Late September Slam: Atlantic NC Fishing Forecast for September 24, 2025

Artificial Lure here with your Atlantic Ocean, North Carolina fishing report for Wednesday, September 24th, 2025. We woke to mild conditions and a textbook fall sunrise at 6:56am, with sunset set for 7:00pm tonight. The weather is holding steady, mostly partly cloudy, temps in the upper 70s to low 80s, and a light to moderate west breeze—perfect for comfortable casting. According to the National Weather Service, we’re seeing west winds 10 to 15 knots, seas at 2 to 4 feet, with a moderate chop in the sounds. The marine forecast calls for improving conditions, so kayak and pier anglers should find it both accessible and productive today. If you’re a tide-chaser, the chart for Atlantic Beach is promising. Low tide hit at 3:12am, the morning’s high tide arrived at 9:29am, and we’ll see another low at 3:51pm followed by the evening high at 9:44pm. Holden Beach tides closely mirror these times, with a high tide around 9:39am and another at 10:01pm. These higher tide swings and a robust tidal coefficient should really turn up the bite across the beaches and inlets. Let’s talk fish. The past few days have been solid for late September. Folks are reporting steady runs of **red drum**, especially near the slack ends of the outgoing tide; schools have shown on the surf side and around marsh cuts. **Speckled trout** are finally waking up—look for their strikes just before sunrise, especially near deeper drop-offs and creek mouths. Slot-sized **flounder** are still coming to hand, mostly on small mud minnows and finger mullet. Offshore charters have been seeing scattered **king mackerel** and the occasional **Spanish mackerel**, but the best news has been the inshore variety. Pier anglers at Oceanana, Bogue Inlet, and Holden Beach have tallied up decent numbers of **spots** and a few nice **pompano** on sand fleas and shrimp. There’s local buzz about some big **sheepshead** taken on fiddler crabs around pilings. Best lures for today: - MirrOlure 52M or MR17 for specks in stained water. - Z-Man Diezel Minnow paddletails on 1/4 oz jigheads for drum and flounder. - Got-Cha plugs for mackerel when the bite heats up late in the morning on clear days. If you’re slinging bait, fresh-cut mullet is catchin’ reds, and live shrimp will get you a mixed bag of trout and flounder. Those fishing off the piers or from the surf, don’t skip bloodworms for spots and croaker—they were hitting hard yesterday. Hot spots to try today: - The marsh flats and creek outlets behind **Atlantic Beach** (especially around the Radio Island rockwall) - The surf and pier zones at **Oceanana**—spots, trout, and drum have all shown here at various tides in the past 48 hours. Word from local guides is that the bite window is strongest during incoming to peak high, so plan around that for best action. Thanks for tuning in to today’s Atlantic North Carolina fishing report. Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a bite window or a hot tip. This has been a quiet please production, fo This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.