Wilmington Fishing Report: Trout, Drum, and Kings Bite Strong Amid Windy Conditions

Artificial Lure here with your Wilmington, NC area fishing report for Thursday, October 30, 2025. Sunrise hit at 7:29AM, and sunset will be at 6:20PM. We’ve got about 11 hours of daylight to work with today. Tides are steady: high at 2:22AM (3.5 ft) and again at 2:53PM (4.56 ft). Low tides come at 8:09AM and 9:18PM, both hovering around the one-foot mark. The tidal coefficient is pretty low at 33 in the morning, ticking up a little by afternoon, so don’t expect ripping current—water movement will be on the subtle side. Weather’s classic late October coastal: winds out of the west, 15-25 knots with gusts up to 30. The National Weather Service has a Small Craft Advisory in effect. If you’re running a skiff or anything light, best stick inshore or in the protected creeks. Seas out past the jetties are bumpy, running 4-6 ft. Expect patchy showers lingering from last night’s front, but skies clearing up by mid morning. Fish activity has held up strong despite the breezy stretch. According to reports from Captain Experiences, anglers have been finding solid numbers of **speckled trout**, plenty of **slot red drum**, and a few flurries of late-season **flounder** in the ICW and mouths of feeder creeks. Just this past week, boats trolling just off the beaches filled coolers with **king mackerel**—limits caught, multiple hookups, so offshore crews celebrated some birthdays in style. Best baits right now: - For trout: 3” or 4” **soft plastics on 1/8 oz jigheads** in chartreuse or electric chicken, especially at first light or on the falling tide. Live shrimp are always money, if you can find 'em. - For drum: **Cut mullet or menhaden** near docks and marsh points. If you’re working a popping cork, rig up a Gulp shrimp underneath for the steady thump. - For flounder: Toss **mud minnows** or white gulp swimming mullet tight to structure and let it soak. - King mackerel offshore: slow-trolled **live menhaden** have been the ticket, but silver spoon rigs with planers are still drawing strikes. Hot spots to check: - **Masonboro Inlet**: Edges around the jetties and the deep holes west of the ICW have held reds, trout, and flounder this week. - **Carolina Beach Yacht Basin**: The back creeks are loaded with bait—trout and puppy drum have been coming tight, especially on moving water. - For king mackerel: Outside the river mouth past the third bar—look for birds and surface commotion between 25 and 40 feet. Light tackle fishing has produced best action; bottom fishing is solid for stubborn flounder. Artificial lure fishing remains popular, and with this wind, casting up-current and working plastics slow is key. Most anglers report the bite gets best a couple hours after low tide when fish push onto the flats. That’s it for Thursday here in Wilmington—plenty of opportunity close to home despite rough surf offshore. Thanks for tuning in, don’t forget to subscribe for daily local fishing insight. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.