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Morehead City Fishing Report

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

The Crystal Coast's port: Cape Lookout's shoals, false albacore autumns that fill fly-fishing legend and a king mackerel heritage fleet.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Next tide
Low 12:28 AM
Air / High
70 / 71 F
Wind
NE 15 mph

Sources: NOAA tides 8656502, 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.

Morehead City sits in the sweet spot of the season: active fish and workable weather. Today brings clear skies, wind NE around 15 mph, steady pressure near 1022 hPa and a high of 71. Tides: high 6:07 AM and 6:23 PM, low 12:22 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 9:41 AM-11:41 AM and 10:09 PM-12:09 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 8656502 (Morehead City Harbor). Fish the moving water either side of each change.

Fri
HIGH6:07 AM3.7 ft
LOW12:22 PM0.6 ft
HIGH6:23 PM3.4 ft
Sat
LOW12:28 AM0.4 ft
HIGH6:50 AM4.0 ft
LOW1:10 PM0.5 ft
HIGH7:04 PM3.4 ft

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

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp70 F
High / Low71 / 47 F
WindNE 15-19 mph
Pressure1021.7 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain12% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset07:19 / 18:22
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 Morehead City this week

The best day on Morehead City this week looks like Saturday Oct 24, at 4 out of 5, against 3 today.

Best day this week: Saturday, Oct 24 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
9:41 AM-11:41 AM and 10:09 PM-12:09 AM
Minor period
4:03 AM-5:03 AM
Sun
07:19 to 18:22
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Partly cloudy, 15 mph
Rain chance
0%

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

Species guide

The species that matter on Morehead City: 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 Morehead City 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 Morehead City today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Redfish (red drum) led the card at excellent. High of 71 F, wind to 12 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 70 F, wind to 15 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

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 72 F, wind to 17 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. Albies: release culture: kings: tournament rules seasonal: check NCDMF.

Access

Radio Island, municipal ramps, Harkers Island accesses; Oceanana pier on the bogue side.

About this water

The Crystal Coast's working port, Carteret County, NC. Albie autumn's East Coast capital.

Fishing Morehead City: the full guide

Port of the Crystal Coast

Morehead City works Bogue Sound's deep port between Beaufort Inlet and the Cape Lookout shoals: a fishing town whose fall king mackerel tournaments and albie blitzes built national reputations. The fleet reads three waters daily: sound, inlet and the shoals' wild edge.

Albert autumn

October-November made Morehead famous in fly circles: false albacore ('alberts') blitz the Cape Lookout shoals in numbers and sizes (15-plus pounds) that draw anglers from everywhere: fast boats chasing breaking fish along the rips, epoxy flies and metal at 20-knot retrieves. It remains the East's premier albie stage.

The heritage fisheries

King mackerel run the fall's other religion (the port's tournaments are decades deep): live-bait slow-trolling the color changes: while the sound's grass holds specks and reds (winter's deep holes off the port turn on when fronts stack fish), and the bogue piers work the spot-and-mullet calendar. Cape Lookout's surf: boat-access wild beach: fishes drum runs spring and fall.

Working the port

Radio Island and municipal ramps serve the fleet: the state port's turning basin holds winter trout (an odd urban honey hole): and Harkers Island's ramps open the Cape Lookout back side. Beaufort Inlet's shoals shift: respect the bars: and the fall weather windows rule the shoal game: albies wait for no schedule.

Common questions

When do false albacore run Cape Lookout?

October-November off the shoals: bait-driven blitzes of 12-18-pound fish. It is the East's premier light-tackle-and-fly pelagic event: weather windows rule.

What is Morehead City known for besides albies?

King mackerel heritage (the fall tournaments), sound trout and reds, and Cape Lookout's wild surf. A complete saltwater port wearing a small-town face.

Is fishing good at Morehead City 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

Neuse River62 miPamlico Sound63 miCape Hatteras70 miWilmington78 miCarolina Beach82 miTar River94 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Tide predictions
NOAA CO-OPS 8656502 β€” Morehead City Harbor
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 34.7200, -76.7100 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.