Drum on the Point, Trout in the Grass — Week of July 27

Cape Hatteras Point is running 80.1°F and the Diamond Shoals current is doing its usual summer work. Pompano bite has been steady on the incoming — fish the window from 14:32 low up through the 20:31 high with a Pompano Hi-Lo Rig, sand fleas or fresh shrimp. Drum are showing on the evening tide push, cut mullet on a Fish Finder Rig in the sloughs after dark. Watch the afternoon thunderstorms — SE wind 5 to 8 is nothing, but the cells build fast off the Gulf Stream.

Avon Pier is fishing the same tide swing. Spanish macks and bluefish working the second bar on the morning incoming toward that 07:40 high — throw a White Bucktail Jig on a long cast, fast retrieve. Kings have been slow-trolling live bait off the end on the Kingfish Wire Rig, better shot in the calm mornings before the SE fills in. Pompano in the wash on the dropping tide midday.

Hatteras Inlet flounder are staging on the channel edges — Flounder Carolina Rig with a mud minnow or finger mullet, drift the slack windows around 02:29 and 14:32 lows when the current eases up. Drum are working the flat edges on the sound side, best shot early before the sun gets on the water. A Yellow/Chartreuse Bucktail tipped with Gulp is money on the incoming.

Oregon Inlet is cooler at 75.7°F and the tides are running bigger — 1.2ft high at 19:48 means real current in the cuts. Flounder bite has been solid on the drops, work the last two hours of the outgoing into that 13:28 low. Sound side flats are holding drum in the grass edges early morning, throw a 4" Topwater Stick Bait at first light before the boat traffic wakes them up.

Murrells Inlet is a bathtub at 84.6°F — fish early and late. Speckled trout are stacked in the deeper holes on the low slack around 12:38, live shrimp under a popping cork or a 4" Topwater at dawn. Redfish are pushed up in the spartina on that big 5.4ft evening high at 19:04, cut mullet on a Fish Finder Rig or sight-cast with a Yellow/Chartreuse Bucktail. Flounder on the channel drops through the outgoing.

Folly Beach is the hottest water on the board at 86.4°F. Redfish in the trough at first light and last light — Fish Finder Rig with cut bait, or work a topwater along the wash before the sun gets high. Whiting and pompano on the Hi-Lo through the day. Nearshore Spanish are around on the calm mornings, White Bucktail if you can get out past the breakers. E wind 5 to 8 keeps it fishable all week.