Friday NC Ocean Report: Tides, Inshore Bite, Nearshore Mackerel & More

Artificial Lure here with your Friday, June 20th, 2025 North Carolina Atlantic Ocean fishing report.

Sunrise hit at 5:53am this morning, with sunset set for 8:21pm. We’ve got a mixed bag of weather typical for June: warm, muggy, and mostly calm seas—perfect for a full day on the water. Tides at Atlantic Beach are running high at 2:42am (3.4ft), low at 8:49am (essentially at dead bottom, 0.0ft), peaking high again at 3:21pm (4.2ft), and then another low at 9:55pm (0.2ft), giving you a textbook shallow-to-full flood tide through most of the daylight[Surfline Oceanana Pier Tide Calendar][Tide-Forecast Atlantic Beach]. That afternoon incoming tide is prime time for inshore action.

Surf anglers are reporting solid numbers of whiting, croakers, pompano, and bluefish in the wash. There’s a steady presence of small sharks to keep things lively, while the occasional keeper flounder is being pulled just behind the first sandbar. The best bait for the surf right now is fresh shrimp or Fishbites for the smaller species, with cut mullet picking up the bigger blues and any prowling drum. Pompano are hitting sand fleas and shrimp right on the drop-off, so bring your scoops and be ready to work the shallow troughs[Fisherman’s Post Carolina Beach – June 2025].

Inshore, the Cape Fear River and ICW are loaded with flounder this month; soft plastics and bucktails tipped with Gulp! are the go-to baits. Lots of black drum are being found around deep docks and oyster edges—Carolina-rigged live shrimp or fresh cut bait is working best. If you’re an early riser, topwater MirrOlure Top Pup or Top Dog Jr. fished along marsh grass and oyster rocks is producing quality redfish. Red drum activity is firing up, with smaller 16–18” fish starting to mix in with the slots. Fish those grass shorelines on the rising tide with fresh cut menhaden or mullet under a popping cork or on a Carolina rig[Captain Jot Owens Wrightsville Beach][Crystal Coast Fishing Forecast - June 2025].

Off the beach, Spanish mackerel continue to be the hottest nearshore ticket—trolling Clarkspoons behind planers or casting Big Nic jigs to surface-feeding schools is putting fish in the box. King mackerel are scattered from the piers to ten miles out, and there’s a good shot at mahi on the deeper grass lines and structure in the Gulf Stream[Island Tackle and Hardware][Fisherman’s Post Morehead/Atlantic Beach]. Grouper and vermilion snapper are coming up steady for bottom anglers hitting anything 120’ and deeper.

Top hot spots for today: The area around Cape Lookout Bight is holding schools of bait and a mix of predators—don’t be surprised if a cobia or two cruise through. The AR 315 and AR 320 reefs just offshore from Morehead are producing flounder, gray trout, and the last push of Atlantic bonito.

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