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Fishing continues to improve. After the next good north east blow, expect surf and pier fishing, as well as inside fishing, to really take off! Everything else is right, just waiting for cooler water.
Jolly Roger Pier Fishing Report; Seeing more than a few slot and over the slot sized red drum mostly at night. Good numbers of pompano and blues, with some Virginia mullet and black drum as well. Seeing some keeper flounder caught on finger mullets. Tons of jumping mullet streaming by the pier. Good spot run today, beginning just before dawn and biting hard until about 5:00 PM, then nothing. Hope to repeat the cycle again tonight.
Surf City Pier fishing report; Catching some slot red drum (finger mullets) and a few speckled trout, mostly on shrimp. The flounder bite is good, several anglers caught multiple keepers. A few mullet mostly at night, some pompano during the day. Sand fleas are catching the big pound to pound and a half pomps. Spots are biting on and off. There are fish to be caught, you just have to be here and wait for the run to hit. It may only last an hour or so, then down time, then biting hard again for a while longer.
Sea View Pier fishing report; Anglers continued to catch Spots and Mullets off and on all day long. Runs of Bluefish were caught using Gotcha plugs, diamond jigs and bottom rigs. Trout, Pinfish, Flounder, Pompano, Skates and Croakers were also caught.
Surf fishing much the same thing. You can not predict when the fish will bite, you just have to sit out there and wait. If you do, you might be rewarded with some slot reds, nice flounder, a few spots, lots of small mullets and pompano with a few bigger ones mixed in. Even catching a few specks on bottom rigs in the surf. Water still needs to cool down for the speck bite to improve in the surf.
Inside fishing is producing good catches of specks and reds, as well as some big flounder. Fish the creeks especially the mouths of the tidal creeks. Heard reports of some nice big flounder biting near marker 98 and a big spot catch just outside of Topsail Creek. Fish the waterway, just off the channel for nice flounder, and check out the oyster flats for nice over slot red drum. Be quiet with the boat, they are spooking easily. Slow troll finger mullets on carolina rigs just off the ICW channel. Use enough weight to keep the bait on the bottom. Heard from one angler that attached a small float about a foot off the weight to keep the bait off the bottom. He got good results in a nice stringer of flounder, sized from 15 to 19 inches. Nice fish! Getting lots of reports of reds, most over slot biting in the surf off Lee Island. Plenty of bait behind the island, so take your cast net and keep that bait fresh!
Most of the tackle shops are having a season ending sales. Check them out for some great buys on clothing as well as tackle. Shrimp is reasonably priced, we found some at $2.99 lb heads on, nice big shrimp. Check out your favorite tackle shops here on Topsail Island. If you do get unlucky and miss the fish bite, all the seafood dealers have bins of beautiful fresh caught fish, so you ain't going hungry!
I'll try to post as often as I can, migraines have kept me off the beach most of the week, but I am hoping to get out before daylight several mornings this week. Thanks for the emails and your prayers.
Catch 'em up! Fishin' is getting gooood!
Till next time....
Tight lines!
Johnny aka "Fishin' Topsail"
