A tale of two beaches – mid-December report

Been too long…sorry; the internet fishing has been slooooow since Turkey Day, but the on-ground fishing has been better.  Let’s start with the basics.  Water temps are ranging from about 50 north at Duck to the upper 50s, south.  The sound is holding at around 50, but this is much more dependent on the day/week’s weather and winds.  After a cool October, November and December have been unseasonably warm and the El Nino-influenced forecast suggests continued above-average temperatures.

To synopsize North Carolina’s current surf fishing report, the fishing at the Outer Banks (VA state line down through Cape Lookout) has sucked and the fishing in SENC (everything south of Lookout) has been excellent.

The surf on the north beaches of the OBX (north of Cape Hatteras) has generally been rough and dirty in December.  Reports have been scarce.  There had been a good trout bite, with Kitty Hawk Pier singled out a few times, but with the water temps down to nearly 50 now, it will take a warm up, along with improved surf conditions, to get the trouts to bite again.  The OBX south of the Cape had a decent run of small trout in late November, but it’s slowed since.  A few keeper trout have been caught in Buxton over the past week or so. The south beaches of Hatteras Island did report an excellent bite of blowtoads and there have been a few keeper flounder coming from the inlet area.  The only other reports have been of stripers – the sound seems to have been fishing fairly well.  I heard of a 32 pounder caught around the old Mann’s Harbor Bridge, which is an absolute monster there.  Live eels will snare the larger fish.  There’s also been a few reports of jumbo stripers in and around Oregon Inlet.  My sense is that not many people are putting forth the effort, but there are definitely some fish around and, weather-depending, the northern OBX may get some nice slugs of Chesapeake fish as we move into winter.  Reports from VA indicate that the striper fishing is really beginning to heat up, with big fish staging near the mouth of the Bay.  Although there had been a good run of big drum at the Point in the October/November timeframe, drum (puppy and larger) action in the surf has been unusually slow this year.

The trout fishing in SENC has been excellent.  Still tons of spikes, but enough keepers and nice fish to keep things interesting.  There are no hotspots to report, because the fish are all over.  I’ve been able to work one or two holes all season with consistent action – makes life easy!  My last excursion – a daytrip last Wed/Thurs – found the water temps down a couple degrees and the fish more bunched up.  I was a bit disappointed that there were still many – if not more – small fish than earlier in the season, but I also managed my largest speck of the year – a 23″, 4# trout that hit my trusty purple demon mirrolure at night.  I’ve also heard of some good catches of big sea mullet in the surf.  Inside, stripers have been getting a fair amount of press in SENC.  The New Bern area has been particularly good for nice school sized fish.  From Lookout, there have been good catches of trout from the jetty, with both specks tight to the rocks and nice gray trout a little further out.  On the other hand, the false albacore fishing was really tough this year; got off to a pretty good start, but then really fell out for the last few weeks of the guide season.

Along the rest of the mid-Atlantic coast, the big news has been a great run of stripers in central Jersey, centered in the Island Beach State Park area.  The fish have been keyed in on sand eels and thin metal (think Ava) and wood/plastic (think needlefish) cast from the outer bars have been scoring best.  Lots of keepers have been caught every day for weeks and there are indications that some bigger fish are on their way down.

Get on out there!

The water was muddy this morning, but seems to be clearing up nicely on the northern OBX beaches this afternoon.  Check out the Real Time Surf Images.  Should be some nice trout available this afternoon, tonight and tomorrow.  Go get em!

September weather, November fish

Can’t beat that, can ya?

Sarah and I decided to hit the beach last weekend, with confidence in the exceptional short-term forecast, rather than embarking on our more traditional – but less weather confident – Thanksgiving weekend excursion.  A bird in hand is better than two in the bush, I said.  Well, turns out that this Thanksgiving weekend is shaping up very nicely with a cold front today and tomorrow followed by nice high pressure Fri-Sun.  But I digress.  This post is about last weekend.   What can I say – the weather was great and the fishing was pretty darn good as well.

I challenged Sarah to be hardcore: “I used to wake up at 2 am so that I could be on the beach before first light,” I told her.  We compromised and I set the alarm for 6 am, but snoozed till closer to 7.  We arrived in the Wilmington area around 10:30; a full one-quarter of our most reliable possible fishing times (Saturday sunrise, Saturday sunset, Sunday sunrise, Sunday sunset) wasted.  I guess I am just not as hardcore as I used to be, but with the trout creel limit down to four, I still liked my chances to fill up during the sunset/night bite.

We started off bottom fishing the surf at Fort Fisher.  Conditions seemed pretty nice, fishing with seafood market (i.e., fresh!) shrimp top of the rising tide in a nice hole in front of an old wreck, in breezy/choppy surf.  We ended up only landing one nice, 14″ sea mullet before we split for a big lunch to prepare for the main event: late afternoon/evening trouting.  We arrived to our evening spot to find small blues chomping on glass minnows.  Some people consider the small blues simply a nuisance, but to me they are usually a welcome sight indicating lots of bait in the water, good feeding conditions and the likelihood of plenty of leftovers for less aggressive fish species when the sun goes down.  Although it took a while, the trout moved in after dark and the action was very good on a mixed class of fish ranging from about 15″ to 4 pounds.  I landed 6 (released two) and we were given one.  Sarah had one on and then landed a small blue and a monster sized hogfish, both released.

Sunday was positively gorgeous – proverbially “too nice” for fishing.  Indeed the action was much slower, but I eeked out three nice trout between the morning and evening sessions.  Overall, a real fun weekend and we were able to get a good start on filling the freezer for the winter.

14″ sea mullet and specks to almost 4 pounds

artsy fish pix

Sunday, lovely Sunday

Sunday evening’s catch: quality over quantity

butter and garlic – the old standby

bon appetit!

First, second and third-hand reports 11/15/2011

First hand, first.

I hit the Topsail/Wrightsville area Sunday afternoon and evening, during a window of favorable winds this past weekend.  First the good news – the beaches are loaded up with beautiful soft structure – seems like there is a cut every 100 yards of so along the beach.  At Topsail anyway, these are definitely high tide holes, as they are nearly exposed at low tide, but perfectly setup around high.  On the not-so-good side, the beachfront was fairly lifeless.

I found a couple of small schools of tiny blues and tinier jacks in a few of the sloughs on south Topsail Island during the afternoon and could see groups of small sea mullet scurrying along the bottom in the wash.  They would hit fresh shrimp when I would tip my tandem speck jig, but were too small to hook.  I made quick scouting stops at a couple likely locations further up the beach around sunset but didn’t find any action.  Piers looked slow as well.

After dark, I was able to coax up a couple respectable trout in the 17-18″ range.  However, the action was slow: besides a small blue that ran off with my purple demon mirrolure, those were the only hits I had in several hours of high-falling tide fishing.  Oh, I did have one more hit – by a rouge wave that knocked me down.  The bad thing about the great, warm fishing weather – wasn’t wearing a dry top and got soaked.  The good thing – I was able to keep fishing without freezing my butt off!

Moving on to the second and third-hand reports, when the weather has been favorable, the trout fishing has been excellent.  Most of the surf reports have been coming from mid-coast, north, but the southeastern beaches are starting to pick up as well.  Tons of shorts, but good numbers of nice keepers, with no apparent rhyme or reason as to which you may find where.  Select for the larger fish by using bigger baits – mirrolures, grubs with longer tails, etc.  Usually, though, its just a matter of sticking it out, sorting through the dinks to get a few nice fish.  Could be worse.  Note that the trout limit has decreased to 4 fish at 14″ or larger per day.  My personal preference would be for a higher creel and a larger minimum size (say 16″), but I can live with this.

In other surf fishing news, still lots of black drum around although most are pan-sized.  Again though, you have a reasonable chance of hooking a 2-10 pounder — these are great fighters and perfect eating size.  Sadly, the bluefish have really shrunk.  Most locations along the coast are reporting only microblues in the surf.  Unless the big choppers hit the beach, we are probably going to be stuck with these minis.  If you do get into a school, don’t be discouraged too soon – try jigging a heavy metal lure or jig/grub under the school or right after the school passes, bigger, more desirable fish are often feeding on the scraps.

Despite my first-hand experience above, there have been good catches of nice-sized sea mullet, with excellent reports coming out of Wrightsville in particular.  But all the beaches are having runs.  Some big blowtoads have been mixed in as well.  Still a trickle of pompano from the far southeastern beaches but they are just about gone.  Spanish have been gone for weeks.

There’s been some nice flounder landed at Hatteras Inlet this week and puppy drum seem to be scattered all over the coast.  Some nice gray trout are showing at the Cape Lookout rock jetty and few are being caught here and there in the surf.  Last but not least, there have been some reports of respectable striper fishing inshore, with a trickle of big surf fish showing up, mostly around Oregon Inlet northward.  The biggest I’ve heard of was a 35 pounder, but most being caught are near or just under legal (28″).

Water temps are holding in the 60s along most of the coast, from about 60-even north to the mid-upper 60s down the beach and along some of the south facing shorelines.  This week, we’ve got increasing SW winds (will the big drum show back up?), a cold front Thursday and then a picture perfect weekend forecast.

One fish, two fish…

…bluefish, bluefish.  Sometimes one, sometimes two at a time on my tandem trout rig.

Started out this morning in the same slough as yesterday.  Real nice surf conditions, but the weather quickly deteriorated with showers and an increasing N/NE wind that approached a gale by later morning.  The slough was slow, with just a couple hits and a 14″ flounder to show for upwards of two hours of daybreak fishing.  Since the tide/current were in free-fall, I decided to check out Ocracoke Inlet and started getting sharp strikes on every cast into the oceanside rip.  Eventually this evolved into a full out fish (or two) on every cast bluefish bite, complete with birds working at times.  The fish were small with many in the 8-10″ range, but I scraped out a near-limit of 12-14-inch fish before taking a break from which I couldn’t motivate my soggy ass to return.  Nice fishing given the conditions!

 

Great morning

It’s calmed down and the weather is great.  Still a bit of a swell but nice conditions for both bait and lures.  Had some good action starting around sunup for a couple hours.  Throw back and nice keeper trout and puppy drum, along with scattered small flounder and bluefish – that would constitute the Ocracoke surf slam!  Photos and more updates later…gotta fish hard today; ‘nother blow starts tomorrow!

 

Better than nothing

Fished the rising tide north of Ramp 59 and had a little action near the top of the tide, with a couple micro-blues (8 inchers) and a nice blowtoad.  Conditions were decent – breezy with a swell, but pretty easy to hold bottom.  The water looked good and drummy, but alas there were no drum to be had.  In the afternoon, we headed south and worked a nice slough and a nice hole with soft plastics.  Landed one short flounder and had what felt like a few more hits.

South Point sunset

South Point at dusk

Here comes the bride…

Ones and zeros

11-01-11 and zero fish at Ocracoke on day 1 of the post-wedding fishing trip (or is it called a “honeymoon”).  Fished most of the afternoon falling tide right at the South Point.  Some good birdplay a couple hundred yards off the beach.  Windy with lots of current.  Today looks better…will try to get some morning rising tide fishing in and may explore up north.  More later…

Weekly report – October 26, 2011

Water temperatures are ranging from the mid 60s to the low 70s.  Winds have been a factor (when are they not?) but fall fishing is moving along pretty steadily.  This past weekend felt like fall and it sounds like the fishing felt like fall too.

The most surprisingly good news is a very strong showing of speckled trout from the northern Outer Banks.  Lots of shorts but also good numbers of nice 2-4 pounders…it looks like last fall’s shorts thrived and grew up.  Great news.  We can just hope the pattern continues through the fall and spills over to Hatteras Island south.  The fish have been coming from the usual surf spots north of Oregon Inlet, as well as from some popular soundside locations, including the Little Bridge, Green Island Slough and Bodie Island Light.  Trout fishing has picked up from locales further south too, mostly in the back and around the inlets, but some fish are spilling out to the surf zone as well.

Lots of black drum from the surf north of Oregon Inlet last week, along with a few pompano, nice sea mullet and spot.  Bluefish are all over the beaches and especially inlets and there are fish of almost all sizes being report, with a good showing of 3-5 pounders – great on light tackle and great on the table.  Drum fishing has also been solid from the North Beaches and Cape Point has been hot with dozens of slot to large fish most days/nights.  False albacore action at Cape Lookout has been hot and cold – usually a function of the wind and snottiness of the seas.  Striper fishing is picking up inside with decent reports coming from the northern bridges and some very good reports from the lower Neuse.

Can anyone say “mullet blow”?

This should be a doozy…how’s my schedule for next week???

 

S OF OREGON INLET TO CAPE HATTERAS NC OUT 20 NM-S OF CAPE HATTERAS TO OCRACOKE INLET NC OUT 20 NM INCLUDING THE MONITOR NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY- 926 AM EDT WED SEP 14 2011

…SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT THROUGH SUNDAY MORNING…

.REST OF TODAY…NW WINDS 10 TO 15 KT…BECOMING SE LATE. SEAS 4 TO 6 FT DOMINANT PERIOD 11 SECONDS.

.TONIGHT…E WINDS 5 TO 10 KT. SEAS 4 TO 6 FT DOMINANT PERIOD 11 SECONDS. .THU…NW WINDS 5 TO 10 KT. SEAS 4 TO 6 FT.

.THU NIGHT…NW WINDS 15 TO 20 KT…BECOMING N 25 TO 30 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT. SEAS 6 TO 9 FT. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

.FRI…NE WINDS 20 TO 25 KT…DIMINISHING TO 15 TO 20 KT IN THE AFTERNOON. SEAS 6 TO 9 FT. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

.FRI NIGHT…NE WINDS 15 TO 20 KT. SEAS 5 TO 7 FT. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS. .

SAT…NE WINDS 15 TO 20 KT…INCREASING TO 20 TO 25 KT. SEAS 5 TO 8 FT. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.

.SUN…NE WINDS 15 TO 20 KT. SEAS 7 TO 10 FT. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS.