North Carolina

Holden Beach

Southport-area sleeper. Less famous than Topsail, less crowded. Patient walkers find good Hemipristis and small megs.

today

Prime

5.0ft swing · spring tide · low 1:41 PM · post-storm · +15 event boost

Today at a glance

Updated 2026-05-30T22:28:35.867Z

Prime conditions today. Best window opens around the 1:41 PM low (0.0 ft). Light S winds (4 mph) — calm surface, easy spotting; seas 2–3 ft, some stir.

Next 3 days: Tomorrow is the pick (100); Mon runs cooler at 85.

Best Window Today

1:41 PM

Plan around the prime low-tide window. 5.0ft swing · spring tide · low 1:41 PM · post-storm · +15 event boost.

Hunt score

Prime

Astronomical low

0.0 ft

1:41 PM

Predicted real low

0.1 ft

above NOAA by 0.1 ft

Low-window wind

3 mph

Light — negligible effect

Tides: NOAA Bowen Point, Shallotte Inlet, NC (station 8659665)

Best window this week

Sun, May 31 · 2:22 PM

4.8ft swing · spring tide · low 2:22 PM · ~0.5ft below predicted (offshore wind) · post-storm · +15 event boost

Score

100

Prime

Confidence: Partial — noaa tide station, on-site outcomes. Hover the badge above for the input-by-input breakdown.

Tonight's moon

Full moon

100% illuminated

Sunrise 10:05 AM · Sunset 12:18 AM

Wind right now

4 mph from S

Gusts 5 mph · best from E

Light wind — minimal effect on the tide line either way.

Past 7 days

Compare model output to your actual visits.

Sat, May 23

Great

low 8:47 PM

Sun, May 24

Great

low 9:50 PM

Mon, May 25

Great

low 10:10 AM

Tue, May 26

Prime

low 10:56 AM

Wed, May 27

Prime

low 11:39 AM

Thu, May 28

Prime

low 12:20 PM

Fri, May 29

Prime

low 1:00 PM

Next 7 days

Plan a trip →

Today · Sat, May 30

Prime

5.0ft swing

low 1:41 PM

⚡ post-storm

Sun, May 31

100

Prime

4.8ft swing

low 2:22 PM

▼ 0.5ft

13mph ON

⚡ post-storm

Mon, Jun 1

Prime

4.6ft swing

low 3:05 PM

▼ 0.3ft

Tue, Jun 2

Great

4.4ft swing

low 3:47 PM

▼ 0.4ft

10mph ON

Wed, Jun 3

Great

4.2ft swing

low 4:28 PM

Thu, Jun 4

Good

4.0ft swing

low 5:09 PM

Fri, Jun 5

Good

3.1ft swing

low 5:53 PM

▼ means the forecast wind will likely push the real low below NOAA's prediction (more beach to hunt). ▲ means it will likely sit above the prediction (less beach). Rough rule: ~0.04 ft per mph of sustained wind during the low-tide window.

Tide times: NOAA CO-OPS station 8659665 (Bowen Point, Shallotte Inlet, NC) — local time, MLLW datum. Click to verify on NOAA. Cards show LOWS only (best for hunting); highs are visible on the tide curve below.

Tide curve · next 48h

🌤️ Weather & Wave Forecast

Impact on visibility and stir-up over the next 5 days.

Onshore Wind: Pushes water in (tide sits higher) and stirs up the bottom. Good for "new" teeth, bad for visibility.

Offshore Wind: Water blown out (tide sits lower). Maximum beach exposure for hunting the low tide line.

Why today scores 96

The Hunt Score blends tide range, lunar phase, daylight timing, recent stir, wind setup, and surf.

Wave height 2.2 ft

Best low

1:41 PM at 0.0 ft

Predicted real low

0.1 ft

Wind deviation

Less beach by 0.1 ft

Explain this scoreShow breakdown ▾

💡

Analysis

Exceptional. Don't sit on this one.

Tide range

41.6 / 50

Today's swing is 5.0 ft (saturates at 6 ft = 50 pts).

Spring tide

11.9 / 15

Within ±2 days of a new or full moon = wider swing.

Daylight timing

13.8 / 15

Low in daylight = you can actually hunt.

Recent stir

0.0 / 10

Past 72h onshore wind churn (only counts hours that already happened).

Wind setup at low

-0.8 / 10

Forecast wind piles 0.1 ft of water around the low.

Surf bonus

4.0 / 5

1–4 ft of recent surf = clean sorting; >7 ft = unfishable.

Recent rainfall

0.0 / 3

No measurable rain in the past 48h — no runoff signal.

Storm multipliermultiplier

1.15×

Peak gust 31 mph triggers post-storm boost.

Event boostadded

+15

Manual + auto events (storms, drought, beach renourishment).

Show the math

components: 41.6 + 11.9 + 13.8 + 0.0 + -0.8 + 4.0 + 0.0 = 70.4 × storm multiplier 1.15 = 81.0 + event boost +15 = 96.0 final = 96

What's NOT in this score

We are deliberate about which factors to include. These are not currently in the model:

Hunt pressure. A “hunts this week” chip is shown on each location page for transparency, but it does not change the score yet. We need more outcomes per site before a penalty would be statistically meaningful.
Wave period / swell direction. We use wave height only. Long-period groundswell sorts material differently than short wind chop, but Open-Meteo doesn't expose period reliably.
Barometric pressure trend. Falling pressure = approaching storm = building stir. Currently we wait for the wind to actually arrive.
Water temperature, clarity, salinity. Affects comfort but not (directly) what teeth wash up.
Weekday vs weekend. A 70 on Tuesday is often better in practice than a 70 on Saturday because of crowds, but we don't adjust for that.
Beach renourishment. Fresh sand buries everything. We capture this only when an admin logs a manual event — there's no auto-detection.

If you think we should add one of these, log a hunt with notes — every rated outcome helps us decide which signals actually predict tooth count.

Hunt Score

Sum of components × 1.15 + 15 event boost, clamped 0–100.

Score model 2026.04.29 · how this is calculated

Geology

FormationsYorktown Formation (offshore)

EpochsPliocene, Pleistocene

Age~5 mya-10 kya

Star speciesMegalodon (uncommon)

Technique

Wrack-line walking + occasional sifting.

Access