Anglers from the Northern coast all the way down to South Carolina are catching fish both inshore and off. Read more to find out exactly how NC anglers are taking fish.
Northern North Carolina Tidal Waters Fishing Reports (Ocracoke Inlet to Surf City)
Overall Summary for the region
Ocean: Offshore anglers continued to catch their limit of dolphin, along with moderate amounts of assorted tunas like Atlantic bonito, little tunny, skipjack, yellowfin, and blackfin. Amberjack and some citation-sized whaoo were also caught on a regular basis. Boats out of Ocracoke and Hatteras that bottom fished landed blackbelly rosefish, vermilion snapper, triggerfish, blueline tilefish and assorted groupers. Midrange anglers had a moderate increase in catches of king mackerel 8 to 10 miles offshore from Rodanthe southward.* Striped bass and red drum were caught from Oregon Inlet northward to the Virginia line. Artificial reefs yielded a few sheepshead, spadefish, and black drum. Near shore catches were dominated by larger and more numerous bluefish.
Oregon Inlet Fishing Center brings us these reports
5/8/2012 Gulf stream fishing today brought in LARGE quantities of dolphin and some good catches of yellowfin tuna. Inshore center console boats had great speckled trout and a few flounders. Nearshore boats and our headboat,"MISS OREGON INLET", had nice catches of blues.
5/7/2012 All our offshore charters today had EXCELLENT CATCHES OF DOLPHIN and YELLOWFIN TUNA...Also caught several WAHOOOOS!!!! Nearshore fleet reported nice class of BLUES. And that's how its done down here at The Oregon Inlet Fishing Center.
5/6/2012 Today was an exceptionally great day offshore here at Oregon Inlet. We had sixteen boats go out and they all came back with abundant catches of yellowfin tuna and dolphin.
5/5/2012 Our Offshore fleet reported great catches of Tuna, as well as scattered dolphin catches. We had a few citation sized dolphin weighing in at 41 pounds, also a citiation sized blackfin tuna weighing in at 34 pounds. We had a private boat report 2 white marlin releases, as well as dolphin. Both our Nearshore and Inshore boats reported good bluefish catches. Our Headboat reported some catch and release on flounder.
5/4/2012 Today, our Offshore fleet had great Dolphin fishing with some scattered tuna, also had a sailfish release as well as a white marlin release. Our Inshore Fleet reported good trout fishing this morning.
5/3/2012 Today was a great day of fishing here at Oregon Inlet Fishing Center. We had three offshore boats go out and they returned with excellent catches of Dolphin, with two citation dolphin 37 and 47 pounds, scattered yellowfin tuna and tile fish. We also had three inshore boats fishing and they came in with catches of bluefish, trout and flounder.
5/2/2012 Only one boat scheduled today for offshore... coming back with 24 dolphin and 5 yellowfin tunas. We have been really successful with our make-up charters.
5/1/2012 Todays offhore boats returned to the dock with limits of yellowfin and nice catches dolphin.Our head boat,"MISS OREGON INLET," bought in flounder and sea mullet. Our captains on our inshore center console boats reported excellent catch and release speckle trout and blues.
Inlets/Sounds/Bays: Anglers targeting spotted seatrout, striped bass, and flounder had varied results. Spotted seatrout was the most abundant catch, particularly during the early morning and evening hours in Roanoke Sound, Oregon Inlet and Green Island Slough.* Striped bass catches were fair but mostly undersized, mainly in the Mann’s Harbor and Mashoes areas. Anglers caught flounder in the Oregon Inlet area in shallow water near island and land masses.
Piers/Beaches: Big bluefish were consistently being caught with a few large 14- to 16-pounders. Large sea mullet, and puffers were caught on a regular basis. Anglers caught moderate amounts of spot, silver perch, croaker, striped burrfish, shad, skates, stingrays, and dogfish sharks. Red drum and pompano catches increased from Avon south to Ocracoke.
Central North Carolina Tidal Waters Fishing Reports (Ocracoke Inlet to Surf City)
Overall Summary for the region
Ocean: ffshore anglers continued to catch their limit of dolphin, along with moderate amounts of assorted tunas like Atlantic bonito, little tunny, skipjack, yellowfin, and blackfin. Amberjack and some citation-sized whaoo were also caught on a regular basis. Boats out of Ocracoke and Hatteras that bottom fished landed blackbelly rosefish, vermilion snapper, triggerfish, blueline tilefish and assorted groupers. Midrange anglers had a moderate increase in catches of king mackerel 8 to 10 miles offshore from Rodanthe southward.* Striped bass and red drum were caught from Oregon Inlet northward to the Virginia line. Artificial reefs yielded a few sheepshead, spadefish, and black drum. Near shore catches were dominated by larger and more numerous bluefish.
Inlets/Sounds/Bays: Anglers targeting spotted seatrout, striped bass, and flounder had varied results. Spotted seatrout was the most abundant catch, particularly during the early morning and evening hours in Roanoke Sound, Oregon Inlet and Green Island Slough.* Striped bass catches were fair but mostly undersized, mainly in the Mann’s Harbor and Mashoes areas. Anglers caught flounder in the Oregon Inlet area in shallow water near island and land masses.
Piers/Shore: Big bluefish were consistently being caught with a few large 14- to 16-pounders. Large sea mullet, and puffers were caught on a regular basis. Anglers caught moderate amounts of spot, silver perch, croaker, striped burrfish, shad, skates, stingrays, and dogfish sharks. Red drum and pompano catches increased from Avon south to Ocracoke.
Southern North Carolina Tidal Waters Fishing Reports (Surf City to North Carolina line)
Ocean Isle Fishing Center brings us these reports
5/7/2012 Jim Bowen said*the Stick Slinger cleared*the LR jetties around 0400*this weekend*and headed out*searching for warm water more than he was trying to locate*structure.*The Stick Slinger had*to dodge storms on the way, and the seas were a little worse than forecast. When they got to 650' deep water they came across a weed line and*jumped on it. The crew headed East on*a weed line for 10 miles boating 16 nice Mahi. It took about 3 hours to*get back in.*The action was great*but the trip out and back was a little sporty. All in all an awesome day*aboard the Stick Slinger.
--Capt. Rickey Beck
5/5/2012 Had the priviledge of guiding Papa G and Momma G deep into the backwaters this morning. We started off quickly with a 3 pound flounder! The bite was pretty steady for the first hour with several 14" fish. We made a move to find something with some shoulders. We quickly*had our hands full with a fish on and fast moving current due to the full moon. Papa G did great work angling and landed*a nice redfish. Quick picture and released to fight another day. *Two more lively mullet minnows loaded and fired into the hole. The bait was nervous...very nervous....zzzzzzzzzz....
The fish made two or three really hard runs before releasing itself. We had two more hard hits and quick releases. I really wanted to hang around to see if we could get another chance, but store duty at the OIFC*was calling my name. I had a great time with the G's! Thanks for going fishing with us! See ya on the water!
--Capt. Jacob Frick
5/2/2012 Cary and Scott joined me for a half day backwater trip this morning. Cary is an offshore fisherman wanting to learn a little more about the backwater. Little did we all know that we would be fishing in*Cary's backyard this morning. We landed several flounder just mere yards from Cary's dock this morning. I think he was a bit suprised! Scott* just came*along to catch some fish! Both angler's caught their fair share of*flounder, but the trophy size reds and blues were not to be landed today. We are confident we had at least two great opportunities at landing a nice redfish. The bluefish moved in and we could only watch in amazement as we watched huge bluefish boil on 14 inch mullet. Cary was the first to hook up! The fish was 30yds under the boat before he could catch up. Drag screaming to the point of reel explosion! The monster blue finally cut the line on his third burst of energy. Scott hooked up! Scott got about 5 solid 20 to 30 yards*of blistering drag screaming runs before the monster blue jumped nearly 5 feet into the air breaking the line upon entry back into the water! Awesome show though! We made a few more stops picking up a couple of nice flounder to round out the day! I really appreciate Cary and Scott for choosing to go fishing with us! See ya on the water!
--Capt. Jacob Frick
Overall Summary for the Region
Ocean: Offshore fishing remained productive. Boats caught good numbers of blackfin tuna, wahoo and dolphin. Grouper season opened May 1 and boats brought back large red, gag, and scamp groupers and an assortment of reef fish. Note: No possession of black sea bass until June 1. Anglers fishing near shore caught scattered amounts of Spanish and king mackerel, along with some cobia.
Inlets/Sounds/Bays: Inshore anglers reported catching a little of everything. Fishermen targeting flounder did best in Brunswick County from Ocean Isle south to the state line. Tubbs Inlet, and the Cape Fear River from Snow’s Cut to downtown Wilmington, were good fishing areas. Spotted sea trout and red drum catches were limited to the creeks and bays behind Bald Head Island.
Piers/Shore: Area piers reported catching small sea mullet, spot, and pompano. Anglers targeting Spanish mackerel and bluefish had limited success. Fishermen targeting flounder with live bait had some success landing keepers. Piers reported no landings of king mackerel. Surf fishing produced sea mullet, bluefish, and some slot-sized red drum.
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