Fishing Report March 17th 2014

For March 17th, St Patricks Day, the forecast is for a high of 44 degrees, NNE winds 25 – 35 MPH,  50% chance of rain.  Sunset is at 7:11 PM with a sunrise tomorrow at 7:11 AM.
First tide is a low at 2:33 AM with a high at 8:32 AM
Second tide is low at 2:47 PM followed with the high at 8:53 PM

What started off as a perfectly lovely weekend degraded into what is hopefully winter’s last gasp.  Thursday March 20th is officially the first day of spring but I don’t really expect winter to gracefully fade away this year.  Water temp at Duck Research pier was posted this morning at a high of 43 degrees.  I have heard of a couple puppy drum landed on the south side of Oregon Inlet plus a few dogfish on Jennettes Pier, otherwise the pickings  on the northern beaches have been slim and none.

When the ocean permits it, the offshore fleet has sent some crews out to bring home a few Bluefin trophy fish.

Down south Saturday was a good day on Hatteras Island.  Red Drum Tackle reported nice puppy drum landed at the Buxton jetties, Cape Hatteras and ramps 49 and 55.  Recent satellite imagery showed the sea water temp from Buxton to Ocracoke in the low 60s.  If that temperature would hang around for awhile, we might start hearing of some sea mullet and blowtoads in the coolers.

Have a pleasant St. Paddy’s Day,              Coolbreeze out