Fishing North Carolina
 

Thinking about going to North Carolina end of August. Property is on Whalehead beach. Can anyone tell me what I would expect to catch there surfcasting in late August? Any help appreciated.

Thanks,

Ice

Lived in NC for 6 years... fishing from shore is NOTHING like NE. During the day you can get, spot, croaker and if lucky whiting (sea mullet). I love whiting, VERY tastey breaded and fried. maybe a stray flounder, bluefish etc. mostly small stuff. Sometimes popano in the surf line, also very good eating. If you can dig up sand fleas that JUST shedded they are the best bait going. All those fish love them. Use a small hook, .5-1 oz egg sinker on a carolina rig. Second choice of bait was shrimp. But it NO WHERE near as good as sand fleas.

When we would go to the shore for a week I would catch enough whiting almost every day for a nice lunch.


At night, some red/black drum if you can find a decent rip or break in a sand bar. Shrimp was usually the bait of choice, or live finger mullet if you could find some back in the tidal creeks. Both rigged carolina style.

I fished south of where you are going to be, or on vacations on the OBX.

Good luck, bring your stuff and ask around. It is one of the last places I would go for a fishing vacation, beautifull though to sit on the beach. I considered ny 6 years in NC, my time in fishing hell. If you didn't have :ss: you were screwed.

There is also alot of pier fishing. If you got nothing else to do, it's fun at night after dinner for a few hours. If fish are in wife/kids/parents whatever can have a blast bailing panfish.

Thanks for the great response JFigliuolo, appreciated.

one other thing. IF you want to charter, you are VERY close to the gulf stream. The fishing from a boat in NC can be excellent cobia, wahoo, dolphin etc... I never had the $ when I was there to blow on a charter.

The guy before me got it right; N.C. beach fishing basically sucks. I might want to add a couple of other suggestions. If you get near an inlet you might catch bluefish; not the nice ones like up here, but little one pound (if you're lucky) snappers. You can also catch flounder occasionally. The black drum can also occasionally show up in the inlets. Try buying some mummichogs for bait for the flounder; shrimp works O.K. for drum. Best strategy is throw a line out, drink some beer, and check out the babes; the fishing is basically a waste of time.

I fished the OBX in may a few years back. I was so pumped for the trip. Stocked up on stuff that i thought i needed. I was there for a week and put in about 60 hours of fishing time. Lets see. 2 skate, 1 stingray, and 1 puffer. It wasnt what i expected at all. Still a beautiful place, i will vacation there again but it wont be centered around fishing, atleast not in may.

Thanks for all the responses on this. I put in to my two daughters about this trip and both said hands down that they wanted to go back to Cape Cod where @ least I know I can catch some seals...

Ice

The above posts have it correct. The shore fishing is pretty bad here. If you head further South towards Hatteras you might pick up some large Drum although the beach driving may be halted soon. If you really want to see the fishery of NC I would suggest a inshore or offshore charter. I think the Cape would make a better fishing trip especially if you do not have a boat.

Check out NCAngler.com - local site down there

Maybe try a pier?
http://www.fishing-nc.com/nc-fishing-piers.php

Nah. Most of the pier fishing sucks too. You might catch a few croaker, maybe some spanish mackerel or blues if you're lucky. If you're willing to camp on the end for a few days, you might catch a king mackerel (people do it!). Basically, everything from the surf there sucks. Don't bother.