Spring is here and the fishing has been, well, challenging!! The air and water are both warming, but steady fronts coming through has made for challenging conditions. It seems as of late it has either been beautiful or the winds have been howling. The constant change in conditions have seemed to put the fish in a confused state.

In the past week I have had to cancel trips due to wind, fished in some less than perfect conditions and had some perfect days as well. Last weekend I had Ed and his son Conner on board for some flats fishing. With winds of 15-20kts, we tucked up in Hewletts creek off the ICW to get out of the wind. Having a front go through the previous night, the fish didn’t want to cooperate. However, Ed did entice one sub- slot fish to bite a Berkley Gulp bait however.

The Cape Fear River is full of bait. On a recent outing to try and locate some speckled trout, there were massive schools of small pogies in the river channel as well as up on the river flats. I didn’t have any success on the trout that afternoon, but seeing the all of the bait fish was a very welcomed sign.

Another recent trip took me up in the North Topsail area. I went looking for several schools of fish that I had been finding in recent weeks, only to find that they had vacated the flats they were holding on.  I was beginning to think that they had all left the state, but I finally found some small fish that were willing to eat a topwater plug. I don’t care how big they are, any time you can get one to eat topwater, it is always exciting!!

In other fishing news, the first Spanish Mackerel of the year has been reported being caught off of the Jolly Roger Pier on Topsail Island. Also the bluefish have been biting well on got-cha plugs. Atlantic Bonito as well as False Albacore are biting well near the inshore rocks and artificial reefs such as Divers Rock, Dallas Rock and the Liberty Ship. With the warm temperatures expected the next few days, I really expect the bluefish to  bite well and I expect a good showing of Spanish Mackerel in the near shore waters. Some large Spanish should be caught around Sheepshead Rock this weekend for those that run down there.

I am planning on doing a little Turkey Hunting followed by some striped bass fishing this weekend with my brother-in-law on the Roanoke River. Wish me luck and I hope to have a little better report next week.