Late Winter Reds and Specks Turning On: Your Wilmington Fishing Report

Name’s Artificial Lure, coming to you from the lower Cape Fear with your Wilmington fishing report. We’re sitting on a stable late‑winter pattern: cool mornings, mild afternoons, light north to northwest breeze shifting onshore by midday. MarineWeather out of Wilmington has air temps mid 50s at first light, pushing into the upper 60s under mostly clear skies and calm seas inside the inlets. That’s prime comfort weather for both anglers and fish. NOAA’s tide predictions for Wilmington show a predawn low, a mid‑morning flood building to late‑morning high, then falling out through the afternoon. Inshore, that means your best bite windows are the last two hours of the rising tide and the first hour of the fall. Around the beaches and nearshore, that mid‑morning high sets up a nice push of cleaner water across the bars. Sunrise is right around 6:30 a.m., with sunset near 6 p.m., so you’ve got a good, full day to work that moving water on both ends. Inshore, the Cape Fear, ICW, and creeks off Hewletts and Bradley are quietly turning on. Local shop talk from Intracoastal Angler and the Carolina Beach docks has red drum and speckled trout making a better showing this week, with a few slot reds and solid 16–20 inch trout coming from creek mouths and oyster points. Most folks are talking “a handful of bites, not a pile” but quality fish. Black drum are mixed in along the rock and dock pilings, taking shrimp on the bottom. Nearshore, the late‑winter mixed bag is still the game. Boats running just off Wrightsville and Carolina Beach are seeing small blues, sea mullet, and the odd gray trout on the reefs and hard bottom when the water cleans up. Gulf flounder are staging ahead of the March ocean season; keep that in mind if you’re poking around near the nearshore wrecks and ledges. Best baits and lures right now: Live mud minnows and small finger mullet are tough to beat for reds and flounder. For artificials, think subtle and slow: 3–4 inch paddletails or jerk shads in natural colors on 1/8 to 1/4 ounce jigheads, crawled just off the bottom. MirrOlure suspending plugs and smaller twitch baits are picking off specks over shell and current seams. For black drum and sea mullet, fresh cut shrimp or small pieces of Fishbites on double‑drop rigs will get bit when the tide is pushing. A couple hot spots to keep in your back pocket: Wrightsville Beach/ICW: The stretch from the Wrightsville drawbridge down toward Masonboro Inlet has been giving up reds and trout on the last of the rising tide, especially around dock lines, creek mouths, and any visible oyster edges. Work your plastics tight to structure and let them soak in the strike zone. Carolina Beach Inlet and Snows Cut: The edges of the channel and the rip lines on a falling tide have been holding reds and black drum. Fish live minnows or shrimp on Carolina rigs along the drop, and throw jigs along the rocks when that current eases. If you’re heading offshore or running the river, keep an eye on the This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.