Fishing Report 04/09/2015

 

Registration is now OPEN!!! 

Sign up at the shop or by phone at 252-240-FISH (3474) 

 

 

We're all stocked up on Custom Hand Tied Bucktails, Rigs, Eels, Rods, Reels plus LIVE EELS closer to May. So. anything you need for this COBIA Season – we have you covered!!! 

 

More COBIA were caught this week just Offshore of us, so it wont't be long before we see Mr. Brown Suit making his way to our beaches. 

 

 

 

 

It’s all what we've been waiting for: finally, we are starting to see some good “FISH ACTION”.  This past week we've seen things improve and hopefully things will continue to get even better . It’s time to start catching some FISH. 

 

 

Inshore / Nearshore:

This week, the Sea Mullet fishing has gotten better. Last week, it was mostly small fish but this week we're seeing a better class of fish. Now listen to this, the best schools of Mullets are hanging under the Gray Trout schools. So, the key to catching them is getting your bait past the Gray Trout which has been kind of hard. But that's a good problem because anglers are catching all the Gray Trout you'd want to catch. If you run into that problem you might want to go to a heavier weight in order to get to the bottom quicker where the mullets are. 

 

The best place is in front of the Port area where the majority of fish are holding but I know of some anglers that are catching Gray Trout and Sea Mullets all the way out to the inlet area. Spec-Rigs tipped with Bait Shrimp and Fishbites are working the best. The custom rigs “Sam's Gitters” we have in the shop seem to be working the best out of all the styles we carry. 

 

If you fish an area without any luck move around until you locate them because there're plenty to catch you just might have to move around til you find the schools of fish. With the warm weather and water temperatures on the rise the Sea Mullet fishing is only going to get better and better. Also, anglers bottom fishing in that area are catching plenty of Croakers mixed in on the same rigs.

 

If you're looking for Blow Fish, you might have to move on out along the beach or up toward the Cape to get into them. They seem to being hanging along the beaches. The ones we've seen this week have been some pretty nice ones coming from that area caught on bottom rigs tipped with bait shrimp. 

Tim, from the shop went over on the East Side of the Cape Monday and found all kinds of fish. The 285, D-Wreck, 30 Minute Rock and 1700 Rock had the best action. Also, he caught keeper “Flounder” bringing back 8 of them to the dock, keeper Sea Bass and good numbers of Bluefish. 

 

Capt. Chris went out this week in the same area and caught Albacore, Bonito, Blue Fish and some Big Sea Bass. They both were using Spro Bucktails in the 2oz size tipped with Berkley Gulp 4” Shrimp. Also, squid fished off the bottom worked pretty good plus along with Blue Water Candy Roscoe 2oz Jigs. As far as the Blue Fish, Albacore and Bonito casting to feeding schools with Sea Striker Jig Fish Lures and Stingsilvers got the job done just fine.

There's been some very large Red Drum working the East Beach and around the shoals off the Cape Lookout area. Over the weekend, we did 3 release citations for them that anglers caught. What I'm hearing if you run across them they'll pretty much hit anything. Toss a Spro Bucktail or a Berkley Gulp and you shouldn't get turned down.

 

Also, I heard of some smaller fish being caught out around the Shark Island area. But that too has been hit or miss, you just have to be there at the right time to catch them. I heard of a few being caught in the marsh areas but you have to do a lot of scouting to find the schools. Some of the creeks are holding fish in pretty good numbers. I even talked to a few anglers that fished the Swansboro Marsh area that got some Topwater bites over the last few days. 

A few small Blue Fish have been caught off Cape Point this week on the West Beach. So, if water temperatures keep rising we should see all the Blue Fish that are hanging just off the East Beach of the Cape Lookout start to really move toward us in good numbers along our beaches. Like I said before, both Tim and Capt. Chris reported there's plenty of Blue Fish on the east side just waiting to move over once that water gets a little warmer. 

 

 

Surf / Piers: 

There's been a little more action showing up along the Surf this week. The Oceanana Pier reported these fish being caught this week a few Blue Fish, more Sea Mullet, a few Spot and still some nice Puffers plus plenty of Dog Fish. Most anglers are having the best luck on Bait Shrimp, Squid, Cut Mullet or Finger Mullet fished off the bottom with bottom rigs. I've not heard of any Blue Fish being caught on Got-Cha-Plugs yet but if the weather stays warm like this it wouldn't surprise me to see that in the next week or so. 

 

I talked to one customer that actually caught a keeper Flounder up at the Fort Macon Park over the weekend. Also, there's been a few Red Drum caught of the pier, so like I said last week we'll start to see more and more fish showing up each week now since the water is warming up. 

 

 

 

Offshore: 

The Offshore bite is starting to heat up.  This week, we've been seeing some pretty good action from the Bluewater area. There's been good numbers of Wahoo and Black Fin Tuna caught out around the Big Rock and I heard of some action down toward The Rise. We weighed two citation fish over the 40lb mark this week here at the shop.

 

I know of a boat that had a good day Monday at the Rock trolling Blue Water Candy Jags and Jag Hoo’s in the Purple / Black and Red / Black colors. Medium and Large Ballyhoo is working the best and we have our 2015 order in stock. Along, with everything else the bite will improve each week. I remember by mid-April last year, the bite was just about as good as it gets and by the looks of things now we could see that again. 

 

There's still good bottom action in the 30 to 40 mile range grounds around the 14 Buoy area. Sea Bass, Trigger Fish, B-Liners and even a few nice Cobia starting to show up on the Offshore reefs.

 

I know anglers will be happy once the Grouper Season opens back up on May 1st because what I'm hearing anglers are having to release quite a few and some nice sized ones at that. Cigar Minnows, Mackerel, Squid and Jigs all have been working well for the bottom fish. 

 

 

 

 

Braggin Board: