North Carolina Saltwater Fishing Reports
Lots of good reports from North Carolina earlier this week before Hanna, offshore boats were catching a lot of yellowfin, dolphin and billfish. Inshore, Spanish Mackeral, bluefish, and red drum were keeping anglers happy. One TidalFIsh member reported of a dolphin being caught off the pier in Nags Head. With all the run off from Hanna and the weather from Ike on the way, anglers will probably be stuck on the couch this week or limited to freshwater lakes and ponds.

Bill from Oregon Inlet Fishing Center reported: ”
September 4, 2008 Fishing Report
Busy day here at Oregon Inlet Fishing Center. Most of the boats have left for safe refuge in case one of these hurricanes (Hanna), comes calling. A few boats went off shore. They caught dolphin, tuna and bilfish. White marlin in particular are numerous followed by sailfish and there is alsways the posibility of hooking a spectacular blue one. One boat had eight white marlin and a blue marlin. There were at least twenty five white marlin released today. Inshore Great spanish mackerel, tailor bluefish and false albacore. Open boats caught speckled trout and flounders. Miss Oregon Inlet caught croakers, sea mulet and grey trout.

September 2, 2008 Fishing Reports
A wonderful variety of catches made at the Gulf Sream. Lots of dolphin including some citation gaffers. Citation yellowfin tunas weighing 96, 73, 79, 65 and 81 pounds. Lots of billfish. caught and released.I counted 27 white marlin flags, seven sailfish and one blue marlin. The blue marlin combined with three white marlin and a sailfish made it a grand slam. Inshore lots of tailor bluefish and spanish mackerel. False albacore were also caught and a barracuda. Open boats had a good day on soeckled trout. An allday trip caught bluefish and cobia. Miss Oregon inlet caught sea mullet.”

TW’s Bait and Tackle reported: ”
September 6, 2008 Fishing Reports
No report this morning. The storm is no more than what we usually have with a nor’easter. The good news, we are not having the beach erosion we have with the NE winds. That’s a good thing.

September 4, 2008 Fishing Reports
Surf Fishing Report: John Newbold of TW’s Tackle caught and released many Drum south of Oregon Inlet on Wednesday. The largest one measuring at 33 in.
Sound Fishing Report: The Little Bridge reported Specks and Flounder.
Pier Fishing Report:
Avalon: Blues and Spanish.
Nags Head: Blues, Spanish and a few Pompano.
Outer Banks: Spot, Blues and Spanish.
Inshore Boats Report: Spanish, blues King Mackerel, Triggerfish and False Albacore
Offshore Boats Report: Yesterday was another great billfish day. Another grand slam. Lots of Dolphin and Yellowfin.”

NORTH CAROLINA FISHING REPORTS COVERING THE ENTIRE NORTH CAROLINA COAST

Reported from North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries

From Knotts Island to Ocracoke:
Ocean: Offshore fishing remains good with limits of dolphin, greater amberjack, blueline tilefish, wahoo, barracuda, and assorted snappers and groupers out of the  Hatteras marinas.  Tuna catches remain few with the exception of a few bigeye tuna out of the northern Outer Banks marinas.  Billfish catches remain consistent, with good catches of sailfish and blue and white marlin.  Midrange catch rates made a modest improvement, with some very large striped bass being caught 8 to10-miles offshore along with a few red drum, triggerfish, and black seabass.  Artificial reefs have been producing some nice sheepshead and tautog on a fairly regular basis.  Fishing slowed a bit for inshore anglers.
Inlets/Sounds/Bays: Flounder have been the primary target of these anglers, and for good reason! Well over 50% of the ones they hook are legal keeping size.  Oregon Inlet has produced the bulk of them with most catches in the very shallow areas near the various islands, but nice specimens were caught throughout the region.  Spotted seatrout  and citation size croakers were caught in Roanoke Sound underneath the Washington Baum Bridge.  There have been some good catches of striped bass at Manns Harbor.
Piers/Shore: Success rates slowed, with only a few bluefish and Spanish mackerel being caught.  A few spot, croaker, pigfish, pinfish, blue runners, spadefish, skates, and assorted sharks were all also caught.  There were some good cobia catches from piers, especially at night, with a few citation size catches being landed.
General Overview: Anglers continued to have moderate success rates in most modes and favorable weather conditions predicted for the coming week.  Tropical storm Hanna may affect fishing efforts toward the end of the week.

From Portsmouth to Surf City:

Ocean:  Fishing for Spanish mackerel is wide open.  Fish, two pounds or more can be caught off the beaches from Cape Lookout to Bogue Inlet.  Swimming with them are bluefish, which are especially thick on the Cape Lookout Shoals.  Black sea bass can be found on AR 330 along with good-sized flounder. The Honeyhole contains dolphin.  Wahoo can be hooked around AR 300 and kings are around Buoy 14.
Inlets/Sounds/Bays: Sheepshead are still here and can be caught along the seawall at the state port, and all the posts and pilings of the bridges in the county. The Turning Basin at the state port has pigfish, sea mullet, lizardfish, flounder and undersized sea bass.
Piers/Shore:  Good-sized sea mullet and pigfish can be found in the surf. Large bluefish were jumping close to the beaches on Radio Island. Piers had a mixed bag – a little of everything from Spanish in the early mornings to shark, rays pigfish, croakers and spots during the heat of the day.

From Topsail to Sunset Beach:
Ocean: Offshore, the wahoo have been biting pretty good over the last week or two. If the wahoo don’t bite you can move inshore a few miles and try bottom fishing for red grouper. Closer to shore there were some decent king catches last week around the tower as well as some African pompano.  Ledges in the 10 to 20-mile range produced some outstanding sailfish catches last week. Near shore reefs are still producing nice flounder and a few large red drum.
Inlets/Sounds/Bays: There wasn’t a lot of change from previous weeks. Flounder fishing seems to be fair with some fish over eight pounds caught last week. Trout are also biting decent in the Cape Fear River. Both flounder and trout are being caught from Southport to Wilmington. Live menhaden and finger mullet are catching the flounder and live shrimp are producing the trout. Black and red drum are being reported in the same areas as well.
Piers/Shore: Fishing was fair last week. Spanish mackerel and some nice king mackerel were caught on the Oak Island Pier earlier in the week. Anglers on area piers reported catches of flounder, black drum, pompano, sea mullets, and a few bluefish.

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