Added on Thursday, July 10, 2008  Gary Hurley

Southport July 10, 2008

Butch, of Yeah Right Charters, reports that offshore bottom fishing remains stellar when boats can get a break in the wind and get offshore. Fishing around deepwater structure, anglers are hooking up with grunts, beeliners, pinkies, sea bass, almaco and amberjacks, triggerfish, joltheads, as well as red, scamp, gag, strawberry, and hind groupers.

Cut baits, squid, and Gulp and Gulp Alive baits are all producing excellent results on the bottomfish.

Anglers setting out a weightless light-line with a live bait or frozen cigar minnow while bottom fishing may well hook up with a king mackerel, cobia, or dolphin.

King mackerel and a few dolphin are feeding at areas like the Shark Hole, 15 Mile Rocks, and 18 Mile Rocks. For some reason, frozen cigar minnows have been outfishing live baits recently.

Some sailfish are beginning to show up as well, and a number have already been caught by king mackerel anglers.

Inshore, the strong SW winds have slowed the spanish mackerel bite. The fish are still around, but they don’t like feeding in the dirty water. Boats are finding the fish jumping, but they seem very reluctant to strike.

If anglers can find the mackerel schools in some clean water, they’ll likely have fast action while trolling Clarkspoons.

 

Dave, of Ocean Crest Pier, reports that the big news this week is that the pompano fishing has been excellent. Anglers baiting up with shrimp are catching big numbers of the tasty bottom feeders (many weighing up to 2 lbs.). Bottom fishermen are also landing good numbers of whiting.

The speckled trout bite is still solid, and anglers are hooking up with the specks in the morning hours on live shrimp and other baits. Anglers decked trout as large as 4 lbs. last week.

Flounder are also biting well, and anglers fishing live finger mullet and shrimp on the bottom landed flatfish up to 3 lbs. last week.

Some sheepshead are feeding around the pier’s pilings, and anglers hooked up with sheeps to 6 lbs. last week. Fiddler crabs, sand fleas, and barnacles will all attract the sheepsheads’ attention.

Plug casters are hooking some spanish mackerel and bluefish.

Some larger spanish have been falling for live baits on the king rigs, and a 20 lb. king was landed last weekend.

 

Richard, of Get Reel Charters, reports that bottom fishing has been solid lately, with good catches coming from around 35 miles offshore. Structure around the Shark Hole has seen some excellent bottom action lately. Cigar minnows and squid are producing most of the action with the bottomfish.

Dolphin have moved inshore of Frying Pan Tower, and the boat landed a 20 lb. bull while king fishing last week.

Good places to look for the dolphin and kings lately have been the 15 Mile Rock and Lighthouse Rocks. Most of the kings have been in the 10-12 lb. range, but there are a few larger fish around as well. Both live baits and cigar minnows are producing action with the dolphin and kings.

 

Jon, of Haag and Sons Seafood, reports that the red grouper bite has been excellent at offshore structure lately.

Divers are seeing good numbers of hogfish as well, but they can be tricky for anglers to get to bite.

There are also plenty of amberjacks around the wrecks and high relief bottom structure.

The beeliner bite has fallen off, and boats are having problems finding consistent action with the dolphin, too.

 

Billie, of Dutchman’s Creek Bait and Tackle, reports that inshore anglers are catching good numbers of red and black drum.

The Southport waterfront flounder bite is starting to get good.

There are a few spanish mackerel around right now, and the bite should improve as the water clears.

Pier anglers are catching speckled trout and some pompano and croaker.