August 30
Morning surface water temperatures are around 83 degrees inshore around Little River, and on the beach side the water is very clear.
More calm days have made fishing outside the creeks accessible again, and Captain Patrick “Smiley” Kelly (843-361-7445) reports that the Spanish mackerel bite has been pretty outstanding. Fish can be caught anywhere nearshore that there are pods of bait (and usually birds diving on them), but probably the best fishing has been out by the jetty rocks. Live chumming and then casting out live baits has been working really well for nice fish up to the 3-5 pound range, and they have found the hook-up ratio is better hooking the baits through the tail. You can also cast topwater lures at the fish which is a blast.
Bluefish and small cobia can also be caught out at the nearshore reefs, but the flounder fishing has been really good out there.
Inshore the flounder patterns are about the same, but the big news is that starting this Thursday you can keep one flounder per day out of North Carolina waters for the month of September. All summer the flounder population has been excellent in the Tar Heel State, but every fish has had to be released, and so this is an exciting opportunity.
Inshore the usual early fall patterns for redfish are working, and Captain Smiley reports that you can catch fish around docks, oyster beds and downed trees. While you can certainly get into an area where there are more very small redfish regardless of bait, in general it seems like live shrimp are getting more little bites while cut mullet are catching bigger fish.
Out at the jetty rocks the big breeder-sized redfish have moved in, and you can catch them on live or cut menhaden or mullet.
Trout have not been especially prolific yet but if you drift with live shrimp you will find them.
The ocean is beautiful right now and so it’s no surprise that Cherry Grove Pier (843-249-1625) reports that they have had four or five king mackerel in the last few days and also jumped some tarpon. For now they are catching pretty good numbers of mostly smaller flounder, trout and Spanish mackerel while eating-sized whiting have been fairly abundant.
