Fishing Report 07/31/2014

 

NO DEAD LINE TO SIGN UP !!!

 

Current: 1st Place –  Ray Williams 9.24lbs

 

 

NO DEAD LINE TO SIGN UP !!!

 

Current: 1st Place – Daniel Riggan 4.82lbs 

 

Current: 1st Place –  Adam Tosto 5.73lb

 

 

 

 

Inshore:

 

This week, we had north winds plus a nice cold front came through.  It seems that it's fired the Spanish fishing back up over the last few days. There's been a good bite in the Shipping Channel for the trolling boats. The other day there was glass minnows as far as you could see and Spanish along with Blue Fish have moved into that area to feed.

 

Plus I heard of a few being caught down the beach toward the Oceanana Pier this week. Most of the boats trolling Clark Spoons, Bird Rigs, Squid Rigs and Mackerel Trees are producing good catches. The bigger Spanish are still holding around AR 315 in good numbers. The key is to be out there early and have Live Finger Mullet, We have been keeping a pretty good stock of Live Finger Mullet if you want to try your luck fishing for the big ones. Also, we have the “Mini Live Mullet Rigs” ready to go for action.

Sheepshead fishing has been good this week and last weekend with some fish over that 8lb mark coming into the shop. I talked to one customer that has been catching very good numbers all week. The Port Area, High Rise Bridges and Docks are all producing fish. Really, any pier or wall area you can find you have a very good chance right now of getting on some action. Live Sea Urchins and Live Fiddler Crabs are both working well and we do have both in-stock.

I'm still hearing of some good Red Fish action in the marsh areas around Core Creek, the Haystacks, Neuse River and down Bouge Sound towards Swansboro. The Top Water bite has been good fishing with Spook Jr’s, Rapala Skitter Walks, Mirrolure Top Dogs and She Dogs.  Gulp Baits, Gold Spoons and Redfish Magic’s are working good also. For a better shot of action fish a Popping Cork with a Live Mud Minnow around the grass edges and oyster bars. 

 

I've heard of a few Old Drum showing up but the numbers haven't moved in yet. I'm thinking over the next few weeks we are going to start seeing quite a bit of activity in the river.

Speckled Trout has been hit or miss over the last week. We haven't seen many as most of them have moved into the Neuse River. But I talked with a customer that caught 15 or so around the Haystacks last weekend and most were keeper fish. The Top Water bite has been pretty good early in the mornings for some nice size fish. Hopefully, these fish will stay around so we'll have a good fall bite coming up.

King Mackerel fishing is getting better as I've heard of a few being caught this week in the Shipping Channel by anglers trolling for Spanish. Then this past Sunday, we weighed in a 40lb King that was caught on a Dead Cigar Minnow caught in the Shipping Channel. There's been a few around the artificial reefs caught also.  

Shark fishing has been pretty good with good numbers of Spinner Sharks along the beach and some Lemon Sharks that have moved in around the Radio Island area. If you want something exciting a Spinner Shark can really be a cool fish to catch since it likes to jump. Also, we have started to see some of the Shrimp Trawlers showing up off the beach this week. When they get out there working off the beach we get massive schools of sharks that swim in behind the boats feeding becoming easy to catch. 

 

 

Piers / Surf:

The most action we're seeing is Sharks and plenty of them. The Oceanana Pier area has had some good numbers of sharks around it and some good sized ones to boot. Also, up at Fort Macon there's been some good sized Sharks caught too. Most of them have been too big for anglers to land unless they come toward the beach and are able to walk them up on the beach.

 

We've seen some keeper Flounder caught off the Oceanana Pier right along the Surf Zone. The best bait has been Live Mud Minnows for the keeper fish. There's been a few Spanish and Blues caught off the pier but we're still waiting for the water to get clear for them to really move in.

 

As far as the bottom there has been a few Red Drum, Black Drum, Pompano, Sea Mullets and Spots caught. There isn't any big numbers of any of these just a mixed bag. Fresh Shrimp, Squid, Mullet, Bloodworms and Sand Fleas all have been working for some action. 

 

 

Offshore:

Well, last week we started to see our Wahoo Season kick off. Some boats came in with limits last weekend and this week it's continued. This is just the start of the action as last year during late August and September it was on fire as far as Wahoo fishing.

 

We're still seeing some action from Dolphin but it’s getting late in the summer now, so they've been very scattered and most of them now are bailer size.

 

Last weekend, we started to see some Sail Fish coming close to the beach.  The bottom fishing has been good with Grouper, Snapper, Trigger Fish, Sea Bass, Amber Jacks, Cobia and Grunts. The majority of the action has been been in the 30 mile out range for the good numbers of fish. Last weekend was the last open days for the American Red Snapper Season, so this weekend you can't keep them. But, the few weekends it was open we saw some nice fish come to the docks.

 

 

 

 

Braggin Board:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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