Great Nearshore Fishing Around Wrightsville Beach, NC

Hello Folks, is this summer going by fast for you? It sure is for me, they say time flies when you’re having fun. I guess I’m having a fun summer, fishing that is. Hey in other good news those gas prices have come down a little bit, they just need to keep coming down! Let’s talk some good fishing!

The last couple of weeks the fishing has been pretty good just off the beach. The Spanish Mackerel have been biting very good most days and the fish are a really nice grade. Some fish over six pounds, that’s a good pull on light tackle! Early morning seems to be the best bite, but some fish have stayed around all day on some days.

Most of the Spanish are biting Clark spoons trolled behind #1 planner’s. The Clark spoons that are working the best for us are sizes; 00 and 0 in plan silver and pink flash. When the Spanish are on top feeding and jumping, Maria jig spoons have been the trick. The colors that seem to be working are pink, green and blue in sizes seven & fourteen gram. We have also caught a few very nice Spanish on the fly rod too.

We are starting to catch Flounder pretty good; we are seeing a few fish inshore as well on the near shore reefs and wrecks. Most of the flounder inshore are mixed in size, but the fish in the ocean are a little better in size. Live bait and grubs are the best bet. Carolina rigs for the live bait and heavy jig heads for the grubs. I prefer bright grubs; Saltwater Assassin’s sea shads in colors chart/diamond and silver mullet work real well. Watch out when fishing in the ocean for the flounders; we’ve had some very nice fish eaten by Barracudas just under the boat. It’s not a fun thing!!

I’m still seeing a few Tarpon around the inlets and off the shoals; the Tarpon should stay around till mid September. We fish for Tarpon on the bottom using, live and fresh dead baits like; spots, bluefish and Menhaden. We rig these baits on fish finder rigs, with three to five feet of 80 to 100 pound mono leaders. Circle hooks are the best bet for good hook ups and landings for Tarpon in hook sizes 7/0 to 9/0 depending what hook series you like. We’ve caught some very nice bluefish while Tarpon fishing lately.

The Shark fishing is still going very strong most days. Very nice sharks in the forty to over two hundred pounds are mostly what we are seeing. We’ve been using light tackle and fly rods to catch these powerful sharks. When we use spinning reels we use; 300+ yards of thirty and forty pound Ugly braid super line and a good fast tipped rod. They are a lot of fun on spinning tackle!

Thanks so much for reading this report, if you would like a Fishing charter give me call or drop me a line. Good fishing to ya!

Fishing gear we use;

Tarpon and sharks Reels Pflueger Contender G15L, Rods Shakespeare Custom “USCB 1166 MH” Penn spinning reels 560L Live Liner with Penn Torque jigging rod 7’ 20 to 50 braids.

Spanish and Flounder: Reels Pflueger Medalist spinning in sizes 6035 and 6040. Rods: Ugly stick lites 6’6” and 7’ Med & Med-Heavy.

Good Luck,

Captain Jot Owens
www.captainjot.com
910-233-4139