Southport/Oak Island – March 2023
Angie, of Dutchman Creek Bait and Tackle, reports that surf anglers have started to find some pufferfish showing up. Hopefully, they’ll soon be followed by a push of sea mullet.
Off the beach, the best action has come from anglers bottom fishing the deeper offshore structures around the Tower. Until word of king mackerel pushing in draws out more anglers, expect the bottom fish species to make up the best bite over the coming weeks.
Garrett, of Mad Kingz Tackle, reports that surf anglers are catching some pufferfish and have begun to see the first couple whiting of the season.
Inshore anglers have been finding speckled trout and redfish staged back in the mainland creeks. Both species should keep mostly in the back of creeks until bait arrives and water temperatures pull them out towards the rivers and ICW.
Nearshore anglers have found a lot of black sea bass action around the 60-80’ bottoms.
Hunter, of Dockside Fishing Charters, reports that red drum action has been doing pretty well. Wintertime has these reds holding in large schools back in skinny waters. Most schools are holding a bunch of smaller “rat” reds, but there are slot-sized fish mixed in. Soft plastic jerk shads or artificial DOA shrimp have both had success.
Red drum can also be found staged in deep pockets of water around hard structures. These fish are best targeted with live shrimp under slip cork rigs.
Anglers looking for black drum will find action targeting these same deep pockets with Carolina-rigged cut shrimp.
Speckled trout action has been largely hit-or-miss. There are fish around, but strictly targeting the trout has been difficult.
Kirk, of Take Up The Slack Fishing Charters, reports that due to the mild winter, speckled trout should be some of the first species to go on the move and fire up. Look for these trout to be staged in deeper holes around docks in the creeks.
Black drum will be in the same areas, and they’ll be feeding on bottom-rigged shrimp.
Red drum are also in the creeks. Anglers have been finding action scouting the shallower flats on sunny days where water temperatures are warmer than the surrounding area.
Nearshore fishing has mostly been focused on black sea bass action in the 10-15 mile range.
Robert, of Reelin’ Pelican Fishing Charters, reports that inshore anglers are getting excited to see the speckled trout, red drum, sheepshead, and black drum all get more active with water temperatures moving up. Look for these fish to be moving out of wintering creeks and staging up closer to the mouths and even along the ICW in the coming weeks.
Nearshore fishing has been pretty slow. Anglers look forward to the first wave of Atlantic bonito to start moving through off the beach. Water temperatures in the 65-degree range are usually a good benchmark before running out to scout for surface-feeding action.
Mark, of Angry Pelican Charters, reports that black sea bass are being found in good numbers from structure in the 45’ range on out.
There are also a bunch of American red snapper (released) on these same structures, and some groups of bull red drum are holding out in the 50’ range.
Closer to the beach, the black drum will be firing up on the reefs moving through March. Anglers also anticipate the whiting to start chewing on either side of the tides around the mouth of the Cape Fear. Targeting the deeper channel edges with some bottom-rigged fresh shrimp will do the trick.
Anglers looking to run offshore are finding the king mackerel bite to be pretty typical for these cooler month patterns. Schoolie-sized fish are holding on rocks and ledges out around the 100’ depth range. Bottom fishing out in this range has also been great all winter.
Ryan, of Fugitive Charters, reports that one of the first signs of spring fishing are the whiting showing up in deeper holes along the beachfront and into the river mouth. A few fish have already been caught, and moving through March, this bite should fire right up.
Closer to the end of the month, anglers will also start looking out for the spanish mackerel to arrive. Typically, this happens when water temperatures hit the 65 degree mark.
Anglers running to the deeper offshore bottom areas out near the Tower are finding large black sea bass (to 5+ lbs.).
There are also kings moving in and out of the 30 mile range (based on the daily water temperature breaks).
Offshore action is mostly centered around blackfin tuna and wahoo. Hopefully, anglers will get the opportunity to find yellowfin tuna making a push through our area around the end of the month and into April.
Greg, of Ocean Crest Pier, reports that anglers have been able to find some bottom fishing action when taking advantage of these warm winter breaks. A combination of croakers and whiting make up a majority of the catches. In the coming weeks, anglers anticipate seeing better numbers of whiting as they filter more into the area, and perhaps some spanish mackerel are not too far behind.
Cindy, of Oak Island Pier, reports that there has been a handful of smaller black drum showing up, a sign of spring fishing moving closer.
Anglers have also been catching a variety of whiting, croakers, and pufferfish. Action on all species should only pick up as waters warm up in the coming weeks.
