Spring 2023 Fishing Report
Here is a brief recap of how the fishing has been going this Spring 2023 here in South Eastern North Carolina (Wilmington, Wrightsville Beach, Carolina Beach, Topsail Island, Bald Head Island, Oak Island and Southport).
So far this Spring has been great fishing when the weather allows and especially when we have a stretch of consistent air / water temperatures. We have had a couple of cold fronts come through that have made the bite a little tough during and after the front but for the most part Spring fishing is in full swing. For this report I will go through some of the species that we have been targeting the most and been having success on.
Spanish Mackerel have been very frequent visitors in the area right around a mile to 5 miles off the beach. I like to look for birds when fishing for these fish and cast to them with metal jigs if it looks like the bait is getting pushed to the top. Around artificial reefs many times you can find schools of them with your fish finder and vertically jig for them as well. If the casting and jigging technique is not working then I will go to the troll. On my boat I am generally only trolling two rods at a time and will have a #1 planer and a #2 planer paired with clarkspoons in various colors. I like pinks and silvers if the water is clear and gold if the water is more stained and tanic. 7 mph generally seems to be the best trolling speed for me as it tends to weed out a lot of the bluefish, if you want to catch more blues though troll around 5 to 6 mph.
Atlantic Bonito were prevalent but I believe have since moved on. I have not had a bonito in the boat for about a week now and that is no surprise, it usually seems they stick around for a couple weeks and then the numbers really dwindle off. I fish for these much the same as I do Spanish with more of a focus on trying to mark them on the fish finder. I think a key to success on Bonito is trying to find areas with not a ton of boat traffic. They seem to not want to get up on the top when there are not 50 boats trolling around one small area.
Red Drum bite has been very good at times and very tough other times. They seem to be a little more susceptible to drastic weather changes this time of year than other fish. If we get a stretch of consistletly warm days we have started seeing them working shallow banks for small bait like shrimp and minnows and when the weather gets cold they seem to disappear into deeper holes and sloughs. On those tougher days we have been targeting them with cut mullet or mud minnows on a Carolina Rig and when they are high and happy we will target them with fly rods and light spinning gear. They are starting to show signs of their summer habits and it’s only a matter of time until they really turn on. This is not to say the red fishing is bad by any means but it has been inconsistent with the weather patters we have been having.
Speckled Trout bite seems to be turning on right on time. The water temp is just about in the high 60’s low 70’s inshore and that is right around when speckled trout will start to show up again in river mouths and in the surf. We have migratory trout and we have trout that seem to never leave but there is a couple to a few months at the end of spring when the trout fishing can get really good. We have been targeting these fish on artificial for the most part and in particular the 1/4 oz red flake DOA shrimp seems to always do the trick.
Cobia should start to show up any day now and hope we will have them somewhat consistently this year for sight fishing opportunities. For these I like to target them with bucktail jigs when sight fishing and menhaden on a Carolina Rig when fishing nearshore structure, I will also generally always have a bait on a flat as well if I plan on sitting and bottom fishing for a while because you may pickup a Cobia, King Mackrel or a large Spanish Mackerel. If there are a lot of bait balls of menhaden in the ocean they are a great place to look for them on the surface but also to blind cast bucktails into and see if you get lucky.
Sharks have shown up in very strong numbers at a few spots and they ARE NOT SMALL. We have seen multiple 6 to 8 foot sharks that have been sightfishable with anything from a fly rod to pitching a dead bait to. If you are looking for a fight these are a great fish to break out your big rods on. I like at least a Mag Heavy rod for this and a 6000 reel at the very least. Steel leader is a must.
I hope this helps and give us a call if you are looking to get in on any of these fish!
Happy Fishing!
Capt. Cameron Pappas
(910) 547.9353
