September Report: Wahoo Turn On at the Winyah Scarp, Flounder Finally Show Inshore
Two different bites, both turning on at the same time for the same reason — the water’s starting to cool, and both an offshore pelagic and an inshore flatfish are reacting to it right on schedule.
Offshore: wahoo waking up at the Winyah Scarp
The wahoo bite around the Winyah Scarp — the same general water as the Georgetown Hole — has genuinely taken off the last couple of weeks. This is exactly the window the high-speed wahoo trolling program is built around: fall is one of the two windows worth planning a trip on, right as water temps start dropping and wahoo push through in real numbers rather than the scattered, one-off fish of summer.
It showed on the last trip out — good fish, and more than one. Ricard put in the work boatside on this one, wahoo up and heading for the box before the wake even settled out behind the boat.
Three solid wahoo on the deck by the end of the day — the kind of trip that makes the case for running the wire and skirt-over-ballyhoo rigs alongside the high-speed spread instead of leaving that rod in the rack.
If the fall pattern holds the way it usually does, this is the start of the good stretch, not the peak of it — worth getting out again while the temperature break stays put.
Inshore: flounder finally showing up as the season opens
The inshore side is turning over at the same time, and for the same underlying reason. Flounder have been running behind schedule all year the same way they were south of the state line in Little River and Cherry Grove back in July — late to show up in the creeks and along the ICW in real numbers. They’re finally here now that the water’s starting to cool, and the timing lines up well with North Carolina’s recreational season: the 2026 season opened September 1 and runs a short window through September 14 — a one-fish-per-person daily bag limit, 15-inch minimum total length. It’s a narrow window, so if you’ve been waiting on this bite to plan a gigging or rod-and-reel trip, don’t wait much longer to use it. The J16 gigging boat setup covers the lighting and battery rig for anyone putting a night trip together before the season closes back up.
Bottom line
Both bites turned the same corner at the same time — cooling water pushing wahoo through the Winyah Scarp in real numbers and finally pulling flounder up into the shallows on schedule. Offshore, it’s the start of the fall run and worth getting out on again. Inshore, North Carolina’s flounder window is short and already ticking — 15 inches, one fish a day, closing September 14.
North Carolina’s 2026 recreational flounder season (September 1–14, 15-inch minimum, one fish per person per day) is current as of this writing per NCDMF — always verify current season dates and limits before you go, since they’re set annually and can change.
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