Weekly report – May 21, 2010
Cooler weather for the past week…water temps bouncing around a bit, now ranging from about 60 north (Duck) to the mid-70s south.
Fishing highlights are bluefish and Spanish mackerel on metal lures – most of the action is from the piers, particularly since some of the better surf sports for these species have been closed for birds. Some rare good beach access news is that the beach south of Ramp 55 in Hatteras Village has been opened all the way to the inlet – a prime spot for Spanish and blues. Hopefully, this stretch of beach will remain open through the remainder of the breeding season. I had excellent action for blues along this beach last weekend, even though inlet access was closed at that time. A few Spanish were landed as well, but the calmer waters of the inlet proper are usually better for holding Spanish. The pier fishing for blues and Spanish has been excellent and now fully covers all of the piers in North Carolina – all the way up to Avalon in Kill Devil Hills. Many of the Spanish are nice-sized 2-4 pound fish, as are many of the blues.
In other news, strange reports of stripers in the surf continue to come in. Spanish and stripers?! I like it! One gentleman caught two yesterday in South Nag’s Head and I heard of several 8 pounders from Fort Macon in Carteret County last weekend. A striper is rare in the prime winter months at Fort Macon, so hearing of some this time of year is unique to say the least. I’m assuming these are river fish and not migrators, but who knows. I can’t think of any obvious reason they’d be prowling the surf more this year than usual.
Larger flounder have started hitting up and down the NC coast. They’ve apparently moved into Oregon Inlet in the past week, indicating that it would be a good time to start targeting them throughout our area. The speckled trout fishing is decidedly off. Good numbers of larger fish coming from the southeast coast, but mostly shorts behind the Outer Banks. The surf season couldn’t be much worse than it has the past two years, so it will be interesting to see if/how things develop this autumn.
Cobia are still in our waters, following the warm water which has temporarily shifted a bit south again, and king mackerel are starting to hit better nearshore. Should be some great fishing ahead for both species. Look for some cobia to be landed in the surf at False Point/Hatteras Inlet and from the piers.
Further north, I’ve heard that another slug of big stripers hit the central Jersey surf again last week.
