Drum, flounder picking up near Southport

Red drum fishing is starting to heat up at the southeastern coast as the water warms and other species provide a foretaste of summer action.

“We’re catching good numbers of red drum most every day,” said guide Jeff Wolfe of Wilmington. “Plus, we’re also doing good on black drum, and a few flounder are starting to show up.”

He fishes the lower Cape Fear near Bald Head Island across from Southport and bays north of the island.

“We’re also catching reds around some docks and in the Intracoastal Waterway,” said Wolfe (Seahawk Inshore Charters, 910-619-9580, http://www.seahawkinshorefishingcharters.com/).

“Flounder are starting to filter their way into the (lower Cape Fear) system through the inlet from the ocean. We’re catching a few in the backwaters and creeks, although most of them are undersize (less than 15 inches in length). We’ve caught a few 2- to 2 1/2-pounders, but flounder fishing really will get good starting about mid May. That’s when we’ll start seeing 5 to 6-pounders.”

Mud minnows or Gulp shrimp fishing on Carolina rigs have been effective baits for flatfish.

Wolfe and two clients at a 30-fish day for red drum April 25.

“We were using spinnerbaits, mostly,” he said. “We found a school in a 7-foot (deep) pocket of water near an oyster rock and slow-rolled Bayou Buck spinnerbaits tipped with DOA paddletails through there and caught a bunch of them.”

The reds ranged from just under slot (18 to 27 inches) to 32 inches in length.

Topwater lures, such as ZaraSpooks and MirrOlure TopDogs and Skitterwalks, have been effective for redfish as well.

Red drum right now are in small schools of 10 to 15 fish, unlike the big schools of winter.

“We used a new Mann’s lure, a Tidewater Waker, a minnow-like lure in croaker color with a small bill that makes a wake when you pull it through the water,” he said. “We found (the school of reds) near oyster rock.”

If reds aren’t hitting artificial lures, he’ll swith to mud minnows underneath float rigs.

“I use Gulp DOAs, too,” he said. “They’re hard to beat.”

Spotted seatrout fishing remains slow.

“I’ve heard of no one catching them recently,” Wolfe said. “But we’re picking up some black drum fishing shrimp around structure (in the bays). People also are catching some whiting (Virginia mullet) in the lower Cape Fear.”

Keeper season for specks doesn’t start until June 15.