Offshore Brief · Prepared for Capt. Austin Wiese

Oregon Inlet Tuna — Saturday April 18, 2026 · Outer Banks, NC · Depart at first light

GO · Clean Window

Captain's Bottom Line

Friday's blow clears overnight. Saturday is a gift window — S 5–10 kt, 2–3 ft, no advisories. Run SSE at sunrise. Gulf Stream wall is sitting unusually close (~35–40 NM out) — short run to blue water. Start at The Point on the 80–100 fathom break, hunt the blue/green color change and the 68–70 °F temp break. If it's pushed east, follow the edge to the Stream convergence. Be headed home by early afternoon before the SW sou'wester builds after dark.

Target Zones

Oregon Inlet (start) Zone 1 · The Point Zone 2 · Gulf Stream Wall Zone 3 · Diamond Shoals Gulf Stream N wall (Apr 16)

Tap markers for zone details. Bathymetry via OpenSeaMap overlay.

Zone 1 — The Point Primary

35.28° N, 75.18° W · ~38 NM SE · bearing 135°

Classic OBX spring tuna ground. Continental shelf drops from 60 → 120 fathoms in 4–5 miles. Work the 80–100 fathom contour where temp breaks set up. Recent reports: yellowfin limits with bigeye mixed in.

Species

Yellowfin · Bigeye · Bluefin

Target Temp

68–70 °F

Run Time @ 30 kt

~1h 15m

Zone 2 — Gulf Stream Western Wall

35.02° N, 75.48° W · ~38 NM SSE · bearing 155°

NOAA ocean.weather.gov ASCII data (Apr 16) places the northern wall at 35.0° N / 75.5° W. Hunt the blue/green convergence and color change. YFT stack where warm Stream water meets shelf water — blended edges beat hard breaks (hard breaks run 4+ kt and kill the bite).

Species

Yellowfin · Mahi · Wahoo

Target Temp

68–70 °F

Run Time @ 30 kt

~1h 15m

Zone 3 — Diamond Shoals Area Fallback

35.05° N, 75.72° W · ~42 NM SSE · bearing 170°

Structure-based fallback ~18 NM SW of The Point. Bluefin still being reported near Hatteras early April — commercial season closing soon, so the nearshore BFT may be thinning by the 18th, but worth a check if the northern zones are cold or the temp break pushes south.

Species

Bluefin · Blackfin

Structure

Shoals + tower

Run Time @ 30 kt

~1h 25m