Late Summer Surf and Turf: A North Carolina Atlantic Fishing Report

Artificial Lure here with your North Carolina Atlantic fishing report for Sunday, August 31st, 2025. Let’s dig into what today looks like and where you need to be chasing the bite.

First, your **tide report** for Avon and out through Cape Hatteras: high tide hit just after 1 AM and will peak again around 2 PM, with a low tide settling in at 7:05 AM and again tonight at 8:40 PM. If you’re heading out at first light, you’ll be on the falling tide, always a prime time for working the inlets and backwaters. Sunrise is 6:33 AM and sunset’s 7:29 PM, so you’ve got a nice, long window to fish between those moving water slots according to Tide-Forecast.com.

**Weather-wise,** we’re getting those classic late summer conditions. The National Weather Service out of Wilmington is calling for northeast winds drifting between 10 and 15 knots this morning, calming a bit as the day unfolds. Seas are running 3 to 4 feet nearshore, with those swells pushing a little heavier further offshore, so be ready for steady action but keep an eye on the sky as a pop-up thunderstorm mid-afternoon isn’t out of the question.

**Fish activity** out along the Atlantic beaches has been fired up all week. Local tackle shops and Carolina Sportsman paint a busy picture on the inshore: red drum (redfish) are pushing shallow early and late, with folks sight-casting to tailers in the marsh and flats. Best bets have been live shrimp, mud minnows, or well-presented soft plastics (think Z-Man paddletails and Gulp shrimp in ‘New Penny’ or ‘Electric Chicken’). Speckled trout are biting at dawn and dusk in those deeper cuts; MirrOlure suspending jerkbaits, live finger mullet, and popping cork rigs are putting quality fish in the cooler. Flounder are still around, especially at the creek mouths and inlet points—white bucktail jigs tipped with Gulp strips or live minnows are the ticket.

Moving **offshore,** king mackerel are blitzing on schools of menhaden and mullet, especially just outside the surf and near nearshore wrecks. Trolling with deep-diving plugs, spoons, and rigged dusters has brought solid numbers, while farther out mahi-mahi and wahoo are getting picked off weedlines and floatsome around the 30–50 mile mark. Common setups are ballyhoo rigs, skirted lures, and bright-colored trolling feathers. Snapper, grouper, and black sea bass are holding tight to bottom structure on reefs and ledges—squid, cut bait, and jigs have worked well.

Recent reports from BlackBird Guide Service say Spanish mackerel have been thick off Bald Head and Oak Island, and the odd cobia is still showing up for those willing to chase them with live eels, cobia jigs, and cut mullet. Tarpon sightings are infrequent, but every now and then someone hooks a monster on big live bait or Deadly Dudley on heavy gear.

**Best baits right now:**
- Inshore: live shrimp, mud minnows, Gulp soft plastics, MirrOlure jerkbaits.
- Nearshore: Clark spoons, duster rigs, live finger mullet.
- Offshore: rigged ballyhoo, skirted lures, squid for bottom dwellers.

**Hot spots** to keep on your radar today:
- The flats behind Hatteras for early red drum and flounder.
- Atlantic Beach Pier and the adjacent sandbars for trout and Spanish mack action.
- The wrecks and reefs east of Oak Island for steady bottom fishing and the occasional king.
- Oregon Inlet jetties—excellent for mixed bag on the incoming or outgoing tide.

Quick reminder: it’s late August, so hydrate, pack your sunblock, and keep your eye on the marine forecast for pop-up storms.

Thanks for tuning in to Artificial Lure’s NC Atlantic fishing update—don’t forget to subscribe for your daily scoop on what’s biting from the beach to the blue. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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