FISHING REPORT 08/08/2019

 

Inshore: 

Flounder fishing still remains good in the area. Again, we're having our best luck on the inside waters. We've ran a few Flounder trips this week and all boats came back with fish. A couple boats came back with a 3 man limit of fish and turned some back. Also, on our trips we've been seeing lots of 12 to 13″ fish all in the sounds and rivers. In the inside waters, we've seen the best action around the Port area, Docks, Rocks and anything else a fish can hide on. Even seen some good catches coming from the marsh creeks in the Haystacks, Middle Marsh and North River areas. Best action has been on Live Mullet and Live Mud Minnows we have at the shop. Also, catching a few on Gulp Baits and Get Em Shads in the shallower water areas. 

 
Along with the good inside fishing, the Ocean bite has fired back up over the last week. We've had a few customers stop back by the shop with some nice catches from the AR Reefs. Fishing the old stand by Spro 2oz Bucktails tipped with Gulp 4” White Shrimp, just hard to beat that combo when it comes to the reefs off the beach. Along with some anglers using Live Mullet and Mud Minnows. Always a good idea to have a minnow on the bottom when you're jigging just opens the door up for another bite. 

Spanish Mackerel bite has fired back over the last two weeks, last week and this week we've been seeing plenty to catch. Some of the best action has been out around AR 315 and up around Cape Lookout area. Crazy enough, we had one boat yesterday catch some Dolphin while trolling up at the Cape Lookout area. We are having luck trolling Clarkspoons, Bowed Up Spoons on #1 Planers and #2 Planers. Plus, along with still seeing good numbers casting the Spanish Candies Jigs, just look for schooling fish at the reefs and around the inlet areas. Also, there's been a decent bite on the larger fish at the reefs this week, slow trolling Live Mullet Minnows from the shop and we've seen a few caught on Cigar Minnows fishing Dead Bait Rigs. 

Old Drum season is getting into full swing, plenty of fish have made their showing in the Neuse River. Night anglers have just started to fish for them. Capt. Joe that works at the shop is a good one to come and talk to if you want to night fish. He's done it all his life and can point you in the right direction or anyone at the shop can.  We now are stocking Fresh Mullet; we get it right from the fisherman so it can’t get any fresher. But what we've seen so far it's the “Popping Cork” game over the last week or so getting the most action and fish. We are all stocked up on what you need to catch fish. 

 
These trophy fish are one of our favorites around the shop for sure; you know when you travel all the way to Louisiana to target Bull Redfish you kind of have an addiction. The slot Redfish have still been hit or miss for us, just not that many around for some reason so far this year. One day we'll get into them good the next day they'll disappear for a few days. It’s kind of odd when our charters are bringing back more Speckled Trout that Red Drum in the summer. But the marshes are starting to fill up with bait now so usually August – November is when we see the most fish anyway, so still plenty of time to have a good Red Drum season. Just this week, one of our boats found a nice school of fish and left them biting so that is a very good sign for us. 
Not much has changed over the last week on the Speckled Trout fishing it still remains good. Most of the ones, we've been catching on our trips still have been in 5 to 15' of water mostly around docks and rocks in the ICW. Also, been catching some fish on the deeper grass edge banks along the waterways. Most of all the fish has been caught on Live Bait with slip corks, when the water gets hot like this it's just hard to beat Live Bait. 
 
Now, we have been catching some on Top-water Lures but it's been early in the morning right at first light. Once, the sun gets up these fish move off the flats back into the deeper water. But, if you can find a bottom, with grass growing on it the trout seem to hang longer on that with some just staying all day. Grass usually means bait, places to hide and more oxygen making a happy home for the trout. The 'High Water Get Em Shads” we have in the shop have been producing pretty good this week on the grass flats, can't wait to see what this plastic is going to do this fall. 

Again, we put a few nice King Mackerels back on our scales this week with the largest at 40lbs and we also weighed a few 30lb fish. Most of the Kings we’ve weighed have came from the East Side of the Cape Lookout area. But, I did hear from a customer the other day that caught some nice Kings at AR315 while trying to catch Spanish. Along with some fish showing up in the Shipping Channel to catch. Slow trolling Live Baits or Dead Cigar Minnows on Mac a Hoo’s, which we now have, some custom colors in-stock just for our shop that’s been working great and Dead Bait Rigs, which have been working great this season so far. We do have some Cigar Minnows in stock at the shop. The bite should only get better and better as we moved into fall. 

Sheepshead fishing still remains up and down, for sure not seeing the numbers of fish we've seen in the past. But the anglers fishing for them are catching them. All the same places are still producing fish. Bridges, Port Wall, Docks and Rock Jetties. Live Fiddler Crabs and Live Sea Urchins are still the bait of choice and we do have them in stock.

We did see few nice catches of Gray Trout back around the inlet area this past week, some fish were in the 3lb range. Also, even seen a few Sea Mullet mixed in, We should start to see more and more mullets and once we get into September we should start seeing our fall run start along with the Spots showing back up before they move south. The local custom-made Sam Gitters is our number one choice when bottom fishing in the basin and channel back toward the inlet area. If there are some bottom feeders to catch these rigs will do it time after time. 

 

Piers / Surf: 

Seeing a few Spanish and Bluefish early and late in the day while plugging Gotcha-Plugs. Reports are Flounder, Sheepshead, Mullets, Hog Fish, Croakers and Spot being caught also not really a lot of any of these just a good mix from the piers. 

From the Surf – anglers are catching Flounder, Mullets, Sharks, Skates, Blues, Pompano, Red Drum and Black Drum. We're in the heat of summer and there isn't anything running so it’s going to be a mixed bag. You really don’t know what you might catch. Bait Shrimp, Mullet, Squid, Bloodworms and Sand Fleas would all be good choices for bait. Fishing off the bottom will be the best bet. Also, if you are fishing from the Surf keep your eyes open on the higher tides, the Spanish and Bluefish will come right along the beach to feed. Having a “Spanish Candy” ready on a rod is never a bad idea so you don’t miss out on dinner if they start feeding right in front of you. 

 

Offshore: 

Still been hit or miss in the Bluewater, but we did see some gaffer Dolphin come in from the Fleet at the Morehead docks over the last few days. Not sure what’s going on with that, maybe fish are starting to move back down. The Bailer Dolphin are being caught right now but you have to be in the right place at the right time to catch them. I've heard of fish from the 90ft Drop, 14 Buoy, North West Places, Atlas Tanker, Big 10 & Little 10. In the summer time mode and the water being hot, they could be anywhere. 

 
We also saw a few very nice Wahoo coming in this week, but nothing crazy. Most boats have had anywhere from 1 to 3 fish. Still a little early for limits of Hoos hitting the docks but we're not far off. Most of what we're hearing the best Dolphin bite has been if you can find some grass lines. But ,we're ready for the Wahoo season to kick off; we just got a new shipment sent up from our friends at Baistmaster in Florida, so we are set for the fall offshore bite. 

We ran a few bottom trips last week with good success on Groupers, Trigger Fish, Sea Bass and Snappers. Most of the action has been over on the East Side: Atlas Tanker and the 1700 Rock would be good places to start looking. We weighed some huge Grouper at the shop this past week from the bottoms a little south of us, so that area also is holding good fish.

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