Outer Banks Fishing Seasons, Month by Month

January and February belong to the giant bluefin tuna off Hatteras, between Diamond Shoals and the Rock — some of the heaviest fish taken anywhere on the East Coast, weather permitting. Blackfin are steady on the same trips, and the wrecks hold black sea bass and grouper inside the open season. The Oregon Inlet offshore fleet largely stands down.

Inshore, speckled trout stack in the deep holes and creek mouths, and puppy drum come up onto dark mud on a sunny afternoon. March flips it: the first yellowfin push out of Oregon Inlet, bluefish arrive, the first Atlantic bonito show on the shoals, and the shad run gets going in the Alligator and Roanoke rivers.

April is the best yellowfin month of the spring, with bonito and false albacore on the shoals and the first dolphin showing late. Inshore, trout are on grass and rock and puppy drum feed hard on the warming flats. Surf anglers get sea mullet, bluefish and the first pompano.

May is cobia — a tight, visual, sight-casting fishery off the beach and shoals from mid-May to mid-June that is worth building a trip around. Spanish mackerel arrive, amberjack pile onto the wrecks, and mahi start filling boxes offshore. June is peak billfish: white marlin, blue marlin and sailfish, alongside mahi in numbers and steady king mackerel nearshore.

The widest choice of boats and the highest prices. Offshore is white marlin, mahi and tournament season out of Oregon Inlet and Hatteras, with yellowfin thinner and deeper. Nearshore is kings, Spanish and amberjack, reliably.

Inshore compresses. The sound gets hot, and the good fishing is the first hour of light and the last — topwater for drum and trout at dawn, flounder through the day, and croaker and spot in quantity for anyone fishing with children. Book the morning slot in July, not the middle of the day.

Wahoo turn on, yellowfin come back through, and billfish hold into September, with half the summer crowd already gone. Inshore, bull red drum stack around the inlets and in the Pamlico — the biggest inshore event of the year, and a genuinely memorable fight on light tackle.

October adds the surf run: drum at Cape Point, big bluefish, sea mullet and pompano, with the mullet blow pushing bait down the beach. Speckled trout are excellent, flounder are still around before they head out through the inlets, and false albacore show up off Hatteras for light-tackle anglers. If you can travel in autumn, travel in autumn.

November is prime speckled trout, puppy drum on the flats and striped bass moving into the sounds, with wahoo, blackfin and yellowfin still on the breaks offshore and false albacore nearshore. The first bluefin scouts appear off Hatteras late in the month.

December hands it back to Hatteras: bluefin begin, blackfin and wahoo fish on the weather windows, striped bass work the beach, and trout go back into the deep holes. Prices and availability are the easiest of the year, and a settled December week can fish better than a busy July one.