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Sea Mullet (Kingfish)
OpenMenticirrhus saxatilis
The NC rulebook, translated for the Banks.
The Short Version
North Carolina sets the keep floor at 8" — measure carefully, short fish go back. The daily creel is no creel limit, and the fishery is open through the whole calendar year.
Keep Size
8"
Size fish must clear to be kept
Run the tape from the snout to the far edge of the tail pressed flat together — a pinched tail adds the half inch that decides a citation.
Daily Creel
No creel limit
What one angler may take per day
Counts are per person unless the rule says "per boat," and they aggregate across everywhere you fished that day — sound, surf, and ocean all land in the same tally.
Season Window
Year-round
When harvest is legal
Open through the year unless an emergency closure posts.
Where It Stands
Open
Harvest is legal; emergency in-season shutdowns are rare but do happen — glance at the DMF proclamations page anyway.
The Backbone of the Surf
Sea mullet — kingfish to most of the Outer Banks — are the fish that made the beach fishery. They work the surf zone and the sloughs behind the bar from Corolla to Hatteras, and every ramp on the island has someone catching them on a two-hook bottom rig with a piece of fresh shrimp or a sand flea.
They are the easiest fish on the Banks to catch and the best eating to come out of the surf, which is exactly why the local bottom-rig fishery runs on them. Fish the moving water at the edge of a slough, keep the bait still, and the rod tells you when a mullet has picked it up.
The Fine Print
- •8" total length minimum.
- •No creel limit — sea mullet are the reason a surf angler can fill a cooler on a slow day.
- •Fished on a two-hook bottom rig from any beach ramp; sand fleas, shrimp, and bloodworms all work.
- •Known as kingfish or whiting elsewhere; the surf fishery is a year-round OBX staple.
Updated Oct 30, 2026