This week's fishing forecast - Dec. 20 - Jan. 1

By Damon Tatum

SURF FISHING

Corolla to Coquina Beach

• Speckled trout, including some big fish weighing more than 4 pounds, taken on soft plastic lures from deeper sloughs
• Scattered puppy drum on cut bait and trout lures
• An occasional keeper striped bass on fresh cut bait, eels or lures – anglers can keep two stripers per person a day, 38 inches or larger in the Atlantic
• An occasional small bluefish and possibly a few big blues on cut bait

Oregon Inlet area

• A few puppy drum
• An occasional small black drum and a few scattered mixed-sized bluefish
• Scattered speckled trout from deeper sloughs if the water is clear
• Scattered mixed-sized striped bass

Pea Island to Buxton

• Skates, dogfish and ling cod on bait
• Some nice speckled trout on soft plastic lures when the water is fairly calm and clear
• An occasional puppy drum on fresh cut bait or trout lures
• Scattered keeper striped bass; anglers may keep two ocean stripers
• inches or larger per person per day

Buxton to Hatteras Inlet

• Puppy drum and an occasional trout at Cape Point
• Skates, dogfish and sharks in the Cape Point area
• An occasional striped bass in the Cape Point area and just south of the cape
• Possibly a few sea mullet, toadfish and black drum along the beach from Cape

Point to Hatteras Inlet

• Skates and dogfish along the Frisco and Hatteras Inlet beaches
• Some speckled trout in sloughs near Frisco pier when the weather is good
• Some puppy drum and possibly a striper or two in the Hatteras Inlet area surf

BRIDGES, Piers

• Melvin R. Daniels Bridge on the Nags Head/Roanoke Island causeway
• A few sound stripers

Catwalk on the south end of the Bonner Bridge across Oregon Inlet

• Ocean striped bass

Most piers along the Outer Banks are closed for the winter.

Piers along the northern beaches, if accessible

• Skates, dogfish and ling cod
• An occasional speckled trout on lures
• Possibly a few ocean stripers

Piers on Hatteras Island, if accessible

• Skates, dogfish and ling cod
• An occasional puppy drum, toadfish or speckled trout
• Possibly a few stripers

INSHORE BOATS

Oregon Inlet and Hatteras Inlet areas

• Striped bass in Croatan and Albemarle sounds; anglers can keep three stripers 18 inches or larger per person per day in the sounds
• Ocean stripers in the Oregon Inlet area on eels or artificial baits
• Some puppy drum and trout in the sound west of Hatteras Inlet if the weather is mild

OFFSHORE

• Plenty of yellowfin
• tuna off Oregon Inlet when the weather permits fishing
• Yellowfin tuna and blackfin tuna off Hatteras
• Good king mackerel fishing off Hatteras when the weather is moderate