NE Blow Sets Up Drum Bite — Week of September 14

Cape Hatteras Point is the headline. NE winds ramping to 21 knots tonight after the front pushes through — that's the wind we've been waiting on. Water's still warm at 83.5°F, but the churn and stain will pull drum into the sloughs. Fish the incoming after the 05:49 low, working a Fish Finder Rig with fresh mullet or cut bunker in the second slough. Pompano are still around too — Hi-Lo with sand fleas or Fishbites on the same tide. Bluefish will crash the wash on the falling tide toward the 18:17 low.

Avon Pier — Spanish and blues off the end early before the wind lays the water down flat and choppy. Get there at first light and throw a white bucktail or a 4" topwater stick bait through the schools. Once the NE really kicks tonight, switch gears to bottom rigs for pompano and puppy drum in the wash. Kingfish anglers, wire rig with a live bluefish on the T — window's closing fast with this water starting to cool.

Hatteras Inlet is going to be sporty with 24-knot gusts and a 3.3ft sea at 5 seconds — short and nasty. If you can get out of the wind on the sound side, flounder are staging on the channel drops. Carolina rig with a mud minnow or a chartreuse bucktail tipped with Gulp, work the edge on the last of the outgoing before the 18:17 low. Drum on the flat edges at the top of the incoming.

Oregon Inlet water's already dropped to 79.7°F — that's the fall trigger. Flounder in the cuts on the Carolina rig, and the sound-side flats are going to start firing for drum on topwater at daylight. Throw the 4" stick bait skinny on the incoming behind the 10:46 high. False albacore aren't far off with this cool-down.

Down in Murrells Inlet, 83.1°F and light winds make this the cleanest window of the week. Big 6.0ft high at 10:22 — fish the last two hours of the incoming up in the spartina for redfish with a weedless gold spoon or a topwater. Trout are sitting in the deeper holes at the end of the outgoing near the 16:38 low — chartreuse bucktail slow-hopped on the bottom. Flounder on the channel drops the same tide.

Folly Beach surf is 84.7°F and flat — 2.3ft at 9 seconds is butter. Pompano and whiting on the Hi-Lo with fleas and shrimp, best on the incoming toward the 11:03 high. Redfish are cruising the trough at first light and last light — Fish Finder with cut mullet. Spanish and blues nearshore if you can get a boat out; white bucktail on the troll or cast to birds.