Early Summer Trout and Red Drum Bite Heating Up Around Wilmington Inlets

This is Artificial Lure with your Wilmington, North Carolina fishing report. We’ve got a classic early-summer setup this morning. Light southwest breeze around 5 to 10 knots along the beaches, building a bit in the afternoon, with air temps pushing into the low to mid 80s and muggy. Skies are partly cloudy, with a chance of a popup shower inland late day. According to the National Weather Service marine forecast, near‑shore seas are running 2 to 3 feet with a light chop, very manageable for small boats. Sunrise is right around 6:00 a.m., with sunset near 8:25 p.m., so you’ve got a long feeding window, but the best bite has been early and late when that sun is low. Tides around Masonboro Inlet today are running a typical summer range. Low tide falls mid‑morning, with a strong incoming pushing through late morning into early afternoon, then another low tonight. That first couple hours of incoming around creek mouths and marsh drains has been money for inshore action. Inshore, the speckled trout bite has picked up again with slightly cooler nighttime temps. Folks working the ICW edges from Wrightsville Beach up toward Figure Eight and down toward Carolina Beach have been picking off good numbers of schoolie trout with a few nicer keepers mixed in. The hot ticket has been small paddletails and jerk shads in natural colors—think opening night or smokey shad—on 1/8 to 1/4 ounce jigheads, plus MirrOlure style hard baits at first light. Live shrimp under a popping cork around docks and grass lines are still hard to beat if you can find them. Red drum are chewing around the marshes behind Wrightsville, down in the Carolina Beach backwaters, and along the docks in the Cape Fear. Anglers report decent numbers of slot fish with a few over-slot brutes showing up. Cut mullet or fresh menhaden on Carolina rigs fished on the bottom at the edge of the grass, plus live finger mullet if you can net them, have been very productive. For artificials, gold spoons and white or new penny paddletails are getting crushed on that moving tide. Flounder are showing up more consistently around inlets, docks, and near‑shore structure. Most are shorts, but there are some keepers in the mix. The best setup has been a live mud minnow or finger mullet on a jighead or fish‑finder rig bounced slowly along the bottom. Gulp shrimp in white or chartreuse are also putting fish in the boat for folks who cover water. On the near‑shore reefs—like the ARs just off Wrightsville and Carolina Beach—Spanish mackerel have been thick when the water cleans up. Trolling small Clarkspoons, tiny Drone spoons, or glass‑minnow style casting jigs behind planers or #1 Sea Striker planers has produced steady action. Early morning, you can ease up on surface feeds and pitch small metal jigs or Got-Cha plugs to busting fish for fast limits. King mackerel have been holding a bit farther off, but a few teenagers and smoker‑class fish have been taken slow‑trolling live menhaden or bluefish over the same near‑shore structure when the water’s a bit greener and bait is stacked. Keep a stinger rig ready. Two local hot spots to keep in mind today: Masonboro Inlet and the jetty area: Working the rocks on the last of the outgoing and first of the incoming has produced trout, reds, flounder, and Spanish. Just watch your boat position and the swell. The Carolina Beach Inlet and Snows Cut area: Good mixed‑bag action—reds on the edges, trout on deeper bends, and flounder around rock and dock structure, especially on that incoming tide. Overall fish activity has been strong at dawn and again the last hour of light. Midday is tougher with the high sun, so slow down and fish deeper or look for moving current. That’s your Wilmington fishing rundown from Artificial Lure. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next report. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn