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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. |
Central District:
For the week ending May 30
Ocean: Dolphins were in at the big rock. Some were caught off of the 14
buoy, but most were caught farther offshore. There were still a few
wahoos around, too. The cobia bite fell off. There were still some out
off of Cape Lookout but the warmer water pushed them north. Fishermen on
head boats were still seeing black and bank sea bass, gag grouper,
vermillion and red snapper, gray triggerfish and a porgy. There were
also some tilefish and snowy grouper caught.
Inlets/Sounds/Bays: The Spanish mackerel bite was hot. Flounder were
starting to pick up and there were some big bluefish landed. Striped
bass were still caught farther inshore. Croakers and kingfish were very
abundant, as was spot.
Piers/Shore: Some flounder were caught off of the piers and jetties.
Sharks were very abundant on the piers and shore, as usual. Smooth and
spiny dogfish made up the majority of sharks landed. Bluefish, Spanish
mackerel, northern puffers, spot and croakers were also caught.
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| Southern District:
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.
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