Northern District

Ocean: Offshore anglers managed to make it out a couple of days and caught large amounts of very small wahoo, along with dolphin, amberjack and both yellowfin and blackfin tuna. Billfish catches were almost nonexistent. Midrange catches were dismal with only a few random striped bass and red drum caught when conditions were favorable. King mackerel catches were very consistent around 10 to 12 miles offshore. Artificial reefs offered a variety of species including spadefish, black drum, tautog and sheepshead.

Inlets/Sounds/Bays: Anglers were limited by unfavorable weather, but managed to catch some nice spotted seatrout and striped bass in sheltered areas during early morning hours and then again just before dark. Striped bass catches made a significant increase in frequency at Manns Harbor; the few fishermen that toughed out the weather caught their limits. Spotted seatrout concentrated in the Roanoke Sound. Anglers fishing off of the Little Bridge and underneath the Washington Baum Bridge had the most success. Anglers fishing in the Swan Quarter/Rose Bay area reported high volumes of croaker, spot and kingfish, along with a few red drum.

Piers/Beaches: Beach anglers were shut out due to extremely rough surf conditions. Pier fishermen managed to catch a few spotted seatrout, striped bass, kingfish and red drum, along with a mixed bag of other species in low amounts.

Central District

Ocean: There were no reported catches. Boats did not go offhsore due to bad weather.

Inlets/Sounds/Bays: Nice catches of black drum, red drum and spotted sea trout were reported in the inlets. A few trout were caught in the Haystacks area of Morehead City.

Piers/Shore: The piers and beaches both reported good numbers of black drum catches. In Atlantic Beach, the early morning hours showed very nice catches of spotted sea trout. Trout were also reported in the inlets all the way to Topsail Beach. Anglers also had success with trout at the jetties at Ft. Macon, Shackleford Banks and Cape Lookout. Anglers reeled in some nice red drum and kingfish (sea mullet) on the beaches.

Southern District

Ocean: There were very few days when the weather allowed anglers to head offshore. When there was a break in the weather, anglers did very well with wahoo in the 30- to 60-pound range with some fish much bigger. Bottom fishing in water depths of 80 to 120 feet produced limits of grouper, along with a wide range of other reef fish. Near-shore reefs produced some flounder and gray trout.

Inlets/Sounds/Bays: Lots of undersize spotted seatrout started to show up around the Wrightsville Beach area up to Topsail Island. Mixed in with the small trout were fish in the 2- to 3-pound range. Most fish were caught using artificial baits, but float fishing live shrimp was also very effective. Anglers in Brunswick County did pretty much the same on the trout, along with good numbers of slot-sized red drum around the Little River rock jetty.

Piers/Shore: Area piers reported a good week of fishing. Most anglers targeted sea mullet and spot. There still were some good runs of spots coming through the area, with the best catches coming at night. Sea mullet fishing improved. Some citation sized mullet were caught. Lots of red and black drum were caught on area piers. Surf fishermen had unfavorable weather conditions last week, but anglers caught red and black drum, along with some good sized sea mullet.