Hot Water, Skinny Tides — Week of August 10

Cape Hatteras Point is running 84.7°F with a weak tide cycle this week — barely a half foot of swing. That means current's soft off the shoals, so work the deeper cuts. Pompano bite is on at dawn — hit the incoming to the 7:02 AM high with a Pompano Hi-Lo tipped with fresh sand fleas or Fishbites. Drum will show at dusk into the 7:50 PM high, cut mullet on a fish finder rig, fished in the second slough. SW 10-15 keeps it fishable but expect afternoon thunder cells rolling through.

Avon Pier's mirroring the Point on temps and tides. Spanish macks and blues in the wash early — throw a white bucktail or a 4" topwater stick bait across the first bar right at first light before the sun gets on it. Kings still hanging off the end, live bait on a kingfish wire rig if you can get bait. Pompano in the wash on the incoming, same window as the Point.

Hatteras Inlet — flounder are staging on the channel edges. Work a Carolina rig with a live mud minnow or finger mullet on the moving water, best window is the outgoing after 7 AM dropping toward that 1:55 PM low. Drum on the flat edges at the 7:50 PM high, cut bait or a chartreuse bucktail slow-hopped. Oregon Inlet's got a better tide swing — 1.5 ft high at 6:57 PM. Flounder in the cuts on the outgoing to the 12:33 low, drum on the sound-side flats at the evening high. Watch for afternoon storms up there today.

Murrells Inlet's where the tide action lives this week. Big 6.4 ft high at 6:14 PM, negative low at 11:53 AM. Redfish are going to be pinned to the spartina edges on that flood — throw a gold spoon or a chartreuse bucktail tight to the grass in the last two hours before the 6:14 high. Trout in the deeper holes early on the outgoing, topwater sticks at first light before the sun burns the surface. Flounder on the channel drops, Carolina rig with mud minnows worked slow on the moving water.

Folly Beach surf is 85.5°F — hot but the trough bite's still solid. Whiting and pompano on a Hi-Lo with fresh shrimp or fleas, fish the incoming toward the 6:15 AM and 6:53 PM highs. Redfish in the trough at dusk, fish finder rig with cut mullet or blue crab. Nearshore Spanish still around — white bucktail or small topwater stick if you can get past the wash.

Bottom line: fish the light windows on both ends of the coast. Water's too warm midday to expect much. Storms are in the forecast every afternoon — get out early, get off before the anvils build.