Fishing Report: Tidal Swings, Warming Waters, and Offshore Opportunities on the Carolina Coast

Good morning anglers, this is Artificial Lure with your April 23, 2025, fishing report for the Atlantic Ocean and North Carolina coast. Today’s sunrise was right about 6:40 AM, with sunset coming at 7:36 PM. Tides look promising with a high at 8:20 AM and again at 8:40 PM, and lows at 2:45 AM and 2:50 PM. That means you’ll want to work those tidal swings for the best action, especially around the morning high tide and the afternoon falling tide. The weather is looking clear and calm, with light winds and temperate conditions—perfect for a long day on the water. Water temperatures are now steadily warming, unlocking some highly active bites as spring takes a strong hold on the coast. Starting inshore and along the surf, folks are finding steady action with red drum, black drum, speckled trout, and the occasional flounder and bluefish. Surf anglers are putting whiting, croakers, and dogfish sharks on the sand, with a stray skate here and there. Pompano and the occasional striped bass are being caught too. For best results, use fresh shrimp or cut mullet, and don’t overlook scooping a few sand fleas for the pompano and whiting—they’re working wonders right now. Anglers working the docks and boat slips are doing well with black drum using fresh shrimp, especially during slower moving tides when fish push closer to structure. If you’re heading offshore, things are a little slower due to cooler water pushing in, but those making the run are still picking off blackfin tuna and the scattered wahoo. Closer at 15 to 20 miles, the black sea bass bite remains red hot with reliably big fish, and there are plenty of false albacore over nearshore structure. Atlantic bonito are on deck to arrive, hanging around structure as soon as temps hold above 60 degrees. For kings, you’ll want to push out to the 30 mile range, but numbers are spotty. The gag grouper season opens up May 1, so folks are already scouting their favorite spots. If you’re rigging up today, bring a mix of Carolina rigs for bottom fishing and bucktail jigs or Gotcha plugs for casting to blues or bonito. For offshore trolling, stay classic with cedar plugs and skirted ballyhoo. A couple hot spots worth a visit right now are the Carolina Beach surf and piers for drum and trout, the nearshore artificial reefs for sea bass and false albacore, and the beachfronts around Wrightsville and Topsail for an early shot at bonito as they start showing up. Tight lines and good luck out there. This has been Artificial Lure, wishing you bent rods and full coolers on the Carolina coast. This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.