Northern District
For the week ending May 30

Ocean: Offshore fishing was moderate to good. An assortment of tuna was caught, including bluefin, blackfin, yellowfin, bigeye and skipjack. Dolphins, wahoos, king mackerel and billfish catches continued to slowly improve. Ocracoke and Hatteras marinas were still catching a mixed bag of bottom fish, including vermillion snapper, black seabass, gray triggerfish, blueline tilefish, blackbelly rosefish and both yellowedge and snowy grouper. Midrange anglers had very little success, with the exception of a few king mackerel, caught around eight miles offshore. Artificial reefs provided a few gray triggerfish, sheepsheads, black drum, and tautogs. Near-shore anglers saw improved success rates, with catches of bluefish in the 5-to-6 pound range. Cobia catches were fair, but in much less volume than in the past few weeks. A host of other species were caught in low-to-moderate amounts.

Inlets/Sounds/Bays: Catches made a notable improvement, compared to the previous week. Flounder catches, in particular, improved in both numbers and sizes.Well more than 50 percent were keepers. Oregon Inlet anglers continued to catch most of the flounder, by a small margin, most likely due to heavy angler participation. But nice catches were seen throughout the area at locations where anglers were few. Spotted seatrout catches were moderate at most locations. Anglers in Roanoke Sound and the Swan Quarter/Rosebay area continued to log the best success rates. Striped bass catches made a modest improvement in regularity. A mixed bag of species were caught in much fewer numbers.

Piers/Shore: These anglers had similar results to the near-shore boaters, with short-term, high volume catches of 5-to-6-pound bluefish for those lucky enough to be there when they were biting. Spanish mackerel were mixed in with the bluefish in much lesser amounts. Cobia catches lessened just a bit, as compared to the previous week’s heavy activity. Red drum and striped bass were caught in the surf zone, from Avon southward to Ocracoke, with much increased regularity. Assorted other species were caught in varied amounts, including hake, pigfish, pinfish, spot, croaker, kingfish, puffer, dogfish sharks and skates and rays.

General Overview: Water temperatures in the ocean surf zone were in the mid-to-upper 60s throughout the area. High temperatures and unsettled weather was predicted for this week.

For the week ending May 30

Ocean: Offshore, boats caught dolphins in fair numbers, but fishing fell off some from the previous week. Wahoos, blackfin tuna and some billfish releases were also reported. Bottom fisherman caught gag, red, and scamp groupers, along with a wide variety of other reef fish. Near-shore, king mackerel, cobias, and amberjacks were caught by anglers who were slow trolling live baits on most ledges and artificial reefs. Anglers targeting Spanish mackerel found success along the beaches and inlets.

Inlets/Sounds/Bays: Inshore flounder fishing improved last week. Most of the better catches came out of the Cape Fear River and Tubbs Inlet. Anglers reeled in fish weighing up to 6 pounds. Trout and drum fishing remained the same as the previous week, with the best catches coming out of the Cape Fear River and the bays and creeks behind Bald Head Island. Early morning hours and late evening were the most productive times. Black drum were biting, as well, at the ADM dock and down along the rock wall at Fort Fisher. Fresh shrimp, fished on a two hook bottom rig, was all it took to catch the drum.

Piers/Shore: For the most part fishing was productive on most piers. Spanish mackerel were biting well on the Pender and New Hanover piers. Early morning and late evening was the best time to fish. Oak island piers fishermen started to catch some trout. Almost all trout were caught in the early morning hours on live shrimp. Bottom fishermen caught a little of everything, from pompano to sea mullet and black drum. Surf fishermen caught blues, pompano and sea mullet.