Added on Thursday, June 18, 2009  Fish Post

Ocean Isle June 18, 2009

Brant, of Ocean Isle Fishing Center, reports that boats running to the Gulf Stream are still finding plenty of action with gaffer dolphin. Trolling skirted ballyhoo is the best way to produce action with these colorful acrobats, and good places to begin looking out of Ocean Isle are the Blackjack Hole, 100/400, and Winyah Scarp.

Bottom fishermen are hooking some fat scamp groupers around structure in 85-100′ of water. Both vertical jigs (like the Blue Water Candy Roscoe) and live baits are producing action with the scamps, although it can be tough to get a live bait past schools of amberjacks in order to get to the scamps.

Boats have been finding some excellent live-baiting action in 50-65′ of water lately. Solid numbers of king mackerel (with many fish in the 20’s and fish up to 40 lbs. landed lately) along with scattered dolphin and cobia are feeding around bottom structure and bait concentrations in that range. Most boats are hooking up while slow-trolling live pogies, and there have been plenty of pogies along the beaches lately.

There was also a good king bite late last week along the beach, and boats hooked good numbers of kings while live-baiting around the pogy schools.

 

Kyle, of Ocean Isle Fishing Center, reports that the red drum bite has been on lately (with fish to over 30″ caught and released last week), and anglers are finding most of the fish in the creeks right now. Oyster bars and other structure are holding the reds, and anglers are hooking them on live shrimp underneath floats.

Speckled trout are feeding in the same areas, and float-rigged shrimp are proving deadly on the specks as well.

The area flounder bite continues to improve, and anglers are catching big numbers of flatties in Tubbs Inlet. Live mud minnows and pogies are producing most of the action with the flounder. Some larger fish are feeding in the Lockwood Folly and Shallotte Rivers, and pogies have been producing action with the bigger fish.

Some large sheepshead are still feeding at the Little River jetties. Some anglers are hooking up with the fat sheeps on live shrimp while trout fishing, but baiting up with fiddler crabs is the best way to target them.

Spanish mackerel fishing has been best to the east around Lockwood Folly lately, but there was a good bite around Little River last week when the water was clean. Free-lining a live pogy or finger mullet on the surface will produce spanish strikes, and anglers can also cast X-raps or topwater plugs with success when the fish are busting bait on the surface.

 

David, of Capt. Hook Outdoors, reports solid action with king mackerel along the beachfront from the Cape Fear mouth to Shallotte Inlet. Free-lining live pogies near balls of bait has been working well on the kings, and some big spanish mackerel are falling for the live baits, too.

Anglers have caught dolphin as close as 10 miles offshore while live-baiting, so anglers needn’t make a long run to hook up with these blue water gamesters.

Cobia are cruising around the wrecks and live bottoms off the beaches, so anglers should keep an eye out for the inquisitive fish while king and dolphin fishing.

Flounder are feeding in the inlets and inshore, and anglers are hooking them on live finger mullet. The mullet are schooling inside the inlets and in the creeks, so getting flounder bait shouldn’t be a challenge.

Red drum are feeding around the Little River jetties and other inshore structure, and live finger mullet or mud minnows should produce strikes from them.

Some speckled trout are in the same areas as the reds, and anglers should be able to hook the specks on live shrimp if they can find them.

 

Paul, of Ocean Isle Pier, reports that anglers are hooking up with some spanish mackerel and bluefish on Gotcha plugs. The blues have also been taking an interest in float rigs anglers are fishing for trout.

Midweek last week, anglers were limiting out on speckled trout while fishing live shrimp under float rigs from the pier.

Bottom fishermen have been hooking some small sharks and a few whiting and spot.