Fall Report

Fall fishing is in full swing and the bait is stacked up in the creeks, inlets, and along the beaches. Speckled trout have started to show up in good numbers from the New River to the Cape Fear. We are catching them in the Rivers, Inlets, and tidal creeks around structure. Oyster points, grass islands, rock piles, and bridges with current are all good hiding places for trout waiting on an easy meal. Most fish we have been catching have fallen for DOA soft plastic lures on jig heads and Billy Bay Halo Shrimp fished under popping corks. Good color choices are chartreuse, pink, white, or any combination of those colors. We have also been catching the trout on fly. When fly fishing for trout I like to use an intermediate line with a baitfish pattern such as a clouser or deciever. Trout fishing should continue to get better over the next 2 months. Flounder fishing has continued to be good and with the abundance of bait the fish are very fat. Most of our flounder have been caught while fishing Berkely Gulp soft plastic lures on jig heads. While live bait works very well for the flounder I find that the jigs allow us to cover more water and locate more fish. Redfishing had its ups and downs over the last few weeks with the windy and rainy weather but has began to improve with the cooling water temps. We have been catching redfish from Topsail Island and Wrightsville Beach down to Oak Island. Redfish have been falling for a variety of artificial lures and fly patterns while fishing the flats and tidal creeks.  Sightfishing for flood tide tailing redfish has been good but with the cooling temperatures the fiddler crabs will soon go into hibernation causing the flood tide fishing to end. If you want to catch a tailing redfish now is the time as there are only a few good tides left. Low tide redfishing should get better as we get into late fall and winter as the fish will start forming large schools. These schools can range from 50 to over 400 fish. This combined with the clear wintertime water makes for excellent sightfishing. False Albacore have also been making a good showing along the beaches and make great fly rods targets. These are very fast fish and will take you into your backing everytime. They feed on baitfish schools and we find these fish by looking for groups of fish busting on the surface. Casting a small baitfish pattern with the fly rod or a small metal spoon with a spinning rod into busting fish will usually result in a hook up. The albacore should be around our beaches until mid November.

I still have a few good dates left for Cast and Blast trips for clapper rails (marsh hens) and redfish. The clapper rails flush from the spartina grass as we pole the boat through the marsh looking for redfish. Bag limits for the rails are 15 birds per person and the season last until November 9th. We usually start the Cast & Blast trips fishing for tailing redfish and then finish the trip shooting rails. This is a tide dependent trip and there are only a few good tides left for this so dont hesitate to call and book your trip.

Now is the time to get out and experience the fall fishing along the Cape Fear Coast.