Spot Fishing in Rudee

Rudee Inlet is a small inlet in the otherwise unbroken Atlantic coast reaching from Virginia Beach to Oregon Inlet, NC. It's a popular place to catch Croaker, Spot, Puppy Drum, Grey Trout, Speckled Trout, and a few other inshore species of fish. Fall is the height of the Spot run and Rudee Inlet can get stacked up at times. When the big Yellowbelly Spots arrive, anglers scramble to fill their coolers with this delicious fish!

This week I have fished Rudee five days in a row. I prefer to take my 17' center console and fish from the water, but I have been known to fish from the shore on the north side of the inlet.

The typical Spot set up is to use a bottom rig with two hooks, a few ounces of lead, and bloodworms. Some anglers use small pieces of squid or cut bait, as well.


After work yesterday, I headed down to Rudee Inlet to attempt to find a few Spot for an upcoming fish fry. There were probably 20 or 30 people there with the same intentions. But the fishing was slow. All I could produce in two hours was one decent spot. I did see a few caught by others, but they were few and far between. One lady using cut bait managed a couple of small Speckled Trout.

I'll be going back out this afternoon - in my boat. I have heard reports that Spot are being caught off the Virginia Beach oceanfront, so I'll run out of Rudee and give it a shot.