FISHING REPORT 09/28/2017

 

It’s hard to believe September has come and gone and we’re into the fall season now, or I guess you could say some of the best fishing of the year.  We hope and pray all the storms are behind us now, as some cooler air is on the forecast. So hard to believe how much destruction Harvey, Irma and Maria caused in just a few weeks, so please keep all of those who were in the path of these storms in your prayers, they still have a long road to go to get their lives back to normal.

 

Inshore / Nearshore:

This past week, we have started to see our first signs of Sea Mullet move into the inlet area. Sam, that makes our custom Spec Rigs found some nice fish in the inlet area last weekend before the blow and swell moved in. He didn’t find any huge numbers of fish but caught some fish in just a few hours of fishing; he did mention that the fish he caught were nice size.  Also, with the Sea Mullets we are seeing some great Gray Trout action that was some of the issue last week on catching the mullets because just about every drop a 2lb Gray Trout would be on the line.

Since, we’re talking about the bottom feeders in the area we can’t leave out the Spots; we’re now starting to see some move into our area. The Beaufort Draw Bridge and Gallant’s Channel has been the best area, if schools of fish keep moving south that I’m hearing about in VA we should have one of the best runs we’ve seen in a long time. A customer called me this week that lives along the VA coast and he was telling me he’s never seen so many Spots like he has seen in the last few weeks, so let’s keep our fingers crossed they are going to be showing up in big numbers any day.

We haven’t seen much Spanish action this week, not because the fish aren’t here just been dealing with a huge swell rolling in making it not safe to get out in the ocean. Today things are starting to look good again and the forecast looks good for the weekend to get back out in the ocean so I’m sure the fish will be in the same areas from our last week’s report.  Over the next few days the water should start to clear up and fish should be biting well after this swell passes.  Also, you’ll find plenty of Bluefish in the mix along with the Spanish in the same areas.

Some Albacore has shown up in our area, Capt. Nick from the shop found some good action at the AR reefs last week. Also, a few schools were spotted up around the Cape Lookout area, look for the birds or shrimp boats working along the beaches and you’ll find the fish.

King Mackerel fishing was decent last weekend, still not seeing that great fall bite we’re known for but it’s still a little early. Looks like last week’s tournament around 37 fish were weighed and a 44lb fish won the event.  We did see some fish start to show up at North West places, talked to a few customers that caught some fish in that area in some decent numbers.  Already this morning, reports are there are schools of Menhaden working along the beach, so that means one thing fish aren’t too far behind.  

Speckled Trout fishing is getting better and better, seeing some good limits of fish from the area. Some of our charter fleet found great action last weekend not too far from the shop. It looks like we’re going to see some 60’s over the next few nights which should really fire up the bite. The Haystacks, Core Creek, all the rivers and Bouge Sound already are holding some good fish and it should only get better.  I have a feeling once this cool air arrives fish will start showing up on some of the rock jetties. We have been stocking the store full of lures, if we don’t have trout tackle this fall you don’t need it. We just received a shipment of some custom Mirrolures we had made that are going to be fish killers. Also, we’ll have plenty of Live Shrimp and Live Minnows on hand for all the “Live Bait” anglers. If you’re going Speckled Trout fishing Live Shrimp is always a good thing to have in the boat as it can make a huge difference.

We are still seeing great Redfish action in the marsh areas, the Haystacks and Core Creek area is producing good numbers of fish. It’s not been uncommon over the last few weeks to go out and catch 20 or more Reds a trip. I already got back a report today from one of our charter fleet guys already catching 10 or more.  I’m kind of curious to see if the Old Drum is still in the river after this last storm, they were there last weekend so I can’t imagine all them left, just too many fish up there this year. But we are getting toward the tail end of the season because they’ll be heading back toward the ocean very soon.

 

Piers/Surf:

Not too much action this week from the Surf Zone unless you like to surf, since we’ve been seeing huge swells. You know it’s rolling in when they close the piers because of the waves hitting the bottom. But even with the rough surf some surf anglers were catching a few fish; most anglers have been fishing on the back side of Fort Macon and finding some luck on Red Drum and Black Drum. Looks like today the surf’s back down, so this weekend anglers will be able to get on the beach to catch some fish. Pier anglers should be able to get back to catching some Spanish and Bluefish off the end of the piers on plugs. Also, you should be able to catch a few Spanish and Bluefish off the point at Fort Macon on the higher tides feeding on the mullet running down the beaches.

 

Offshore: 

ffshore:A few boats made it out last weekend between swells and found again good action on the Wahoo’s and even found some good Dolphin action. The Swansboro Hole back up toward the Big Rock still seems to be the best area to find fish.  We sent a bottom boat out last weekend on a bottom trip and produced some decent fishing, Sea Bass, Tigger Fish and a few Snappers. Grouper fishing was not all that great, they only caught a few. The swell has had the bottom ground dirty which makes the Grouper fishing tough. Hopefully, we won’t see any more storms so the water will clear back up quick and anglers can get back to catching some Grouper. Bottom line the fish is out there, we just need to get some weather patterns to get out there and catch them.

 

 

Braggin Board: