year after year, we always see a late run of them that stay in the ocean around the Dead Tree Hole area back toward the Cape. So, we are hoping we do see some before the season is over.
Piers / Surf:
The best action over the last week or so for the Surf anglers has been at the Radio Island Beach access, Speckled Trout has been plentiful over there so far this fall. Yea, lots of small fish but anglers are catching keeper fish in the mix, with the cooler weather on the way the bite should get better and better in that area. There's been a few caught along the ocean beaches, a few stop nets have been put out along the beaches but they have been dealing with rough waters not allowing them to set very much this fall. So, if you are heading along the beach front keep your eye out for the stop nets that's usually going to be where the Trout will be stacked up at. Surf angers are having good luck on Mirrolures, Z-Man Plastics, Old School Curly Tails, DOA Paddle Tails and Assassin Plastics. Some anglers are having some good luck on Bett's Billy Bay Shrimp also. We also have Live Shrimp in-stock, they can be deadly fished on a Slip Float Rig along the Surf Zone.
As far as the bottom feeders it’s been a mix bagged of fish – anglers are catching some nice Sea Mullets, Pompano, Spots, Puffers, Red Drum, Black Drum and still seeing good numbers of Bluefish in the area. Fishing with Bait Shrimp, Mullet, Fishbites and Bloodworms will work the best.
Offshore:
We're already starting to get some talk about Blue Fin Tuna in the area, just this week some of the mackerel boats claimed to have seen some fish or even had a few on. It’s looking like right now the season will open on December 1st, so it’s time to get ready for the giants. We already have plenty of Horse and Select Ballyhoo in-stock, along with Fluorocarbon, Planers and Lures. We can also rig your reels up with Hollow Core for you to be ready to battle when the season opens.
Well, to be honest no one has been offshore really in the last two weeks, it’s just been too rough. But I've been talking to some of the charter fleet and they all feel like the Wahoo’s are still there to catch. Before all this wind showed up for the last 3 weeks, we were seeing pretty much the best Wahoo bite we've seen in our area. Swansboro Hole back up toward the Big Rock area seem to be the “Hot Spot”, hard to say now where they might be but I'd think the fish will be more south toward The Rise in the Swansboro area now that the season is getting later. Along with the Hoos, you'll find mixed in Black Fin Tuna and still some late season Sailfish.
Same goes for the bottom fishing, our charter fleet has been getting limits of Grouper on the East Side of the Cape every trip it’s just a matter of getting a weather window to get there. This week, we ran no offshore charters because of the winds, we are hoping this pattern is going to change over the next week or so. We're ready to get back out to the fish before the waters start to cool down too much.
Phone: 252-240-FISH (3474)
709 Atlantic Beach Caseway, Atlantic Beach, NC 28512
