Morehead City - 11/17

Got a chance to go fishing this past weekend in Morehead City. Woke up Saturday morning at 4:45 to try to catch the low tide. The wind was calm at the time but it still sure was cold. Got out at O'dark thirty and headed to the Beaufort Shipping Chanel. Saw a school of porpoises in the turning basin as we headed out but not much more than that.
Headed to Shackleford Banks and drifted from the backside into the shipping channel. Hooked up with a few blues and a smaller flounder on a carolina rig with a mud minnow. We then drifted to the ocean side of Shackleford and caught a few more blues in the surf and also hooked up with a puppy drum.
We then decided to ride down Atlantic Beach looking for fat alberts or blues that were blizting up top. We saw several schools feeding but couldn't hook up with any. We were throwing sting silvers with fast retrieves but couldn't hook up with any.
Headed into the turning basin to try to hook up with some gray trout and mullet. Once the tide switched the bite really turned on. Ended up fairing pretty good with a nice mess of gray trout, mullet, hogfish, blues, and croaker. They were hitting mud minnows and cut shrimp.
Two gentlemen at Crow's Nest Marina hooked up with several nice kings at the 1700 rock yesterday trolling cigar minnows. One king was certainly 30+.
On a side note, I also caught an octopus. It's strange because both my parents have also caught octopi? this year. Neither of my parents have ever caught any prior to this year inshore like they have this year. Just wanted to know if it was typical for them to move into inshore waters this time of year.