We are experiencing some awesome inshore fishing here in the Cape Fear area.  The weather has been really good and has provided us with some good fishing opportunities for the past few weeks. Lots of redfish and black drum along with a few speckled trout, striped bass, and an occasional flounder.  Looks like it is going to be a good winter and hopefully the weather will cooperate and we’ll get some good fishing in over the next few weeks.

The redfish bite has been good to incredible on the lower and under-slot fish.  I have seen some larger reds recently in the middle to upper-slot range, so hopefully these fish are starting to show and get into their winter patterns.  There are some schools on the flats and the sightfishing should be good when the winds are light.  There are also some schools roaming around some of the area docks.  Soft plastics like Gulp Shrimp, Swimming Mullet and DOA paddletails are working well along with shrimp and mud minnows on carolina rigs.

We are catching some nice sized black drum fishing dead shrimp in the same areas we are catching reds.  These fish are really strong, a blast to catch on light tackle, no limits, and great to eat.  There has been some really good action when finding reds and black drum mixed together.  There have been a lot of black drum around this fall and hopefully these guys will hang around this winter.

The speckled trout fishing is still strong in some areas but has slowed for me in the areas I have been fishing recently.  The trout are hitting soft plastic paddletails and fluketails, mirrolures, Gulp Shrimp and live shrimp.  There are some stripers, reds, and specs being caught in the upper Cape Fear River around Wilmington and we’re still picking up a keeper flounder here and there.

I have recently repowered my 2011 19′ Carolina Skiff with a 2012 90hp Yamaha Four-Stroke.  This is a great boat to take three anglers and myself to get to those shallow water reds and get us there in a hurry.  I am looking forward to running most of my winter trips on this boat.

Thanks for reading the report and I’ll try to keep it updated every couple of weeks over the winter months.  Check out some the photos from my recent trips.

Check out the recent Guide Times article (Cape Fear River Stripers Pipe to Rock) in the winter addition of the Fisherman’s Post.  I had editor/publisher Gary Hurley and writer Max Gaspeny on the Kenner Bay Boat for a few hours of striper fishing in the Cape Fear River around Wilmington.

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

The inshore and backwater fishing has been good to excellent lately.  This trend should continue through the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.  The redfish and striper fishing will continue throughout the winter and can be incredible in the months of January and February.  Hopefully we’ll have a mild winter and there will be some good fishing opportunities throughout the winter months.

The redfish bite has been great on the smaller fish and the larger fish have been harder to find recently.  There are some larger reds on the flats and the sightfishing is good when conditions are right, which has been a rarity lately. We are also finding some slot sized reds mixed in with the smaller ones in the creeks of the lower Cape Fear River.  Gulp Shrimp and DOA paddletails are working well, but fresh shrimp and live mud minnows have produced most of the action lately.

The speckled trout fishing has been good throughout the Cape Fear area.  From Wrightsville Beach to Southport, nice specs are being caught in large numbers.  Almost all of these fish have been keepers with some nice three to four pound fish in the mix. We have had some really good days on a variety of baits.  DOA fluketails, paddletails, mirrolures, Billy Bay Shrimp on popping floats, live minnows and shrimp have all produced some good numbers of specs on my charters recently.  The trout fishing should continue through December and possibly longer depending on water temps.

We are catching some nice black drum mixed in with the reds, which has produced some incredible action on light tackle.  These fish have been in the three to five pound range, a blast to catch on light tackle and are great to eat.  All of the black drum have been caught on fresh or live shrimp on carolina rigs.

The striped bass fishing is starting to turn on in the upper Cape Fear River around Wilmington.  This is a catch and release fishery and they are an absolute blast  to catch on light tackle, especially topwater plugs. A good number of stripers have been in the six to twelve pound range.  Shallow and deep diving plugs, swimbaits and topwater plugs have all produced some good action.  We occasionally pick up some redfish and speckled trout on the same lures while fishing for stripers.

The whiting are also starting to show up up along the Cape Fear River channel.  Dropping two hook bottom rigs baited with fresh shrimp can put good numbers of these fish in the cooler.  Whiting pound for pound are one of the hardest fighting fish, fun to catch and great to eat.  We also pick up a few gray trout while fishing for whiting.

The flounder are starting to move out, but we are still picking up a few flounder on Gulp Baits and live minnows while fishing for redfish and speckled trout.  
The next couple of months are shaping up to produce some great fishing opportunities on the lower Cape Fear and hopefully the weather will cooperate.  Speckled trout fishing will continue through December and possibly longer.  Striped bass fishing is here and will continue throughout the winter.   The abundance of smaller reds in the area will be growing to slot fish and the larger reds will school up and we should experience some good winter fishing.

Thanks for reading the report and check out the photos from the past couple of weeks.  I should have a good report for the next couple of weeks.

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