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Carolina Beach Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

Cape Fear's beach town: a storied fishing pier, the Carolina Beach Inlet, and king mackerel water within sight of the sand.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Next tide
Low 12:11 AM
Air / High
69 / 69 F
Wind
NE 11 mph

Sources: NOAA tides 8658559, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

3/5Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Carolina Beach offers the kind of conditions this water was made for. Today brings clear skies, wind NE around 11 mph, steady pressure near 1021 hPa and a high of 69. Tides: high 5:56 AM and 6:13 PM, low 12:01 PM: the moving water either side of each change is when this place feeds. Water sits around 78 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:46 AM-11:46 AM and 10:14 PM-12:14 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

Redfish (red drum)Excellent

Spring and early summer put redfish on grass flats, shorelines and oyster bars; on the Gulf, fish below spawning age stay inside the bays (TPWD). Sight-cast to tailing and cruising fish or drift live shrimp under a popping cork.

Speckled troutExcellent

Spring brings seatrout back over shallow seagrass, and the spawning season (April to September in Louisiana and South Carolina) keeps them feeding. Popping corks with live shrimp, free-shrimping on the drift and casting to working birds are the main tools.

BluefishExcellent

Warming water pushes the schools north along the coast. Casting spoons and poppers into bait and chunking menhaden are the usual approaches; use a wire or heavy leader every time.

Tomorrow: Similar at 70 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

North Carolina requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $32.00 for residents, and salt water needs its own licence here. What a North Carolina licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing redfish (red drum) here? Check the size and bag limits with NCWRC before you keep anything. The season dates for North Carolina, read off the agency, are on the North Carolina seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings.

Tides

NOAA station 8658559 (Wilmington Beach). Fish the moving water either side of each change.

Fri
HIGH5:56 AM4.8 ft
LOW12:01 PM0.5 ft
HIGH6:13 PM4.6 ft
Sat
LOW12:11 AM0.3 ft
HIGH6:38 AM5.3 ft
LOW12:48 PM0.3 ft
HIGH6:56 PM4.7 ft

Carolina Beach tide chart: the week and the month β†’

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp69 F
High / Low69 / 44 F
WindNE 11-16 mph
Pressure1021.3 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset07:23 / 18:27
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~78 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunsetPRIMEPRIME

Which day to fish Carolina Beach this week

The best day on Carolina Beach this week looks like Sunday Oct 25, at 4 out of 5, against 3 today.

Best day this week: Sunday, Oct 25 β€” good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Fair

A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Solunar majors
9:46 AM-11:46 AM and 10:14 PM-12:14 AM
Minor period
4:07 AM-5:07 AM
Sun
07:23 to 18:27
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Clear, 19 mph
Rain chance
0%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Carolina Beach: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Redfish (red drum) illustration

Redfish (red drum)

Best: late-summer and fall bull run; inshore all year

Red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus), called redfish across the South, is a bronze inshore drum with a black spot near the tail, fished on grass flats, oyster bars, marsh creeks and beaches from the Chesapeake around Florida to Texas. Spring and early summer put redfish on grass flats, shorelines and oyster bars; on the Gulf, fish below spawning age stay inside the bays (TPWD). Sight-cast to tailing and cruising fish or drift live shrimp under a popping cork.

Speckled trout illustration

Speckled trout

Shallow bays spring and summer; deeper water in winter

Speckled trout is the anglers' name for the spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus), a spotted member of the drum family that lives in shallow bays and estuaries from the Chesapeake to Texas. Spring brings seatrout back over shallow seagrass, and the spawning season (April to September in Louisiana and South Carolina) keeps them feeding. Popping corks with live shrimp, free-shrimping on the drift and casting to working birds are the main tools.

Bluefish illustration

Bluefish

Peak harvest: May-Oct, most in Jul-Aug (NOAA)

Bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix) are sharp-toothed schooling predators that move up and down the Atlantic coast with the seasons and feed in surface blitzes on menhaden, silversides and squid. Warming water pushes the schools north along the coast. Casting spoons and poppers into bait and chunking menhaden are the usual approaches; use a wire or heavy leader every time.

When to come: the Carolina Beach calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Redfish (red drum)
Speckled trout
Bluefish
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 78 F (estimated, not a reading).

5060708090JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~78 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Carolina Beach today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Redfish (red drum) led the card at excellent. High of 70 F, wind to 10 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Redfish (red drum) led the card at excellent. High of 71 F, wind to 11 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

2/5 Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing. Redfish (red drum) led the card at excellent. High of 71 F, wind to 12 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

North Carolina requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

NC CRFL license (piers sell blanket coverage with admission). Flounder: strict short seasons recent years: review current NCDMF rules.

Access

Carolina Beach and Kure piers (fee), Freeman Park 4x4 beach (permit), inlet and Snow's Cut ramps, Fort Fisher accesses.

About this water

Beach town between the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic, New Hanover County, NC. Wilmington's fishing porch.

Fishing Carolina Beach: the full guide

Pier tradition

Carolina Beach Pier and neighboring Kure Beach Pier (the coast's oldest) run the classic Carolina program: kings and cobia from the end-rigs in summer, Spanish and blues on Gotchas mid-pier, spot and sea mullet for the bottom-rig faithful. The fall spot run remains a cultural event: coolers, families, and bloodworms by the flat.

Inlet and snake channel

Carolina Beach Inlet's shifting channels hold flounder (the region's obsession), reds along the edges, and sheepshead on every structure. Behind the island, the snake-like channels of the sound serve trout in winter holes and reds year-round: kayak country with tide discipline required, since the marsh drains hard.

The Cape Fear factor

The river's mouth south of town adds a different fishery: bull reds and tarpon around the shoals in late summer, striped bass wintering upriver, and the Fort Fisher rocks (spartina-meets-boulders) fishing like nowhere else on the coast. The basin behind Zeke's Island is a sight-fishing gem on calm winter days.

Beach seasons

Spring: sea mullet and blowfish first, Spanish by May, pompano as water passes 68. Summer: kings off the piers at dawn, flounder in every slough, sharks after dark for the heavy-rod crowd. Fall: spot run, big reds at the inlet, blues blitzing bait south. Winter: quiet rods, sound trout, and planning season.

Common questions

When is the spot run at Carolina Beach?

October, on the northeast winds after the first cool snaps: the piers load with families filling coolers. It is the coast's most democratic fishing event: bottom rigs, bloodworms, done.

Can you still keep flounder in North Carolina?

Only in short seasonal windows set annually (sometimes weeks long): check NCDMF before your trip. Catch-and-release flounder fishing at the inlet stays excellent regardless.

Is fishing good at Carolina Beach right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Nearby waters

Wilmington14 miCape Fear River51 miMyrtle Beach62 miMurrells Inlet73 miMorehead City82 miNeuse River86 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Tide predictions
NOAA CO-OPS 8658559 β€” Wilmington Beach
Harmonic predictions, datum MLLW, local time. 11 high and low events returned for today and the next two days. A prediction, not a measured water level: wind and surge move the real thing.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 34.0360, -77.8940 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.