Added on Thursday, May 8, 2008  Gary Hurley

Morehead City May 8, 2008

Tim, of Chasin Tails Outdoors, reports that some fat gray trout (some up to 4 lbs.) are feeding on the bottom around the high-rise bridges, AR 315, and at the railroad tracks at night. Anglers are hooking up with the grays on spec rigs tipped with shrimp, green grubs, Stingsilvers, and glass minnow jigs.

There are also some gray trout mixed in with whiting feeding in the turning basin, where anglers are hooking up with them on spec rigs and bottom rigs with shrimp.

Speckled trout and red drum fishing has been solid over the past few weeks in most of the creeks and marshes in the Morehead area. Anglers are getting in on the action while fishing with live mud minnows, MR 17 Mirrolures, Corkies, Billy Bay shrimp, and Gulp baits.

Flounder fishing has begun to pick up for the summer, and boats seem to be putting together the best catches while drifting behind Shackleford Banks and near Barden’s Inlet. Live mud minnows on Carolina rigs are tough to beat when it comes to attracting the flatfish.

Surf anglers are landing decent numbers of whiting, a few pompano, some black drum (including a 65 lb. drum weighed in last week), and bluefish (including some choppers up to 10-15 lbs.).

Most of the bottom feeders are falling for shrimp baits, and anglers are hooking the blues on just about everything, particularly cut baits and finger mullet.

Spanish mackerel have shown up in the inlet, and they are feeding around AR 330 in the very early mornings. Trolling with Clarkspoons or Yo-Zuri Deep Divers should attract some attention from the spanish.

King mackerel are moving closer to the beaches, and anglers are landing decent numbers around the Big 10/Little 10. They’re also schooling around structure on the east side of Lookout Shoals, with good numbers reported around the Atlas Tanker recently.

Bottom fishermen are encountering some grouper around the 210 and 240 Rocks, and there should also be some grouper around the Big 10/Little 10.

Offshore boats are catching dolphin, wahoo, and a few yellowfin tuna between the 90′ Drop and the Big Rock. Medium and small ballyhoo under various skirts have been producing the best results on the blue water fish recently.

 

Paul, of Freeman’s Bait and Tackle, reports that the big Hatteras bluefish bite is the best it’s been in the past decade. The schools are running along the beaches, and when they pass, the action is almost nonstop. Anglers are catching the big blues (many 10-12 lbs.) on cut baits and lures in the surf and while trolling and casting from boats. The fish are feeding near the AR’s, too, and anglers are hooking up around AR 320 on topwater plugs.

Whiting and some gray trout are feeding around the turning basin, and spec rigs tipped with shrimp are attracting plenty of interest from those bottom feeders.

Some speckled trout and red drum are holding in the marshes of the Newport and North Rivers.

Spanish mackerel have begun feeding nearshore and in the inlet, and boaters are scoring with the spanish while trolling Clarkspoons and squid rigs.

Cobia haven’t shown up around the usual Cape Lookout hotspots yet, but based on the water temperatures and other fish making an appearance, they should be feeding in the Hook within the next few weeks.

Snake king mackerel are schooled up around structure 10-15 miles and further offshore, such as the Hutton, Big 10/Little 10, NW Places, and the 13 Buoy. Trolling cigar minnows, Drone and Clark spoons, or Yo-Zuri Deep Divers should attract plenty of interest from the kings, and what the fish lack in size they’ll make up for in abundance.

Offshore, dolphin fishing has been pretty good, and boats are landing some wahoo with very few yellowfin tuna mixed in.

 

Shane, of the Fight N Lady, reports that dolphin fishing has been excellent over the past few weeks. Plenty of big gaffers are in the mix, and a decent number of wahoo have been showing up as well. The yellowfin tuna seem to have moved on, as not many have been seen lately.

The action has been best recently around the Big Rock, and ballyhoo underneath Blue Water Candy Jags and Gaffer Candies in blue/white and blue/pink have been drawing the most strikes.

 

Willis, of Oceanana Pier, reports that bottom fishermen are hooking up with whiting, pigfish, some pompano, and a few puppy drum. Shrimp are the most productive all around bait.

Anglers also caught the first few sheepshead of the year last week.

Regular bluefish (1-3 lbs.) and chopper Hatteras blues (5-10+ lbs.) are feeding heavily around the pier. The blues are falling for Gotcha plugs in the daytime and bottom rigs at night.

The water is 64 degrees.