Weekly report – April 13, 2010
The weather has been seasonably warm, the water temperatures are rising steadily and the fishing is picking right up. I still wouldn’t say that things have exploded, but there are fish now spread out along the entire North Carolina surf zone. North of Oregon Inlet, there are schools of speckled trout in the suds, but it has been difficult to get them to bite. A few more degrees should do it…surf temperatures are currently running in the mid-50s. Along with the trout are a few schoolie stripers. Blowtoads have also started to be caught in the surf and off the piers of Nag’s Head, KDH and Kitty Hawk. Along the north beach from Cape Point to Oregon Inlet, surf temps are up to 60 +/- and the fishing has picked up with sea mullet and blowtoads on bait and bluefish on lures. The beaches from the Buxton motels to the old lighthouse jetties have had a good bluefish bite lately. The Point proper saw a good bite of mixed-size drum last week; since then, its been more scattered pups and yearlings with an occasional big drum in the mix. Likewise, there was a good drum bite at Hatteras Inlet earlier this week and the drum fishing from boats in and around the inlet has been super, as it has been at Ocracoke Inlet. Hopefully, those fish will hit the beach very soon (like before those beaches are closed). The south beach of Hatteras Island – from the Point to Hatteras Inlet – have seen the typical springtime mix of blowtoads, sea mullet, bluefish and scattered pups. Sharks and skates abound as well. The report from the Ocracoke and the central coast and southeastern NC beaches has been largely the same. With the surf at these beaches running in the low-to-mid 60s, look for the bluefish action in particular to kick into high gear soon. Sound fishing has been somewhat slow to start up, especially behind Hatteras and Bodie Islands in the Oregon Inlet area, where the waters are plagued by dirty, fresh water lingering from the heavy rains of a few weeks back. Further south, the puppy drum fishing behind Hatteras Inlet has been great and puppy drum in particular have been firing up in the coastal rivers and estuaries of the south-central coast, along with an increasing number of speckled trout. Shad fishing has been good in the rivers although the Roanoke is still running high, so most of the fish are off the main channels and in the eddies along the bank. Stripers are making their way up-river.
