Author: Ben Morris

Spring Gulfstream Fishing out of Wilmington North Carolina

May is one of my all time favorite months to take 12 hour gulfstream trips. You can almost bet on a good catch of Blackfin Tuna as well as mahi mahi if conditions are right as well as the occasional wahoo. We took two trips the last couple of days and had plenty of blackfin, mahi and a couple wahoo as well as some scamp grouper. The fishing generally will remain good until around the end of May/beginning of June.

Best time for Mahi out of Wilmington NC

While it isn’t uncommon to to come across Mahi Mahi all summer every now and then, your best shot at a good number of them and some bigger ones are generally May into the very beginning of June on our full day trips. We usually encounter tuna and wahoo as well while were trolling.

With that being said, just because you cant swing a full day trip doesnt mean your chances are shot. on the 8 hour trips and every now and then the six hour trips we will come across a few in the 15-25 mile range while live baiting for king mackerel. This usually happens when we get some warm pretty water pushed in from the gulf stream.

Best Times to Fish out of Wilmington North Carolina

This is one of the most frequently asked questions from our charter guests, when is the best time to go fishing? My answer is; it all depends on what you want to target so im gonna try and break it down by what trips we offer and when I would take those trips.

4 hour – The 4 hour trips start getting good around the beginning of April when the Atlantic Bonito are migrating through, this will usually last a couple weeks then the spanish mackerel start to show up on the beach and the barracuda and occasional king mackerel start to show up on the artificial reefs from 3 to 5 miles, usually around beginning to middle of May and stay through October.

6 and 8 hour – If its gag grouper you’re targeting then May and October are the best months. October is hands down the best for nearshore gag grouper fishing but unfortunately the season now closes around the end of June, hopefully that changes in the future, so for now May is definitely the second best month for gag grouper in the 15-20 mile range that you can keep. Aside from gag grouper, we also target king mackerel, cobia, jacks, snapper and the occasional mahi on these trips which can be good from May through November. August can be a pretty tough month for this range but generally we can still find some life around the wrecks in the 20-30 mile range.

12 hour trolling – One of my favorite trips to run. For the 12 hour were targeting Mahi Mahi, Blackfin Tuna, Wahoo, Sailfish, and the occasional Yellowfin Tuna. If you’re looking to target wahoo I would recommend any time from late August all the way through March with October being my favorite month. When targeting wahoo you want to be within 3 or 4 days of the full moon if possible. This is also a great time for sailfish, we usually see quite a few of them while were trying to target wahoo in the fall and winter months as well as blackfin tuna. If you’re looking for Blackfin Tuna, Mahi and possibly Yellowfin then May into early June is usually prime time for these species.

12 hour bottom – May, June and October are great months for the full day bottom trips. You can get big trigger fish and vermillion snapper pretty much year round but the grouper fishing tends to be a little better in the early spring and fall. Especially the jumbo gag groupers up to 40 pounds on the deeper bottom as well as scamp and red groupers.

Of course all of this has to coincide with good weather and water conditions. We have had some extremely awesome days on all of our trips at the worst times of the year and every year is different! as the old saying goes “don’t know till you go”

Atlantic Bonito have showed!

The water and weather are finally starting to warm up and so is the fishing! with warmer water temps come great nearshore action. This week the Atlantic Bonito have made a strong showing. These good eating fish make for a great fight on light spinning tackle or can be caught trolling spoons on our 4 hour trips. They’ll only be here for a couple weeks so take advantage and book a trip!

Grouper Season!

Grouper season has started! The gag grouper bite is as good as it can get, you can only keep two per boat this year but its better than nothing, this is a grouper you can catch on a six hour trip instead of having to spend the extra money to get out to the break where you catch your scamps and red groupers. Gag closes on June 26th so book your trip and get more bang for your buck! Scamp and red grouper remain open all year but a longer trip is usually needed to reach those species.

Swordfish Charter

With the addition of a bigger faster boat, Im pleased to announce that we will now be offering swordfish charters. If this is something you’ve wanted to cross off your bucket list now is your chance! This will be a 14 hour trip that can take you up to 80 miles offshore of Wrightsville Beach North Carolina. The swordfishing out of Wrightsville Beach is somewhat of a hidden gem. Most people think south florida when they think of Sword fish but that is simply not the case! we’ve had more days than I can count of multiple fish days and we have them all year round as long as you get the right weather. Fishing is best in spring through fall but we’ve also had some great days in the winter, the weather is just a little harder to come by during those months. The price is $2,600.00, Give me a call directly to talk about the details of this trip and to book! 828-429-8076 or send an email at benamorris1@gmail.com