Weekly Report – June 26, 2010

Three weeks since the last report and boy have the water temperatures come up.  In a bit of a reversal, the water temps north of Oregon Inlet up to the state line – normally, the coldest waters in the state – are blistering up above 80 degrees, probably due to some easterly winds over the past week.  A week ago those temperatures were in the mid 60s and at the last report three weeks ago, just about 60.  The temperatures along most of the rest of the coast are pushing 80.  It goes without saying that the weather has been HOT.

As might be expected, fishing quickly entered a mid-summer mode — even before the first official day of summer — in mid-June.  That generally means that surf and pier fishing is worthwhile only during brief windows of time at dawn and dusk.  Night fishing in the summer can be excellent for sharks and plenty are being reported from the beaches in southeastern North Carolina (Topsail, Wrightsville, Carolina beaches).

Despite the oppressively hot weather and water, fishing has been pretty good overall.  There have been some good reports of Spanish and bluefish on metal along the Hatteras and Ocracoke Island beaches; these reports are more noteworthy since most of the beaches that are traditionally best for this kind of fishing have been closed since early May.  It will be interesting to see how well those beaches produce once they start to open up in the next month or so.   Yesterday, the blues being caught on stingsilver-style lures at Ramps 43-44 in Buxton were big choppers between 8 and 20 pounds…a real nice surprise this far into the summer season.

There have also been good numbers of big pompano reported just about every day, mostly from the lower part of Hatteras Island, Buxton south.  Quite a few citation-sized fish (2 pounds and up) have been reported, with fair number of citation sea mullet (>1.5 pounds) as well.  Flounder fishing has been pretty steady, though not exceptional, up and down the coast.

In the sound, there have been some nice sized croakers up to 2.5 pounds, with good reports of sheepshead coming from the Oregon Inlet bridge.  I’ve also heard some reports of stripers from the bridge early and late, and scattered reports of stripers on plugs in the surf north of Oregon Inlet (Kitty Hawk) persist, although I’ve got to believe that the 80 degree water temps will shut them off in the surf, at least temporarily.  Black drum fishing inside has been good, especially around bridge pilings, with the Oregon Inlet bridge, the Little Bridge between Manteo and Nag’s Head, and the Highway 172 bridge over the New River in Onslow County mentioned.  Pups and flounder are also doing fairly well inside and reports of speckled trout fishing are picking up, with decent reports scattered from all over, but better the further south one goes.  Trout off North Caroina’s piers and surf in summer is a uniquely southeastern (south of Cape Fear, that is) phenomenon and that fishing has been pretty good of late.

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~ by surffisher on June 26, 2010.