Carolina Fishing Report: Fall Inshore Saltwater Action Includes Redfish, Sea Mullet, Spot, Bluefish

Fall Carolina inshore saltwater fishing is in full swing on the southeastern NC coast, with all of its usual shifting winds, occasional rainstorms, heavy tides, and hit and miss fishing. Fortunately that also means a ton of moving mullet schools, shrimp, and crabs in the water and a lot of nice bait and choices for anglers.

As has been the case since the summer started, fishing is strong for red drum inshore and out at the jetties. Redfish are following finger mullet schools as they make their way around rocks, bridges, docks, and in and out of creeks. The Little River Jetties are not producing as many big red drum as they were a few weeks ago, but there are still plenty of redfish between 16 and 28 inches.

As usual some of the best redfish fishing is taking place right over the SC border in the Littler River (Coquina Harbor) and Cherry Grove backwaters where anglers can work the creeks without navigating the gill nets or without worry about a netter monitoring their catch.

The best baits are the same on either side of the border: live finger mullet are especially deadly now, plus Gulp and other scented soft baits, live peanut pogies, cut mullet, and live shrimp.

Spot are hitting off and on at the piers. Not what I'd call a full-fledged spot run, but some evening runs have been strong around the Holden Beach area with good-sized yellowbellied spots. Fishbites bloodworms or earthworms will take the spot when they come through.

Some nice whiting (sea mullet) continue to be caught off the piers and in the surf. It has been a good year for sea mullet all around. If you are surf fishing and can find a nice slough that is the key to finding the sea mullet. They can't resist fresh cut shrimp, squid, or live sand fleas.

Flounder fishing has actually slowed a bit, which is unusual for fall. However, the flounder size has gotten better which helps. Again, a live finger mullet is hard to beat when flounder fishing right now. Those casting to structure are doing better on the large flounder than those drifting and trolling.

Speckled trout fishing hasn't really kicked in but we still have time. Some guides have found them in the upper SC creeks very early in the mornings but nothing consistent.

The surf is holding some nice bluefish which will hit fresh cut bait, and snapper blues are being caught by pluggers with Gotcha plugs on the piers. Spanish mackerel are not hitting as well as they were in mid-summer but several king mackerel have been decked on the piers.

As always, if you want to fish at night for black drum around the bridges and docks you are probably going to catch them…it's the most dependable fishing we have.

One last note: lots of pretty dolphin schools on the beach and inshore but if you see them you can pretty much forget about fishing. They are wonderful to watch and for the kids but they are filling up on redfish and spot, and the fish will flee any area where dolphins show up.

For plenty of Carolina fishing tips, tactics, guide secrets, and recipes see my blog A Dash of Salty and my book Surf and Saltwater Fishing in the Carolinas.