SE NC Report: flounder, redfish, black drum

[jeffreyweeks]

Fishing remains decent as we await fall temperatures to arrive. The best catches are on flounder inshore and in the surf with redfish running a close second. Speckled trout are around but hitting mostly in the early morning only on strong tides, and very inconsistently.

Flounder catches have been nice, there are just not huge numbers yet. The piers have picked up quite a few keepers with the flounder gang working mud minnows around the pilings. Mostly the action comes when the tide is really kicking in rising or falling, about two hours after the turn. Bait schools of mullet and other fish are swimming around in the surf and the flounder are ambushing them near the pilings and hitting pier anglers' mud minnows in the process.



Boaters drifting and trolling for flounder in the inlets are having some luck, but the bite is not consistent. Finger mullet are present but the full-blown mullet run is not on yet, and when it comes the inlet boats should do better. Giggers at night report good numbers of flounder so the real bite should turn on soon.

The largest flounder are holding around the bridge and docks. Action is slow but if you fish live finger mullet or pogies near the bridge and dock pilings inshore you could bag a big flounder right now.

The redfish are running the tide inshore, hitting at the creek mouths and around the marsh grass points when the current is flowing out. The couple of hours before low tide are the time to target reds inshore. They are hitting live shrimp on jigheads, live finger mullet and pogies, and Gulp and other soft baits bumped along the bottom. You won't get redfish right now if the tide isn't rolling a bit.

Red drum are also around the bridges and so are black drum in good numbers, but the pinfish and blue crabs are making it hard to fish bait right now. Night fishing for both drum is good, with black drum really hitting around the bridge and dock lights at night on cut shrimp. There are also sheepshead for anglers who know how to catch them with fiddler crabs and barnacles.

The piers are still seeing some nice Spanish mackerel although the big chopper blues are not here yet. Spanish are taking live bait or Gotcha plugs out on the ends of the piers. There is some whiting (sea mullet) action off the piers but no spot as of yet.

The surf is holding whiting, snapper blues, plenty of small sharks and a few pompano. There are also flounder in the surf if you want to cast live bait or lures from the beach.

Overall, fishing is slow but everything seems in place to kick in when the weather really breaks and fall arrives.

For more information, reports and tons of articles check out my blog A Dash of Salty and my website Surf and Salt.