Overall the fishing has been good the past couple of weeks. We have had a couple of tough days mixed in with lots of good days, but I guess that’s fishing. Late Oct. and Nov. are great times to be on the water fishing. There should be good numbers of speckled trout, redfish, and seamullet, along with a few gray trout and flounder. As the water cools the flounder will move out to deeper water and the ocean.
The redfish are biting well on live baits and artificials. Most of the reds have been caught by blindcasting and sightcasting soft plastics and scented baits in the creeks and bays of the lower Cape Fear. We are also picking up a few reds on topwater plugs. For those that are not comfortable throwing artificials we have been picking up some reds by float fishing and bottom fishing live baits along the grass lines, oyster points, and shelly bottom drop offs. We are also picking up a few speckled trout and flounder while fishing for the reds.
The speckled trout bite has been decent and should get better over the next couple of weeks. The specks have been hitting soft plastic grubs, artificial shrimp, topwater plugs, suspending mirrolures and of course live shrimp on a float rig. Nov. and Dec. are peak times to catch speckled trout in the Cape Fear area.
We are picking up a few flounder but it is mostly while we are fishing artificials and live baits for the specs and reds. The sheephead bite has been good, but they will be moving out as the water cools. There are a few black drum around and their numbers could very well increase as we get into Nov. The blues have been schooled around the inlets and the lower Cape Fear and we have had some fun sightcasting to them with topwater plugs and jigs.
Check out the photos from the past couple of weeks. These are just a few of the fish my customers have caught lately.
Thanks,
Jeff Wolfe
Seahawk Inshore Fishing Charters
Fish Carolina Beach Blog
910-619-9580
10/4 Joe with a speck that hit a artificial shrimp under a popping float
10/5 Hunter with a red that hit a live mullet minnow on a carolina rig
10/5 Hana with a blue that she caught out of one of the large schools we saw on this day
10/6 John with his first redfish that was caught on a redfish magic glass minnow
10/6 Marvin with a spec that busted a Zara Spook topwater plug
10/9 Bob with a nice red that hit a soft plastic jig
10/10 Mr Rice with a black drum that hit a live shrimp fished on the bottom
10/10 Douglas and his dad with a pair of the reds they caught on live baits
10/11 C. Wolfe with a flounder and red he caught on artificial back in a creek on a windy day
10/17 Chloe with a red that she caught on a live mud minnow
Click on the link to read the recent Guide Times article in the Fisherman’s Post about fishing for tripletail and redfish in the Cape Fear river with Jeff Wolfe.