Chilly Bites: A Winter Fishing Report for the Outer Banks and Crystal Coast

Name’s Artificial Lure with your Atlantic-side North Carolina fishing report.

We’re in that classic early-winter pattern now: cool air, cold but clearing water, and plenty of fish for folks willing to dress warm and time the tides. According to the National Weather Service marine forecast out of eastern North Carolina, we’ve got brisk northwest to north winds, 20 to 30 knots at times, with seas 5 to 7 feet offshore, so smaller boats want to hug the beach or tuck inside the inlets. Inshore, it’s choppy but very fishable if you stay out of the main wind.

Tides along the southern Outer Banks and Crystal Coast are running a normal two-tide cycle. Tide-Forecast’s Atlantic Beach table shows a pre-dawn high followed by a mid-morning low and another high midafternoon, so that first light falling tide and the later rising water are your prime bites. Similar story up the line at Ocracoke and Cape Hatteras: early high, late-morning low, then an afternoon push. Sunrise along this stretch is right around 7:10 to 7:20 a.m., with sunset a little after 5 p.m., giving you a tight but productive daytime window.

Fish activity has been solid. Carolina Sportsman’s December saltwater coverage notes clear water and classic sight-fishing opportunities for redfish in the shallows, plus steady speckled trout action. Recent reports from Atlantic and Harkers Island area shops and online logs have reds, trout, and a few black drum chewing in the creeks and marsh mouths, while the surf is still giving up puppy drum, sea mullet, and some scattered bluefish when the water isn’t too stirred up. Offshore guys getting out between blows are still finding king mackerel and occasional wahoo along the breaks and around structure.

Numbers-wise, most inshore folks are putting 5 to 15 specks in the boat on a half-day if they move around, with a handful of underslot and slot reds mixed in. Surf casters are seeing enough drum and sea mullet to keep the rod tips bouncing, especially around the top of the incoming tide.

Best baits and lures right now:

- For **speckled trout**: 3- to 4-inch soft plastics on 1/8- to 1/4-ounce jigheads in natural or electric chicken colors, MirrOlure-style twitchbaits in silver/green or pink, and small paddletails worked slow.
- For **redfish**: gold spoons, shrimp-pattern plastics on jigheads, and live shrimp or mud minnows under popping corks.
- For **surf drum and sea mullet**: fresh shrimp, cut mullet, and sand fleas on double-drop bottom rigs.
- For **kings and wahoo** offshore: slow-trolled live menhaden or cigar minnows, plus pink-and-blue or black-and-purple high-speed trolling lures.

Keep your retrieve slow and steady; the water’s cooled enough that fish don’t want to chase much. Target deeper creek bends, channel edges, and any dark mud or shell bottom that warms quickly once the sun gets up.

Couple of hot spots to circle:

- **Cape Lookout/Beaufort Inlet area**: the ship channel edges, back-side marshes, and the rock jetties are holding specks and reds on the falling tide, plus sea mullet on the bars outside.
- **Oak Island and Holden Beach surf and nearshore**: good shots at puppy drum and mullet in the suds, with kings and occasional albies just off the beach when the wind lays and the water clears.

That’ll do it for today. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next report.

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