Southport Advice

Frosstyx

Button Buck
Hello all, my wife and I are new to fishing the NC coast and we are heading to Southport for the weekend of June 7th with boat in tow (24’ CC). We will be keeping it at the Marina.

I am looking for advice on what to target. I was hoping to get into some offshore fishing (weather depending) on one day and get into the trout/inshore the next.

Any advice on areas to hit or species to target this time of year and where they are?
 

darkthirty

Old Mossy Horns
Just me but I’d load up on pogies from the ICW and go out to one or all of the AR’s and anchor up. Freeline a couple off the back of the boat for citation size Spanish and fish the bottom for flounder but you’ll have to weed through the black sea bass to get flounder if it’s like last time I was out there.
 

thelivecanary

Eight Pointer
Fish the backside of bald head island for reds with a fly rod, go offshore with live bait flatlined (bluefish, grass shads, pinfish, etc) and fish the mudline, first clear water or a temp break if the seas are ok. Verticle jig some golden hook rigs in the sound or near shore for Spanish. You can get some fiddler crabs and fish any verticle structure for some citation sheep's...lots of options. It's June everything is available.
 

Frosstyx

Button Buck
Thanks fo all the replies! Hopefully I can hunt down some live bait in the ICW, I really enjoy vertical jigging, anyone have success with that in the deeper water(weather depending of-course)? I’d love to get into the cobia (wouldn't we all) just not sure 2 days is enough time to learn an area well enough to go hunting for specifics. Thanks again! And any other advice is gladly received.
 

HotSoup

Old Mossy Horns
Behind bald head isnt good advice unless he wants to be there a long time. It gets skinny quick and with the size of his boat he will most likely be stuck if not very careful
 

Frosstyx

Button Buck
The boat is a SeaBorn LX24, she drafts in 14-16”. I have a trolling motor (ulterra) and a talon. I’d rather not get stuck on an outgoing tide...makes for a long day, lol. Im hoping the weather is nice enough to get to the Yaupon as I have read that a lot of species hang there. If its real nice I will run out deep in search of grouper. How far is the run to the first ledge that grouper can be found on?
 

Woods and water

Ten Pointer
The pogies are in the icw around the st James Marina and will be there most of the summer. Good advice about behind bald head if you aren't familiar with that area I wouldn't recommend it. There will be larger pogies off the beach and the big drum will be under them. As far as reliable grouper ledge's your looking at 35 plus miles but some are caught closer at certain times of the year (gags,) . If I only had two days I would spend them trolling to the artificial reefs , anchor and flounder fish watching for big schools of pogies to cast to . The second day would be at phizer dock catching whatever inshore species you like to Target
 
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