FISHING REPORT 12/01/2016

 

Hard to believe, we have now made it into December but the fishing is still going strong, some of the best we’ve seen all season. The next few days are looking great to get back on the water since we’ve been dealing with wind and rain this week.

 

Inshore / Nearshore:

Flounder bite’s still going great, we’ve never seen action this late this good, last weekend and early this week anglers were having no problem catching them off the Port Wall. Last week, it was the AR reefs that were so good now this week the wall’s produced more fish.  So, that’s a good sign the reefs will be hot again as we had another push off with the fish starting to move from the inshore waters. Spro 2oz Bucktails tipped with Berkley Gulp 4” Shrimp has been working the best along with some anglers picking up a few fish on Live Mud Minnows.

Speckled Trout fishing still holding strong, we’re seeing more action starting to happen in the Ocean now. Cape Lookout Rock Jetty has been holding good numbers of trout along with some fish starting to be caught at Rough Point and along Shackleford Banks surf zone.  But don’t count out the backwaters, just this week we weighed the largest Speck all year that came out of a creek along the ICW caught on Live Shrimp. Also, we’ve run a few charters in the last week fishing the Core Creek and Haystacks area and still bring back limits of fish to the dock. With the warm weather we’ve had this week once this wind gets out of here today we should see a good bite over the next few days. We still have plenty of Live Shrimp in-stock; along with Live Mud Minnows.

Sea Mullet fishing has been really good over the last week, it took them a while to move in this fall but we’ve seen some nice ones over the last week. Sam, who makes our Sam Gitter’s Spec Rigs, has been catching some of the largest ones he’s seen all year over the last week. Most of the action has been from the Turning Basin back toward the Beaufort Inlet area but some mullets are being caught at the Dead Tree Hole area out in the ocean also. Spec Rigs tipped with Bait Shrimp and Fishbites have been working the best to get some action. Just keep in mind, the key to really catching them is moving around trying different areas, they’re schooled up tight this time of the year so once you locate some fish you can really catch them. Along with the mullet anglers are catching plenty of Gray Trout, Hogfish and starting to catch good numbers of Puffers moving in for the winter.

There’s still plenty of Albacore around the beaches to catch, Cape Lookout area seems to be holding the most fish but we’ve seen some in the last week inside the inlet feeding. So who knows where you might run across schooling fish busting the water. Also, we have started to see some Bull Red Drum schooling along the East Beach and around Cape Lookout, so keep your eyes open. I know of a few anglers that have really caught them earlier this week when the weather was good.

King Mackerel action slowing down around the North West Places, know of a few boats that tried last weekend with not much luck. But the anglers fishing over on the East Side of Cape Lookout have been having some decent action if you hit the right area which has been hard to predict. AR 285, Atlas Tanker, 1700 Rock and a few areas off Drum Inlet has been producing some Kings. If you’re over on the East Side fishing be prepared to see some very large Wahoo, we weighed quite a few from the King boats this past week and some weighing in at 70lbs which is a pretty good fight on King Mackerel gear.

 

Piers / Surf:

Well, the season has come to a close for the Pier anglers being both the Oceanana and Bogue have closed the doors for the season, they will be back open sometime early 2017 spring.  So, now you have to fish the beach to find some action. Been kind of slow as not many anglers have been fishing but we are starting to see some Speckled Trout along the Surf Zone. Just this past week Shackleford Banks has been holding some fish so there’s a pretty good chance there’s some fish holding between Oceanana Pier back toward Fort Macon Park.  Also, we’re still seeing a few fish being caught at Radio Island Beach, not as hot as it was back a month ago but some anglers are still catching limits of fish fishing the right tides.

 

Offshore:

Well, finally we had some good weather last weekend for some boats to get out and brought back some Wahoo and Blackfin Tuna, now we wait until another good weather window to get back out which we haven’t seen this week.

Bottom fishing has been great with the Trigger Fish, Sea Bass, Snappers and Grouper; it’s kind of the same deal just need a good weather window to make it out.  Most of the action has been East of Cape Lookout on offshore in the 20 to 30 mile range.  The bottom fish really get schooled up this time of the year going into winter making for some great fishing when you get a good weather window.

 

 

Braggin Board