The inshore fishing has been really good lately with catches of redfish, speckled trout, striped bass, and there are still a few flounder hanging around. The weather has been great and hopefully will be good for the Thanksgiving holiday. The speckled trout bite should be strong for the next month or so and the redfish and striper fishing will continue all winter long.

The redfishing has really picked up this past week with large schools on the flats and smaller pods of reds working the creeks. The reds are ranging in size from under slot fish 14" to 18" to large over slot fish up to 29". The sightfishing has been awesome the past couple of days with the light winds and low tides. Most of the reds have been caught sightcasting and blindcasting soft plastic jigs and scented artificials. Fishing live mud minnows and shrimp on float rigs and bottom rigs will also put good numbers of reds in the boat.

The speckled trout bite has been good throughout the Cape Fear area from Wrightsville Beach to Southport. The specs are hitting soft plastic jigs, mirrolures, artificial shrimp under popping floats, and of course live shrimp on float rigs. We are also picking up a flounder or two while throwing artificials for redfish and speckled trout.

The striper fishing is starting to pick up in the upper Cape Fear River. Fishing shallow and deep diving plugs and swimbaits around ledges, structure, and creek mouths will pick up stripers all winter long. We recently got on a good sunset topwater bite and picked four fish in about thirty minutes on topwater plugs.

This is a great time of year to fish for reds, speckled trout, and striped bass. If you would like to get in on some of this action give me a call. I have some good winter rates and trips available Dec. 1st thru March 1st. Just check out the winter rates page on my website. Thanks for reading the report and check out some of the photos from the past couple of weeks.

Thanks,
Jeff Wolfe
Seahawk Inshore Fishing Charters
Carolina Beach Inshore Fishing Blog
910-619-9580

11/13/10 Randy with a speckled trout he caught fishing a live shrimp on a float rig.

11/13/10 James with a red he caught fishing a live shrimp on a float rig. James and Randy had 11 keeper speckled trout and good numbers of redfish. James was the man on the specs and also caught a keeper flounder to complete his inshore slam.

11/16/10 Jim from Kentucky with a couple of his redfish and the speckled trout he caught fishing soft plastic jigs and mirrolures.

11/19/10 Ryan from Minnesota with a 28′ red and a flounder he caught blindcasting artificials.

Ryan had a great day on the reds plus a few speckled trout and a flounder to complete his Carolina inshore slam.

11/10/10 A nice striper I caught casting a topwater plug at sunset on the upper Cape Fear River

11/20/10 Christian with a redfish he caught blindcasting artificials in the lower Cape Fear

11/20/10 Blake with a nice red he caught sightcasting to large school on the flats

11/21/10 Christian with a striper he caught throwing a swimbait at some structure in the upper Cape Fear River

The inshore fishing is still solid in inshore and backwaters from Wrightsville Beach to Southport. Redfish, speckled trout, flounder, whiting, black drum and sheephead are all currently available to anglers fishing these waters. If the water cools over the next couple of weeks, flounder and sheephead will start to move into the ocean for the winter. Fishing for speckled trout should be good thru Christmas and redfish and striped bass will be available all winter.

The speckled trout fishing is picking up throughout the Cape Fear area. Specks are showing up around the inlets and creeks from Wrightsville Beach to Carolina Beach. The Cape Fear river is also holding good numbers of specks from Snow’s Cut to Southport. The trout are hitting mirrolures, soft plastic jigs, artificial shrimp, live shrimp and mullet minnows.

The redfishing is good in the backwaters and creeks of the lower Cape Fear. There are also some reds being caught around docks and other structure in the waterway. Most of the redfish are lower and under slot fish with a few upper slot fish in the mix. The reds are hitting soft plastic jigs, gulp shrimp, spinnerbaits and live minnows.

There are still some flounder around and we have caught some really nice fish over six pounds recently on Gulp Shrimp. Most of the flounder on my charters have been caught while we are fishing artificials for specks and redfish. We have also picked up a few flounder fishing live minnows on float rigs and carolina rigs in the same areas we are fishing these baits for redfish.

There are also a few sheephead and black drum around structure and can be caught fishing live crabs and shrimp on carolina rigs and float rigs close to the structure.

There are good numbers of nice sized whiting in the Cape Fear river, along with some spots and gray trout in the mix. Fishing two hook bottom rigs baited with fresh shrimp can put good numbers of these tasty panfish in the cooler.

The fishing should continue to be good over the next month or so and hopefully the weather will cooperate so we can get some good fishing days in. This is the best time to of year to get out there and do some inshore fishing if the wind cooperates. If you want to get out there and get in on some of this fall fishing give me a call. I can make it as easy as fishing in a farm pond for all of the inshore species of fish.

I would like to congratulate my son Christian on his recent committment to play baseball for the UNC Wilmington Seahawks. Christian is a junior at Ashley High School and looks like he will be terrorizing redfish in this area for the next six years.

Thanks for reading the report,
Jeff Wolfe
Seahawk Inshore Fishing Charters
NC Inshore Fishing Blog
910-619-9580

10/23/10 Christian with a red and flounder he caught fishing Gulp shrimp. He caught an unbelievable amount of reds on this day sightfishing to schools in the creeks at low tide

10/23/10 Jimmy with a red he caught sightfishing to school in the creeks while fishing with Christian

A fall sunrise on the lower Cape Fear

10/25/10 David with a good catch of specks fishing mirrolures in the creeks

Walt with a sunset speck on 10/26/10. Caught fishing a soft plastic jig in the creeks

10/22/10 I picked up a rod and made a cast while fishing with clients Adam, Wes, and Thomas and look what I caught. A six pound plus flounder on a Gulp Alive Shrimp.

10/22/10 Adam, Wes, and Thomas with a good catch of whiting, sheephead, redfish, black drum, and flounder fishing artificials and live minnows

10/27/10 Walt with a six and three quarter pound flounder caught on a Gulp Alive Shrimp. These Gulp baits work really well on flounder