Morehead City June 16, 2005
George, at Carolina Bait and Tackle, reports that small kings are all over the area. There were a few kings in the 20 lb. class caught at AR 315. You can use the large drone spoons or live bait. There’s plenty of blues and some spanish right off the beach. Down around the cape, they’ve been landing larger spanish (2-4 lbs.).
The flounder fishing picked up more than anything this week, both in quantities and size. They’re moving inside more. Check the AR’s, the inlet, and off the piers. The heaviest of the week was a 5 lb. flounder caught in the inlet.
Matt, at Freeman’s Bait and Tackle, reports that a couple of 100+ pound cobias were landed this week. The spanish bite is scattered, with a few larger ones landed (the heaviest they saw was 7 lbs.). The flounder are moving inside, with catches reported from the North River and Newport River. The size of the fish seems to be a little over and a little under keeper size. The kings in the area are small (10-12 lbs.), but there are plenty of them at AR 315 and 320.
Jas, at Sportman’s Pier, reports that the blues are still biting well, but they are no longer catching any of the Hatteras-sized ones. All are small now. The spanish bite has been scattered, with only a few landed lately. The hogfish are biting well, and they occasionally pick up a few spots. Before the weekend, they had a good speckled trout bite at night, but none over the weekend.
Jimmy, at Triple “S” Pier, reports that they’re catching lots of blues by plugging. There haven’t been any big fish, with all of the blues in the 1-1.5 lb. range. The few spanish they’ve caught recently are small. Lots of hogfish have been caught recently, and artificial bloodworms have been the choice bait. Guys have caught the occasional sea mullet and croaker. And while the pier has been spotting cobia, none have been landed recently.
Joe, at Joe’s Pro Bait and Tackle, reports that you can get all the kings you want from the 3rd set of sea buoys on out. Most are the small snake kings, and there are small black tipped sharks mixed in. Troll deep-diving plugs. The spanish bite has produced some bigger ones, but all of the catches are isolated. There haven’t been any runs. For the larger spanish try the shoals. Trolling along the beach will produce lots of bluefish.
The flounder have shown up. They are at the nearshore reefs, both natural and artificial, within the 5 to 6 mile range. They are thick right now. One trip hooked about 100 flounder, with 46 of the fish better than 2 pounds. The guys kept their legal limit, with the biggest of the day weighing 7.5 lbs. They were fishing about 3 miles from the beach.
Offshore the dolphin bite is red hot. Fish the 90′ Drop on out to the Big Rock (look in 100 to 120′ of water). The size has been 15-30 pound fish. The marlin bite continues to be hot, with whites as the primary bite and blues mixed in.
