Fishing Report 09/26/2019

 

Well, we are officially into FALL at Atlantic Beach and the Fishing is already off the charts from Inshore, Surf and Offshore. The weather’s been great the last two weeks and it’s looks like we have another perfect weekend coming up to get out on the water and catch some fish.

 

Inshore:

The Speckled Trout bite’s been off the charts for us this past week, every trip we’ve ran customers are catching limits and releasing back way more than we are keeping. Yesterday’s trip, the party was ready to come in at 10am because they had caught so many. As far as where the fish have been, it’s really been all over the place. From what we’re seeing and with talking to customers anywhere you’ve caught trout before in the fall more than likely fish are still there. The Haystacks area has been producing fish, on up Core Creek all the way out into the Neuse River. Down the sound also has been good with fish from AB down to the Swansboro area. One of our boats even caught a few trout at the Cape Lookout Rock Jetty and Shackleford Banks Jetty this week which is way early. Usually, we don’t see trout show up on the rock jetties until later into the fall when the water gets cooler. Z-Man Plastics: Minnows, Jerk Shads and Shrimp all have been working great. Also, High Water Lures Get Em Shads and Berkley Gulp Shrimp, Jerk Shads, Swimming Minnows all have been working well. Mostly, we’ve been fishing these under the High-Water Popping Corks which have been one of the best corks we’ve found to use. The Mirrolure fishing hasn’t kicked into high gear yet being the water’s still pretty warm and the fish are still pretty active. Also, we’ve been having good luck with “LIVE” Shrimp and Minnows when we’ve been finding fish in deeper water around the ICW area and we do have both in-stock at the shop. One thing about it’s rare when a Speckled Trout turns down a Live Shrimp. So, if you like to catch Speckled Tout now’s the time and we should see it continue right into the winter, we are just getting started.

Last week, we started seeing our first signs of Sea Mullet showing up in the Turning Basin area. We have seen a few nice catches this week caught at the 18 and 19 Buoys. From what we’re seeing they have just now started to move in the inlet so we should see more and more as the days go on. Local made Sam’s Gitter Spec Rigs and some fresh bait shrimp from the shop is all you need to catch these tasty fall fish. Along with the Mullets showing up there’s been all the Gray Trout you can stand to catch in the inlet area.

I’ve been getting a ton of calls asking if the Spots have shown up yet, we haven’t seen the run start yet in our area. Now, just south of us around the Surf City area they’ve been filling coolers full all week long. So, we’re in hopes we could see some fish anytime as those fish come up the beach to us; we also have been getting reports of lots of fish in VA area. So, as of now we are right in the middle of two spots runs going on, so if we don’t see a good run this year it will blow our mind. We do have Live Bloodworms and Fishbite Bloodworms in-stock ready to go when the fish make their showing.

The King Mackerel fishing has been a little off since the hurricane, we only weighed two fish last weekend. I guess we will know what’s really out there after this weekend because we have two big tournaments going on both Saturday and Sunday. It will be interesting to see what happens with the bite, usually this time of the year there’s plenty of Kings around. North West Places should be kicking off any day now, we have weighed a few fish from there over the last week. We do have Cigar Minnows in-stock at the shop ready for the Fall King Mackerel bite to fire back up.

The Spanish Mackerel bite has been a lot better than the King Mackerel, but they also haven’t been as thick as we like to see. But we have been catching them pretty good this past week. Plus, we’ve been seeing most of the fish are right along the beaches and around the inlets area. The trolling bite has been kind of tough, but you still can pick up fish trolling Clarkspoons and Bowed- Up Lures. But we are having the best luck casting the Spanish Candies at schooling fish.

Albacore made a showing this week up around the Cape Lookout area last week. Now I’m not a 100% sure with the summer like weather that we’ve had this week they will stay along the beaches or push back off the beach. More than likely they’ll stay close in as long as the bait stays. Along with the Albacore there’s been all the Bluefish you want to catch out there. All around the Beaufort Inlet areas and around the Cape Lookout area. Again, we’ve been having the best luck casting Spanish Candies to the schooling fish and we just got a huge order of the Hogy Heavy Jigs that most all Albacore fisherman love to have in their box. You can stay off the fish with these plugs since they will throw a mile.

Old Drum bite still going strong in the Neuse River, really some of the best fishing we’ve had all season on these beasts. By what we’ve seen this week and last week we should see these fish stay right into October. Usually, they’re getting ready to start making their way out of the river and back to the ocean but these fish seem to be just getting going. We’ve been finding fish still way up the river so they’re far from getting ready to move out. The Popping Cork fishing has been exceptional this week, just about as good as it gets. We’ve been having the best luck with the big High-Water Popping Corks; they are way tougher than the Blabber Mouth Corks. Don’t get me wrong the Blabber Mouth Corks are killers but we have been very impressed with these High Water Corks this season so far. Z-Man Swimmer and Diesel Minnows have even been working great for us along with the DOA Airheads. Also, the guys night fishing is having very good luck with good numbers of fish being caught. We’ve been getting fresh mullet in so hopefully; tomorrow we will get another load in for the weekend.

The smaller Redfish bite also has been pretty good in the area, we’re seeing tons and tons of fish just under the slot size. If all these fish stay around till next year, we should have some really good fishing from the Red Drum in the Marsh areas and rivers. Not sure where all these small fish came from but they are here. So, we are hoping for a warm winter to keep this class of fish here for next spring because we haven’t seen all that many upper slot fish this season. Mainly, we’ve been catching them on the same lures as the Speckled Trout. Something else, we’ve been seeing a lot of has been the Black Drum. The docks and bridges along the waterways have been loaded down with nice keeper size Black Drum. Most anglers have been catching them with our fresh bait shrimp and live shrimp fished right on the bottom.  We also have been catching plenty of Sheepshead in the same areas as the Blacks, but the best bait is Fiddler Crabs and Sea Urchins for them on the docks and bridges.

 

Piers / Surf:

Few anglers already seeing some nice Speckled Trout from the Piers and Surf Zone. Last week, the Oceanana Pier had some really nice trout caught at night. Live Shrimp seems to be the best way to catch the ones in the ocean but a few have been catching them on soft plastics too.

We didn’t see many Spanish and Blues working the beach right after the storm passed but seems this week the fish have shown back up along the Surf Zone for anglers to catch. Customers have been coming by the shop buying Spanish Candies and telling me the Mackerel are eating them up.

The bottom anglers have been seeing a mix of some nice Sea Mullets, Pompano, Red Drum and Black Drum. Most are waiting on the Spot run to start and like I said up top in the inshore report they are catching them like crazy in Surf City off the piers and surf so it could be any day when we see the run start for our area.

 

Offshore:

Wahoo bite is just about as “Hot” as it gets anywhere in the country right now, boats have been seeing numbers up to 20 fish a boat with plenty of 40’s and some in the 60’s. Last week, this good bite started and it’s only got better going into this week. Most of the action has been south around the Swansboro Hole area, but we have heard and weighed fish as far north as the North East corner of the Big Rock. Lures it’s been pretty simple Sea Witches rigged up on wire, Islander Jr’s, Saillures rigged up with Baitmaster Ballyhoo. For lures without having to use bait Nomad DTX Minnows and Big Nic Dinner Bells have been working great. We have these lures at the shop and custom Sea Witches rigged up on wire ready to fish and they have been working great. With the Wahoo, anglers also are seeing a few nice Dolphin, Tuna and Sailfish in the mix but mostly it’s been Wahoo and more Wahoo.

Bottom fishing has been good; we have been running a few bottom trips and the captains are having no problem at all filling limits of Sea Bass, Trigger-fish, Snappers and Grunts. Grouper fishing has been really good over the last two weeks, we’ve had no problem filling limits on every trip.