Late May Cape Fear: Trout and Reds Bite Best at Dawn and Dusk

What this episode covers

This is Artificial Lure checking in with your Wilmington fishing report. We’re sitting under a classic late‑May pattern on the Cape Fear coast. NOAA’s marine forecast for the Wilmington area calls for morning temps in the low 60s warming to upper 70s this afternoon, with a light north to northeast breeze around 5–10 knots early, swinging more easterly and picking up near the sea breeze line. Skies are mostly clear to partly cloudy and the barometer is steady, which usually means predictable, if not explosive, fishing. Sunrise this morning was just after 6 a.m., with sunset a little after 8 p.m., so you’ve got a long window to work those low‑light bites. The river and inlets have been best right around dawn and the last two hours of daylight. The tide at the Wilmington gauge on the Cape Fear is running a normal semi‑diurnal cycle. Expect a morning high pushing up mid‑morning, falling through midday into an early afternoon low, then a flooding tide through the evening. Down around Carolina Beach Inlet and Masonboro Inlet, that means a solid moving‑water window mid‑incoming and first of the outgoing—prime time for trout, reds, and flounder. Inshore, local shop chatter around Wrightsville Beach and Carolina Beach has been all about speckled trout and slot reds. Anglers drifting the creeks off the Intracoastal, from Pages Creek down to Hewletts and Whiskey Creek, have been picking off nice specks in the 16–22 inch range. MirrOlure MR17s in electric chicken and chartreuse‑back patterns, along with 3–4 inch paddletails on 1/8 oz jig heads, have been doing the damage. Live shrimp under a popping cork is still the ace in the hole; if you can get them, you’ll out‑fish plastics most days. Redfish are chewing around oyster edges and marsh points on that mid‑tide water, especially where there’s a little current wrapping around the shell. Gold spoons, weedless paddle tails in new penny or root beer, and cut mullet or fresh menhaden on the bottom are producing. Plenty of lower‑slot to mid‑slot fish, with a few upper slots mixed in. Look for small pods pushing wakes along flooded grass on the rising tide; a well‑placed soft plastic will get crushed. Flounder reports are quietly improving. Folks bouncing Gulp swimming mullet in white or chartreuse around Carolina Beach Inlet, Snow’s Cut, and the docks along the ICW have seen a mix of shorts with enough keepers to keep things interesting. Live mud minnows and small finger mullet on a Carolina rig work great on the edges of the channels. Off the beach, nearshore reefs and hard bottom—places like AR 370, AR 378, and the ledges 5–10 miles out—have been giving up good numbers of Spanish mackerel and the first decent push of king mackerel. Trolling Clark spoons behind planers and #1–#2 mackerel trees has been steady for Spanish, especially when the sun gets up and the water cleans. Early in the morning, a free‑lined live menhaden or cigar minnow slow‑trolled around the bait pods has been the ticket for kings, with fish in the 10–20 pound class reported. On the surf, from Fort Fisher up to Topsail direction, folks soaking cut mullet and shrimp have seen scattered bluefish, whiting, and some puppy drum. A few early morning Spanish are getting caught by casting small metal spoons off the ends of the piers when glass minnows and small anchovies ball up. If you’re looking for a couple of hot spots: first, work the mouth of Hewletts Creek out to the ICW on an early incoming tide—trout and reds have both been stacking there on the bait. Second, hit the nearshore wrecks off Wrightsville and Carolina Beach at first light with small metals and live bait for a mixed bag of Spanish and schoolie kings. Best overall bets today: inshore trout and reds at dawn with topwaters and soft plastics, then slide to flounder and dock fishing once the sun gets high. Nearshore, run and gun the bait schools and keep an eye out for bird activity. That’s your Wilmington area fishing rundown from Artificial Lure. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a 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

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