Atlantic Coast surf and shore fishing

Cool north winds have surface water temps varying from the low 60s up at Duck to about 70 down south. Still plenty of warm water off the beach. The fall surf fishing continues to be dominated by excellent catches of nice sized black and red (puppy) drum on cut bait and lots and lots of bluefish of mixed size. Some good reports of blitzes of 4-5 pound blues on the central and southern beaches. Excellent catches of big sea mullet this week as well, with reports coming from across the entire NC coast. Trout fishing has been slow to fire off in the surf which I suspect is primarily due to the unsettled conditions throughout most of October. The water temps are definitely in place, so once the water starts to settle out, I expect some good runs. Solid reports of stripers in the sounds, which is a nice development as this fishing has been spotty for the past few seasons. Likewise, inshore reports (and those from some savvy surf and wade anglers) have the false albacore fishing back at the levels we were used to several years ago. The epicenter is of course, Cape Lookout and to a lesser extent Beaufort Inlet. Let’s hope the surf stripers return in the numbers we saw in the early part of the decade as well. There have already been a few nice ocean migrating stragglers reported.

~ by surffisher on November 3, 2009.

Posted in Fishing, Saltwater, Uncategorized
Tags: weekly report