Fishing Hot Spots

Lake guides for this map

Month-by-month patterns, fish, ramps and rules for each water:

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Fishing Hot Spots by area

Inlets, ocean piers, capes, sounds and wrecks with good fishing water. Tap one to fly to it on the map.

Red drum at Cape Point, king mackerel off the piers and wreck fishing off Cape Lookout

North Carolina has the most famous surf fishing on the East Coast. Big red drum (the state fish) run the beaches at Cape Point on Hatteras, Ocracoke and the inlets in the fall, along with bluefish, Spanish mackerel and pompano. The ocean piers from Sunset Beach to Kitty Hawk are a big part of the fishing here, with king mackerel caught from the end of the piers on live bait in summer and fall, and spot, croaker, whiting, flounder and sea mullet near the bottom. The Pamlico and Neuse rivers and the sounds behind the Outer Banks have speckled trout, red drum, flounder and striped bass. Offshore, the Gulf Stream comes closer here than anywhere north of Florida, with mahi-mahi, wahoo, tuna and billfish out of Hatteras, Oregon Inlet and Morehead City, and the wrecks off Cape Lookout, like the U-352 and the Aeolus, hold amberjack, grouper and sea bass.

You need a North Carolina Coastal Recreational Fishing License to fish salt water, and red drum, flounder, striped bass and speckled trout have special size limits and seasons. Cape Lookout and Cape Hatteras National Seashores have beach driving permits and seasonal closures for nesting birds and sea turtles. Check the NC Division of Marine Fisheries rules before you go.