Offshore Flounder Bite Hot as Weather

CAROLINA BEACH — The flounder bite at the southeastern N.C. coast was red hot at the close of July, as sizzling as the upper-90s weather.

It’ll likely remain that way until October, said flounder expert Dennis Barbour, owner of Island Tackle & Hardware at Carolina Beach and a part-time guide. Anglers who can find a local captain with acute knowledge of nearshore structure, including old Civil War wrecks within a few hundred yards of shore or someone who knows the nearshore artificial reefs, can have a fantastic time catching doormats.

Barbour, 56, also Carolina Beach’s former mayor, went flounder fishing July 31 with his son, Wesley, a 21-year-old rising junior at Appalachian State University. They scooted out Carolina Beach Inlet to three inshore reefs that morning and didn’t travel more than 6 miles before finding flatfish fun.

“It’s just a matter of finding which reef or wreck the flounder are at and which side of the wreck the flounder are at,” the former mayor said. “I like flounder fishing better than any other type. You can catch flounder inshore and offshore now.”

After a stop at a Civil War wreck within 200 yards of Pleasure Island, the Barbours motored to another wreck, but three friends were already perched there on a small boat. The three anglers had landed one 4-pounder.

With a mild southwest wind blowing up the beach, the Barbours made a fairly easy run with his Carolina Skiff to an artificial reef about 2 miles offshore. At that spot, after a careful anchor drop and paying out rope, Barbour positioned his boat directly above the wreck.

Using Carolina rigs with 2-ounce barrel weights and Kahle hooks and finger mullet baits (Wes Barbour used a cast net to catch 100 baitfish at the Carolina Beach Yacht Basin that morning), the two caught nine flounder during the next three hours. Barbour’s 6 1/2-foot medium-spined bait-caster rods were spooled with 20-pound-test braid and 30-pound-test 12-inch leaders.   “Fish will run from 2 to 3 pounds, on average, but bigger ones are caught,” Barbour said. “I’ve got a photo at the store of a flounder caught last week by Tom Hensley that weighed 12-pounds, 14-ounces.”

The younger Barbour finished the day by landing a 34-inch-long red drum.

Bigger fish broke the lines of the Barbours several times during the afternoon.

For information or tackle supplies at Carolina Beach, call Barbour at (910)458-3049 or try a local guide found on this page or in the classified GUIDES&CHARTERS section at the back of a North Carolina Sportsman issue.

“I only fish a couple times a week,” Dennis Barbor said. “There are several other guides in this area that are good.”