Mason Inlet
NOAA ENC chart tiles · planning aid, not for navigation
Right now at this spot
oldest reading 37 min agoSmall boats will get beat up. Pick your heading and slow down.
The sea state in that call was measured 6.5 nm away at NDBC 41110 — that is open water, not this basin.
What that call is built on
- · Observed wind N 7 kt gusting 11 — NDBC JMPN7 · Wrightsville Beach
- · Observed seas 2.6 ft — NDBC 41110 · Masonboro Inlet
North end of Wrightsville, and it migrates. Locals run small boats through on a good tide but it is not a dependable inlet and it is not marked like Masonboro. Shell Island shoals build on the south side.
The tide today
When is the sand out?
NOAA returned no tide prediction for today, so there is no clock to run. Nothing here is guessed in its place.
NOAA has no prediction covering this moment, so we cannot tell you which way the water is going. Do not nose onto sand on a guess.
The inlet migrates and the shoals move with it. A bar that was here last summer may not be this one — this is the spot on the list where the clock is most likely to be right about the tide and wrong about the sand.
Walkable below about 2.0 ft of tide, properly dry below about 1.0 ft — the same rule of thumb we apply to every bar on this coast, because none of them have been surveyed.
This is a rule of thumb, not a survey. Nobody has measured the height of this sand to a datum, so the times are the tide curve run against a threshold we chose — treat them as give or take three quarters of an hour, and tell us if we're wrong.
Tide curve: NOAA 8658163 Wrightsville Beach, six-minute predictions, MLLW. Height of the sand: Corridor rule of thumb for the numbers. Classified as a covering bar because the shipped knowledge line records the Shell Island shoals building on the south side of a migrating inlet.
What’s biting here
All speciesPeak month, and 71°F is right in their band.
Min 18" total length · 1 per person per day
Peak month, and 71°F is right in their band.
Min 14" total length · 3 per person per day
Peak month, and 71°F is right in their band.
Unlawful to possess right now.
Ranked on the month and the measured water temperature. Limits are North Carolina’s current rules — confirm with DMF before you keep anything.
Depth
Getting there
from Wrightsville BeachWhat else is out here
straight line, true bearingLive from the water
Know before you go
Comments
Tide curve unavailable (NOAA 403) · Tides unavailable (NOAA 403)
Conditions, tides and alerts are live from NOAA CO-OPS, the National Weather Service and NDBC. Distance, run time, fuel and clearance are calculated from your boat profile. Member depth reports are corrected to the datum at the moment they are filed. Planning aid only — not for navigation. Carry current charts.