Fishing report

By News-Argus Staff
Published in Sports on April 25, 2008 1:48 PM

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Northern District

Dare, Hyde, Currituck

& Beaufort Counties

Ocean: Offshore action has improved somewhat with moderate amounts of yellow & blackfin tuna, wahoo, dolphin, king mackerel, amberjack, little tunny, and a few others.

Mid-range anglers continue to struggle with very little caught, with the exception of an occasional striped bass or red drum. In-shore anglers have had notable improvements, catching some very nice spotted seatrout in the nearshore surf-zone when it is accessible.

Skates and dogfish sharks continue to be plentiful.

Inlets/Sounds/Bays: Poor fishing trends have caused low activity levels even on favorable weather days. Modest improvements have been made this week with a few spotted seatrout & bluefish being caught throughout the area. Striped bass catches were few and far between.

Piers/Shore: These anglers encountered the most improved fishing this previous week with some very nice spotted seatrout caught in the early morning hours. A few puffers, bluefish, skates, dogfish sharks, and a host of others were also caught.

The Marvin Daniels (little bridge) has been the hotspot with nice catches of both red drum and spotted seatrout in the morning hours, and then again near dusk.

General overview: Favorable weather conditions have allowed anglers to access various fishing sites with somewhat improved success rates. Water temp in the surf (Kill Devil Hills) the day of this report was 53 degrees. Weather conditions are predicted favorable for the coming week.

Central District

Pamlico, Craven, Carteret

& Onslow Counties

Ocean: The fishing report for the central area is rather skinny as the weather has been uncooperative.

Ocean fishing has been wonderful. The headboats are catching red grouper, vermillion snapper,triggerfish and big sea bass (up to two pounds). The American snapper are big enough to keep.

The charterboats are catching Hatteras blues, although they are out fishing for yellowfin tuna and wahoo.

Inlets/Sounds/Bays: In the inside waters anglers are catching nice sea mullet around the Beaufort Inlet, Shackleford Banks and the Cape Lookout area.

There must have been 30 boats in the turning basin of the State port on Saturday. Pamlico and Beaufort Counties report nice catches of seatrout.

Piers/Shore: Anglers are catching Hatteras blues on the Oceanna Pier (10 pounds) along with smaller bluefish, shark and rays.

Southern District

Pender, New Hanover

& Brunswick Counties

Ocean: The weather has really slowed fishing.

There were some nice days last week and boats were able to get offshore. Stream trips yielded Blackfin tuna, dolphin, and wahoo. Boats bottom fishing reported fair catches of mostly red groupers along with a few gags in the 35 to 50 mile range.

King mackerel are biting around WR4 and Frying Pan Tower. Large bluefish are being caught around the tower as well. Closer to shore, there are some reports of Atlantic bonito starting to show up. Best reports are coming from Sneads Ferry around Divers rock.

Inlets/Sounds/Bays: Fishing has been decent for this time of year.

The sea mullets are biting well down around Bald Head Island. Falling tide seems to be the best time to fish for them. There are decent trout catches coming out of the river from Southport up to Town Creek.

Live shrimp fished under a float has been deadly, but there are some fish being caught on DOA and Halo shrimp baits. There are some drum biting in the same general areas as well.

Piers/Shore: Fishing has started to pick up but it is still a little slow.

Blues and sea mullets have been the main targets of both pier and surf fisherman. The sea mullets are biting best at night off the end of the piers and the blues are biting in the morning and late afternoons.

There have been some large blues reported from the surf and the piers. A few large pompano were caught last week.