Fishing report

By From staff reports
Published in Sports on August 28, 2009 1:49 PM

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Northern District

Ocean: Offshore fishing slowed a bit, but there were still some good catches of dolphin, wahoo, greater amberjack, king mackerel, Atlantic bonito, little tunny, barracuda, yellowfin, blackfin and skipjack tuna. Billfish catches also slowed, but anglers are still catching sailfish and both blue and white marlin on a regular basis.

Boats from Hatteras and Ocracoke marinas continued to catch assorted groupers and snappers along with black seabass, triggerfish and blackbelly rosefish. Mid-range fishing continued to see-saw back and forth between very productive one day and slow on other days. Productive days yielded some good catches of very large king mackerel with a few red drum and striped bass mixed in.

Artificial reefs were fairly consistent with catches of tautog, triggerfish, black seabass, sheepshead and spadefish. Nearshore fishing was slow, with very little to report except a few short term catches of Spanish mackerel.

Inlets/Sounds/Bays: Anglers continued targeting flounder and spotted seatrout and had moderate to good catches this week. Catches were concentrated in particular areas but the early to-mid morning time frame has produced almost all of the action.

Spanish mackerel were caught on a fairly consistent basis, mostly just inside the bridge at Oregon Inlet. Anglers fishing bridge pilings continued to have good luck and caught large black drum and sheepshead on a regular basis.

Piers/shore: Anglers caught a mixed bag this week.

Spot, kingfish and croakers were most common with a host of others including banded rudderfish, flounder, weakfish, spotted seatrout, burrfish, pigfish, pinfish, pompano, puffers, spadefish, bluefish, Spanish mackerel, red and black drum, skates and assorted rays and sharks.

Central region

Ocean: The wahoo bite is still doing pretty well for offshore fishermen and a few blackfin tuna and false albacore were caught as well. Anglers bottom fishing out of New River had a mixed bag of grouper, triggers, red and vermilion snapper and white grunts.

Inlets/Sounds/Bays: Anglers fishing the Pamlico Sound and lower Neuse reported mixed success with the big red drum -- some caught several citations and some caught nothing but stingrays. The Spanish are still around, though more anglers are targeting flounder and trout these days.

Both the Pamlico and White Oak rivers turned out some nice drum, both black and red. Overall fishing this week was a bit slow and the worry of T.S. Bill coming through kept a lot of people off the water over the weekend.

Piers/shore: The surf and pier fishing has been very slow lately. We've seen pinfish and hogfish, and lots of anglers released small flounder. The piers are still seeing strong runs of Spanish, including large fish in the three- to five-pound range, as well as an occasional king.

Southern District

Ocean: Offshore, there have been some decent catches of wahoo over the last couple of weeks. Along with the wahoo there have been some dolphin and sailfish. Bottom fishing has been slow over the last couple of weeks.

The best catches have been coming way offshore. Boats fishing out there are reporting some scamps, reds, and gag groupers, along with an assortment of other reef fish. King mackerel fishing really slowed this week. Boats fishing in the 10- to 30-mile range are having a hard time finding any kings right now. They are getting a few, but fishing is tough. Amberjacks, cobia, dolphin and scattered catches of sailfish are also being caught in low numbers by these anglers.

Near-shore reefs are seeing decent flounder catches along with lots of spadefish. Some big red drum are coming off the Brunswick County near/shore reefs. Spanish mackerel seem to be in good numbers along area beaches.

Inlets/Sounds/Bays: Flounder fishing in the Cape Fear River slowed this week. Trout and drum fishing remained good, with the southern part of the Cape Fear River and the bays and creeks behind Bald Head Island producing decent catches. Live shrimp and top water lures are producing the best.

Sheepshead and black drum are being caught in good numbers around Snow's cut and the ADM dock.

Piers/shore: Not much change over the last couple of weeks.

Most area piers are catching a mixed bag of fish. Spots, sea mullets and pompano are being caught by the bottom fisherman. Flounder fishermen are having some of their best catches of the year. Live finger mullet fished on a Carolina rig is catching some nice flounders on most area piers.

The Spanish mackerel have been showing up in good numbers on most piers.