Fishing just isn’t going to be great until the water temperatures drop.

That said, there are a ton of people on the island due to COVID19. It seems like everyone is working from home and homeschooling their kids and the beach rentals are booked solid. It’s like it is still summer here – I’ve never seen anything like it.

I have spent much of the first half of September in North Topsail Beach. There is a ton of bait fish in the water up here. You can catch pinfish or mullet with every cast. I’ve caught nothing else though. I did see some black drum caught at the north end of North Topsail. So, they’re there. I believe the fish was caught on a live minnow. To get a live minnow just throw a cast net into the surf and you’ll have about 20 to choose from.

At the piers they’re catching Kingfish and the occasional Spanish Mackerel, Bluefish and Black Drum.

If you simply want to take the kids fishing, grab a pole with the tiniest hooks you can buy and throw a tiny piece of shrimp onto the hook. Sound Side Park or even fishing in the surf should keep them busy and they’ll catch fish with every cast! I stood in the surf today and caught about 30 pin fish myself and I only cast my line out about 25 times. They were coming in 2 at a time on some casts.

Spots are beginning to show up, but, they seem to be taking their time.

Recap:

Spots are starting to show up

There’s a lot of finger mullet minnows in the surf

There are occasional pinfish, mullet, black drum, bluefish, mackeral being caught

Kingfisherman are catching Kingfish

Founder are being caught by giggers at night and by people w/ kayaks and boats. Season just opened mid-August.

Spanish are nearshore if you have a boat

Redfish – I heard Red Drum are hitting topwater lures in the streams

The post Topsail Island Fishing Report September 2020 appeared first on Welcome to Topsail Island.

Hurricane Isaias wasn’t bad and after the power came back on everyone washed the sand off their deck and we’re back in action. Fishing was goofed up before the storm but is back to normal now.

August fishing in Topsail isn’t that great, but based on what I saw at the end of July, here’s what you can expect..

At the piers they are catching

• A few Spot
• The occasional Sea Trout
• Larger Spanish Mackerel from time to time
• Sheepshead. This is your best chance of catching supper.
• Mullet
• Flounder
• Pinfish and Pig fish are biting if you want to keep the kids busy

If you want to fish the surf like I do, just cast a line out past where the waves break. If you can’t fish w/ a 2oz weight just say to heck with it and wait a day. There are shark out at night and in the day you can have fun catching mullet. In August you can expect to catch a very random Pompano, Blue crab or Black Drum.

Stay safe! Here’s a sheepshead:

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As seen in the May 2020 report, Spanish Mackerel showed up and there were a lot of them up until a tropical storm passed through on May 19, stirring up the waters. Due to steady winds throughout Memorial Day and another storm at the end of the month, the water has been thick with a decent current and fishing wasn’t great. Still, people on the pier have caught some spot, mullet, pompano, bluefish and black drum.The first King Mackerel and Tarpons were caught at the pier in May. Here’s the first King of the year as posted on Twitter by the Surf City Pier:

Topsail Island Fishing Report June 2020

The latest storms should clear out by June 1 but they’ll be followed by a few days of 10mph winds. Hopefully by June 4 conditions will be good to catch more fish. At that time I suspect there will be bluefish, mackerel, mullet, black drum and hopefully we’ll be seeing more pompano and spots. As the water heats up towards July the blues and mackerels will clear out.

I’ll keep you posted here and as always feel free to comment below with your experience.

As always, go here for the latest Topsail Island Fishing Report.

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Here’s what is in the surf and at the pier:

• Spanish Mackerel (were biting up until the 19th when the storms stirred up the water)
• Bluefish
• Black Drum
• Virginia Mullet
• Spot (not a lot yet)
• Pompano (A few nice ones at the pier)

The first King of the season showed up on May 14, 2020 as seen in this pic I found on Twitter. This King fish was 24lbs:

The first Tarpon of the year was caught at the Surf City Pier as well. For full credit, this fish was posted on their Facebook page here. Check it out:

It looks like that it is going to be stormy again from the 28th through the 31st and windy after that. We should hopefully get into some good fishing for June..

As always, go here for the latest Topsail Island Fishing Report.

The post Topsail Island Fishing Report May 2020 appeared first on Welcome to Topsail Island.

As of December 8, 2019, the Surf City Pier is now closing at dark and the ocean water temperature is 56 degrees. They’ll shut it down around Christmas, so get out there if you want to fish on the pier. Fishing at the pier has slowed way down. There are occasional black drum and mullets coming up over the railing.

If you hadn’t heard, whale were seen at Topsail on December 2, 2019.

In the rivers feeding the sound the Speckled Trout are still biting. The fish are slowing down a bit and artificial grubs and dark colored jigs are still the way to go. If you aren’t catching anything, reel slower! This was an amazing year for Specs – just check out the November 2019 fishing report.

On the beach and in the surf I have been catching mullet, puffers and the occasional trout, all on cut bait. There are good lures for trout as well.

As always, go here for the latest Topsail Island Fishing Report.

The post Topsail Island Fishing Report December 2019 appeared first on Welcome to Topsail Island.

I don’t have an exact record of the water temperatures but I do know that they reached 68 around the middle of November and the water was 59 at the beginning of December.

Speckled Trout

November 2019 was all about the Speckled Trout if you ask me. I took a charter into the rivers behind the island and only landed 15. It was an odd trip – the week before that the trout was ON FIRE. Literally people going out for 4 hours and landing 160+ trout per trip.

There’s a limit of 4 speckled trout per day per person.

During the middle of the month the trout were all hanging out together and by the end of the month they were a bit more scattered.

A few casts the trout were just bumping the lure.

The jig of choice was a dark plastic grab with a wiggly tail.

Pier Fishing:

The dolphins have been active off of the coast and feeding near the pier. they are pretty cool to watch.

A manatee was spotted in November at the pier!

In early December whales made an appearance!

King fishermen caught some kingish.

The spots were biting good up until the second week of November. Some pompano were biting as well.

There have been some trout caught on the pier although they behave differently out in the surf than they do in the river. The trout caught on the pier have been smaller. Don’t forget, the trout need to be 14″ to keep. As far as I know, the trout at the pier have been mostly caught on an incoming high tide and in the morning. I fished one day here from 3:30AM – 8AM and caught only one 12″ long trout. It was 40 degrees out!

Other fish caught at the pier in November included:

• Black Drum
• Red Drum
• Puffer
• The occasional Sea Bass
• Whiting
• Mullet

Surf Fishing:

I did better surf fishing than I did anywhere else by simply casting a a little 2oz weight as far out as I could (not very far). There are black drum, mullet, puffers and more in the surf.

December 2019:

The guides are still going out and getting 50+ trout per trip. It has slowed down but it is good this year.

Feel free to comment below with what you’ve caught!

As always, go here for the latest Topsail Island Fishing Report.

The post Topsail Island Fishing Report November 2019 – Speckled Trout appeared first on Welcome to Topsail Island.

October is here and the spots have finally made their arrival. It’s been hot as hell but the temperature finally took a huge dive on October 5, 2019. The water is still 80 degrees but that will be dropping throughout the month and fishing should keep picking up.

The Spots actually arrived a couple of weeks ago but we were only catching about 1 per hour in the daytime but they were biting after dark the last week of September. As of October, they’ve been biting earlier and earlier. Spots like blood worms and unfortunately so do Pinfish and there seems to be a lot of them lately.

The surf has been good for small Red Drum, Black Drum, Pompano and the occassional blue fish. I personally fish the bottom on days I can get by with a 2oz weight. The fish have been shallow, especially Black Drum, but, they usually are closer than you’d think.

At the pier they’re catching:

• Spot
• Spanish Mackerel
• Flounder
• Black Drum
• Red Drum
• Grey Trout
• Puffer
• Pigfish
• Pinfish

I don’t know a lot about the ocean fishing but I do know people are catching Wahoo out there and that there are speckled trout in the inlets and I have heard that larger red drum are biting live bait pretty good back in the Neuse River.

Comment below with your fishing report.

I’ll try to update this as the month goes on and of course please feel free to comment below with any news!

As always, go here for the latest Topsail Island Fishing Report.

The post Topsail Island Fishing Report October 2019 appeared first on Welcome to Topsail Island.

The fish are indeed biting here and there. I have mostly been pier fishing this month.

Hurricane Dorian went up the North Carolina coast at the beginning of the month, prompting mandatory evacuations to the island.

September 9, 2019, the island was back open for visitors. Over the next week, people caught fish in the surf and on the pier:

• Speckled trout: The trout rolled through around September 14, but I haven’t seen any since.
• Spot: There were a handful of spot caught at the pier.
• Spanish: The mackerel came through about the same time as the trout. They’re catching Spanish in the surf up at Atlantic Beach.
• King: Same.
• Bluefish: Same.
• Flounder: Here and there.
• Red Drum: I have seen several smaller Red Drum caught at the pier and then released since they didn’t meet the size limit (currently 18″). Of course, a couple of larger Drum have been caught as well.
• Other: Other fish, such as Pompano. are being caught here and there.

Here’s a Red Drum I caught 9/14/2019 on the pier at night when high tide was rolling in:

As of 9/15/2019, the ocean is angry and there’s a is current as Hurricane Humberto swirls off of the coast. Thankfully, that hurricane is not coming here, but it sure is messing up the fishing and swimming. The water is expected to calm down around the September 21. Until the 21st, we are looking at 15MPH winds all week long.

If you still want to catch dinner, you can round up some crabs at the park. I use a crap trap and just toss it out as far as I can with a dead fish tied to the middle. Some people prefer chicken. I don’t think the crabs care though. Be sure your crabs measure at least 5″ across.

Oh, here’s a quiz.

Who can tell me what kind of fish this is?

If you know the answer, please feel free to comment below!

As always, go here for the latest Topsail Island Fishing Report.

The post Topsail Island Fishing Report September 2019 appeared first on Welcome to Topsail Island.

2018 fishing wasn’t great. We had the huge fish kill in the winter, followed up by restrictions on trout in the spring. The blues had the blues – then – fall fishing took a huge hit thanks to Hurricane Florence making her trip here. Other than migratory fish in the spring and spots in the fall the fishing just wasn’t great.

But 2019 is here!

• Surf City Pier is getting fixed up!
• The water in the rivers hasn’t froze!
• Trout are already here!
• Will the Chopper Blues make their return?

Surf Fishing:

There isn’t a lot to report just yet, however, it’s only a matter of time. In the surf right now you will find:

• Whiting (good ones when conditions are just right)
• Speckled Trout (when the water is warm enough)
• Red Drum (here and there!)

Inshore Fishing:

• Red Drum (via plastic lures)
• Specs (rubber and soft plastic artificial bait)
• Black Drum (in the holes in the creeks via shrimp)
  

Got fish?

Please comment below if you know where the fish are at!

The post Topsail Island Fishing Report February 2019 appeared first on Welcome to Topsail Island.

As of November 27, 2018, the ocean temperature in Surf City is 63 degrees.

The Surf City Pier closes for the season December 2, 2018.

The spots have disappeared.

There are a few trout here and there. They had a short run the second week of November.

Mullets are here. If you like “whiting” you’re in luck. In the morning at high tide on bloodworms is your best bet. I can’t imagine they’d have a problem with shrimp, either. They’re out feeding at the high tide. The biggest whiting I’ve ever seen have been in a foot of water right off of the beach.

Temperatures are cooler than normal, so hopefully there isn’t another huge fish kill this winter.

As always, go here for the latest Topsail Island Fishing Report.

The post Topsail Island Fishing Report December 2018 appeared first on Welcome to Topsail Island.