Weekly update – 4/5/10
Despite some incredible, warm weather, fishing has been a bit slow to pick up yet this spring. As the saying goes, it should bust open any day now. The best surf fishing thus far is, not surprisingly, on Ocracoke Island. Ocracoke almost always has the warmest winter surf temperatures in the state and is the first to fire up once the water temps push into the low 60s, where its been holding for a week or two on the south end. The Hatteras Island water temps are cooler, but I heard the Point hit the 60 degree mark today. Farther north, up at Duck, the water temps have been fluctuating wildly between the mid-40s and low-50s, and in-between, at Rodanthe, Hatteras Island Fishing Pier is at about 56. The south-central NC beaches are holding in the mid-upper 50s…close, but not quite where they need to be just yet.
Ocracoke has seen some pretty good, but inconsistent, fishing for big drum (just a few), puppy drum, and a decent class of 1-5 pound spring bluefish. Both the drum and bluefish have been hitting lures as well as cut bait. For whatever reason, gold Hopkins lures are very popular on Ocracoke and a variety of gold metal lures have been working well. This past weekend, most of the action came from some of the nice points and holes north of South Point, rather than in the inlet proper. As baitfish start pouring in, the ebb and flow of the inlet currents will start attracting more of the action. Right now, it seems like the blues are patrolling the holes looking for a stray meal. Hatteras Island from the Inlet to the Point has had some decent catches of blowtoads along with a few sea mullet, puppy drum and bluefish. The north beaches are still slow with sharks and skates, along with some nice catches of croaker reported from Nag’s Head. The southern and central NC beaches are reporting scattered catches of all of the above, with sea mullet attracting most of the attention so far.
Look for the bluefish action to explode all over the coast once water temps consistently hit the mid-60s. If the past few springs are any indication, we should have loads of fish of all sizes. Big drum should start hitting more consistently as well and I expect to start hearing of some speckled trout and puppy drum catches from the beaches north of Oregon Inlet as well as the sounds in the next couple weeks.
