Specks, flounder, red drum all biting in areas around Carolina Beach
Fishermen have a real chance to catch what the locals call a “Carolina Beach Grand Slam” in the inshore waters around the popular beach town.
Fishing in Myrtle Grove Sound, the Intracoastal Waterway, Snow’s Cut and the Cape Fear River has been productive for flounder, spotted seatrout and upper-slot red drum.
“Fishing has been good,” said Dennis Barbour, who fished Aug. 2 with his son, Wes, and two visitors. “We’ve been concentrating mostly on red drum, but we’ve also caught flounder at the same places with the same baits and trout at other places. I think we’ve got a pretty good chance to catch a grand slam.”
The former mayor of Carolina Beach and owner of Island Tackle and Hardware, Barbour (828-719-6000) and his party caught several speckled trout in the river on live shrimp, flounder in the ocean around a nearshore reef and several red drum between 28 and 33 inches long in the ICW. The flounder and reds hit mud minnows.
Wes Barbour said the waters around CarolinaBeach have traditionally been among the most productive along the entire North Carolina coast, in part because there’s very little commercial-fishing effort to take a toll on juvenile fish. Gill nets are rare, and there’s no inside trawling, as the river, Snow’s Cut and Carolina Beach Inlet have too many obstructions to snag nets, and the ICW has too much boat traffic.
“It allows fish to grow up,” Wes Barbour said.
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