From Nags Head, TW’s reports:
Surf Fishing: We had fair fishing this side of the Inlet catching Bluefish. The most exciting news we have had in a while would be a 40-lb. striper caught from the Nags Head surf. John Payer from Forked River, NJ weighed in yesterday at our Nags Head store.
The winds are NE at 9 and the water temp is 63 degrees. Water is clear. Good Bluefish water. Bluefish feed by sight.
Sound Fishing: The Little Bridge anglers on the Nags Head/Manteo causeway are catching small trout.
Pier Fishing: Avalon: Bluefish and a few small trout.
Nags Head: Bluefish
Jennette’s: Skate
Outer Banks: Bluefish and sea mullet.
Virginia Saltwater
By Dr. Ken Neill, III
Drum fishing is the best thing we have going. Both red and black drum are being caught along the seaside of the Eastern Shore and around the shoals near the mouth of the bay. Some black drum are starting to show in the general “Cabbage Patch” area. Other than drum, nothing is great. There are flounder being caught inside seaside inlets and some have been caught along the CBBT, on Hampton Bar and inside the York and Back Rivers. The trophy striped bass season is open (36 inches and greater) and the bay season (20-28 inches) opens May 16. Be sure to check and understand these regulations. There are some striped bass at the CBBT, along the seaside of the Eastern Shore, in the York, James, and the Mobjack Bay Rivers. Some speckled trout are being caught, but again, not in great numbers. Some nice fish have been caught inside of Rudee Inlet. Some are being caught in the York River, in the Mobjack Bay, on Poquoson Flats, and inside of Back River. Croaker fishing is decent in the Hampton Roads area. Tautog fishing is excellent but the season is closed. Sheepshead and spadefish will be arriving soon.
Sea bass is back open as of May 15. We were shut down during the best of our season but there will still be plenty of sea bass still out there giving us a reason to venture back out into the ocean. Anglers will be fishing areas like the Triangle Wrecks and Tower Reef for sea bass and a possible flounder. Others will head further offshore for combine sea bass/tilefish trips. Fishing should be good. The tuna bite could start anytime. It is good to our south out of Oregon Inlet where good numbers of yellowfin are being caught. Out of Hatteras, blue marlin are being targeted. Blackfin tuna and increasing numbers of dolphin are being caught. Of special interest to local anglers, the cobia bite is on down there.
Cobia fishing will close in federal waters on June 20. It remains to be seen if Virginia and North Carolina will follow suit with closures in state waters. This would be much more problematic for Virginia as the closure would occur just about the time the cobia season begins to heat up here. Virginia will decide at the May 24 VMRC meeting. This is one you may want to attend if cobia fishing is important to you. Options are anywhere between closing state waters June 20 to keeping the season open as is. In between these are many combinations of boat limits, changes in size limits, different closure dates and so on. You can send comments in via email: rob.o’reilly@mrc.virginia.gov.
Oregon Inlet The Fishing Center reports: On May 10, anglers enjoyed a beautiful day of fishing and returned with near limits of mahi-mahi and good numbers of yellow-fin tuna. Congrats to Scott Schuster for his sailfish release. Our Near-Shore anglers enjoyed some great bluefish action and brought in some excellent keepers guaranteed to set a tasty table tonight. Anglers on our In-Shore boats enjoyed super speckled trout today and landed our biggest speckled trout, weighing in near 4 pounds. May 11: Anglers fishing with Capt. Jason who brought in some really nice cobia, some of our first in quite some time. Anglers on our offshore fleet brought in mahi, including some really nice gaffers and a couple of black-fins and albacore thrown in for good measure. Charles Dixon Jr. had a sailfish release. Our Near-Shore anglers had excellent bluefish action today and brought in some really nice chunky fish. Our In-Shore anglers enjoyed good speckled trout action today with some nice keepers. They also enjoyed some catch and release of rockfish and speckled trout. |
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Hatteras Surf
On Tuesday, Red Drum reported that The Point had 20 plus Big Drum. We still have lots of Sea Mullet south of the Point. Blow toads, Sea Mullet and Blue Fish are behind the Motels. Pete Kulick brought in a 2 lb. Sea Mullet and another at 1-13.
On Wednesday, Red Drum weighed in a lot of citation Sea Mullet caught off of Ramp 43. Milton Stefanitsis caught a 2 1/2 pound Sea Mullet. It was a big one. The Jetties had a good bite on Sheepshead. Ramp 55 had some Blue Fish, Sea Mullet and small Flounder. The boats did well on cobia fishing.
Hatteras Offshore
On Wednesday, Hatteras Harbor reported that inshore anglers had good catches of Spanish mackerel. The Bluefish bite was also good and Atlantic Bonita were caught as well. Cobia fishing was very good.
Several Blue Marlin, a Sailfish, and a Swordfish were released from our offshore fleet today. The meat fish bite fell out today from what has been caught previously this month. A few Dolphin were caught and the Blackfin Tuna bite was scattered.
On Tuesday, boats were kicking it up on the dolphin with some returning early after getting all they wanted on Gaffers. Excellent Wahoo fishing with a few Blackfin Tuna around. Sea Creature released a Sailfish. Cobia were again being caught and seen. Nearshore boats had Bluefish and a few Spanish Mackerel.
Melanie Oakes of Virginia Beach, caught a 50-lb, citation Cobia.