By Capt. Alan Cain.
Its been a very tough year overall in the Wilmington, NC area due to weather, but the last month has been significantly better. We still have storms and wind some days, but overall the temperatures are dropping and the weather is more consistent. Consistent weather equals consistent fishing.
The redfishing has been great some days and slow others. It’s been an off-year inshore due to dirty water and a bad spawning year a few years past. We are missing a large population of slot-sized redfish due to this. Most fish this year have been small or big, over-the-slot fish. The good news is that there are more 10-15 inch redfish the last few months than I’ve seen in the last 10 years. This should make for a great fishing and huge numbers of 3 to 5-pound redfish next year.
The redfish inshore are starting to transition into their fall pattern. We have been catching them crushing for shrimp and mullet as the bait begins to leave our inshore waters in the creeks and on the flats.
Over the last few weeks the bigger adult redfish have been showing up on our near shore reefs, wrecks, and bait balls along the beach. These fish are in the 15-30-pound range and can be caught on artificials or bait.
Tarpon and sharks are also hanging out in the river and off the beach around bait balls from Wrightsville down to Oak Island. Tarpon are very tough, but can be caught with the right conditions.
Sharks, however, are a different story. A shark will crush every cast next to a bait ball with a fly, artificial lures or bait. Most are blacktips in the 30 to 100-pound range. They are great fighters.
The best fishing lately has been for False Albacore. These are among my favorite seasonal fish that we have here in NC. They are very fast and are hard fighters. They will burn the drag off most any reel. Albacore usually don’t show until late September, with October being the prime month. This year, however, they moved in in late August and the last three weeks have been very good, except during the tropical storms.
We target the “Albies” by running along the beaches looking for fish busting bait or for birds hovering over the fish. This is easy and exciting fishing whether you are fly fishing or using light tackle spin gear and it’s shaping up to be the best Albacore year I have ever seen.
I only have about 12 days left open before heading to Louisiana so don’t miss out on the fall redfishing and epic Albacore fishing going on right now.
If you want to experience some of the best redfishing in the world and sight-cast to 20 to 40-pounders in two or three feet of water give me a call (336-613-2975) or check out http://sightfishnc.com/louisiana/ for details.