Dec 19 Good Numbers of Small Trout

Bob and Herbert wanted big Trout today and they figured I was on a hot streak. Unfortunately, it all came to an end today. We were constantly out of position and we ran through our live bait very quickly. After a couple of hours, we had nothing but a pile of 12" to 14" released Trout. We finally hit a little stretch where we caught a few 15" Speckled Trout and 4 nice Gray Trout, so we did get to kill a few. For the day, I guess the guys caught around 60 Speckled Trout, 4 Gray Trout, 20 Bluefish, and a couple of Sheepsheads. I know my anglers were disappointed with the size of the Trout that we caught today, but I started in the same exact spot that has produced 19 Citations in my last 3 trips and they just weren't there today. what can I say?

Dec 18 Another Citation Speckled Trout

Chris got his first NC Citation Speckled Trout today when he pulled up a 4 lb. 12 oz. trophy. Between the 2 of us, we caught around 25 Speckled Trout, 3 Gray Trout, and 10 Bluefish. We kept 12 Speckled Trout from 18" to 23". Our Gray Trout were keepers from 18" to 20". We also rode the Shoals looking for Stripers and Drum and came up empty. Conditions on the Shoals today were not ideal, but I believe that if it's going to happen this year, that it's going to be this week. Stay tuned!

Dec 9 Monster Shark and 80 Speckled Trout

Great Trout bite on the smaller class of fish. We kept 20 out of 80 today and had a few Gray and Speckled Trout in the 2-3 pound class. A bunch of other in the 17" to 18" range. We also caught Sheepheads, Bluefish, and Hogfish. On the way in the Trouser snagged a 12 foot long, 1000+ pound Basking Shark on 12 lb. test line. I ran the boat up to him and we recorded an "official release". I'm not sure if the Shark ever knew that he was part of our "fun". He just kept on swimming to the southern without a care in the world!

Dec 8 Big Trout Bite

I was in the right place this morning! In less than 3 hours, we had 20 Speckled Trout. We had a pair of 6 lb. 4 oz twins. We had 6 over 6 pounds. We had 10 over 5 pounds. We had 15 over 4 pounds that were big enough for a NC Fishing Citation. Our small ones were 20"! Our 20 fish limit totaled out at 97 pounds! We also caught 2 Red Drums, 10 Sheepsheads, and 3 Bluefish.

Dec 5 Hot Speckled Trout Bite

Columbo and I went head to head today on Speckled Trout. He had a slight advantage and he used it to defeat me 47 to 44. That's good fishing though. From 11am until 3:30pm, we caught 91 Speckled Trout. I'll take that kind of fishing anyday!

Nov 27-30 Squid Fishing

What? Trust me, it was amazing. In 4 nights of Fishing, Squid was the main attraction. All together I probably caught 80 to 100 Squid, up to 25". These were the Calamari Quality, Loligo Squid and I caught them on mirrorlures, gulps, and top water plugs. I also caught quite a few Striped Bass and a 19" Flounder.

Nov 26 Speckled Trout and Rain

I fished an hour in pouring rain and dead low tide, but it was worth it today. I got a good tip from a fishing buddy and quickly landed some very nice Trout and released a few small ones. The keepers were from 18" to 22". A 22" Trout weighs between 3 and 4 pounds. It was a nice way to end the week.

Nov 24 More Speckled Trout

Today was another Speckled Trout Day. I fished from the Sheraton at At Beach to Radio Island and found them in pretty much the same place as yesterday. Today I probably caught 30 Trout, 27 of them were 9" to 12". The other 3 were nice ones between 2-3 pounds. So far since I've been home I've caught over 160 Gray and Speckled Trout!

Nov 23 Trout Fishing on Foot

This afternoon I walked out to the end of Radio Island and caught lots of Gray Trout. In less than an hour, I caught around 30 Grays that ranged from 12" to 20". On my way back to the truck, I also caught 8 Speckled Trout and a few Jumbo Spots. My Speckled Trout were in the 11" to 13" range. I ended up keeping 4 Gray Trout and 3 Spots. From what I saw, there were lots of small Speckled Trout caught up and down the Radio Island Beach this afternoon.

Nov 22 Speckled Trout Fishing

This morning it was more about numbers than size as Mark and I caught 45 Speckled Trout in around 3 hours of fishing time. Lots of our fish were from 12" to 14", but we did catch a few big ones. We caught most of our fish in the Newport River and off Radio Island. We only kept 2 and released the rest. I caught many of my fish on mirrorlures, which is my favorite way to catch Speckled Trout!

Nov 20 Speckled Trout and FOG

Stacy and I made a mad dash up to Cape Lookout today at lunchtime and when we got there the weather changed in 5 minutes from a nice sunny, warm day to a total "gray out", zero visibility fog, and a cold, damp SW wind at 10-15 knots. Where did that come from? We caught over 50 Speckled Trout, however most of them were babies in the 11"-13" range and we released them. We did kill around 12 and we had a few that were slightly over 2 pounds. We also caught a pile of Bluefish, a Flounder, a Skate, and quite a few big Shrimp.

Nov 18-19 Surf Fishing for Speckled Trout

Speckled Trout invaded the Hatteras Island surf and fishing was great with mirrorlures and soft plastics. Lots of these Trout were up to 4 pounds, but I wasn't so lucky. Most of mine were between 1 and 2 pounds. I did very well on Puppy Drum though. On the 19th, I caught 7 Drum up to 30" and couldn't hardly catch a Trout because the Drum were so aggressive.

Nov 12 Giant Amberjacks and Light Tackle Albacore

Brent caught a 80+ pound Amberjack, Hunter got a 75+ pound Amberjack, and Preston was right behind them with a 65+ pound Amberjack. The problem was that Brent got his on the King Mackerel Rod and took nearly an hour to land. A fish like that zaps your strength and eats up fishing time! After those Jacks the guys released 2 Albacores each and called it a great day of fishing! We kept Brent's Amberjack and it weighed 79 pounds 28 hours after it's death. Unbelievably, we never got a picture of Brent's fish, however it looked a lot like the one that Hunter caught, only slightly larger. I think!

New Tournament Series Next Year

Capt. Lee Willis is launching a new series of Red Drum Tournaments in the Cape Lookout area next year. It will be modeled after the Oberto Redfish Series and it will be very interesting to see where all this leads. Lee has a great idea for our area and hopefully this Tournament Series will be a great success. His website is http://www.redfishaction.com/. Check it out.

Nov 9 Citation Sea Mullet and Speckled Trout

This morning I hit the surf over at Shackleford Banks for the first time this fall and the fishing was pretty good. I cast out a bottom rig and left it in a sand spike on then worked the area over with a mirrorlure. In 2 hours, the bottom rig had accounted for 3 nice Sea Mullets and the mirrorlure had caught 3 nice Speckled Trout. The highlight of the morning was my 16.5", 1 lb. 8 oz Sea Mullet that was big enough for a NC Fishing Citation!

Nov 8 Citation Pompano and Much More

I took a ride on "Rouse's Luck" today with the Trouser and the fishing was very interesting. The weatherman missed his forecast by about 15 knots and that made it tough, but we still made a good haul of 20 Speckled Trout in the 2-3 pound range and a couple of nice suprizes as well. First was my 2 lb. 4 oz. Pompano that ate a live shrimp and put up a great fight on 6 lb. test. After that came my 4 lb. 8 oz. Flounder and Trouser's nice Black Drum. We also caught Sheepsheads, Bluefish, Hogfish, Groupers, and several more small Flounders.

Nov 7 Red Drums and Finger Mullets

The Drum were biting on the back side of Shackleford Banks this afternoon from east of the Rock Jetty to the beach past the NPS Dock. These Drum were hitting live mullet as well as plastic artificials. These Drums ranged up to 25".

Also, Taylor's Creek was swarming with Finger Mullet today. One throw with the cast net and I'm set for several days of fishing.

Nov 5 Kings, Drums, Albacore and More

Today the fishing improved. I found all the things that I've been searching for and found a couple of suprizes as well. I got my first King Mackerel on fly today. To be honest, I've never tried before. It was pretty cool and suprizing to find Kings where I found them today. I also caught 7 Red Drum, 17 Speckled and Gray Trout, 2 Albacore, and lots of Bluefish. Most of the Drum today were over the slot, closer to 30", which are 10+ pound fish.

Nov 1 Albacore Fishing

When the Speckled Trout and the Red Drum failed, and the 15 knot NW wind kept me near the beach, the only option left was Albacore. That ain't too bad. My first cast connected amid a fleet of flyrodders and frustrated guides. I left the fleet and the staredowns behind and Chris and I found our very own school and couple of miles away and we released 4 more before we continued our fruitless search for Drum in the surf. Not that bad, 5 Albacores released with very little direct effort. We also caught Bluefish, Sheepsheads, Pinfish, and Hogfish. The Albacore are here!

Oct 31 Citation Trout

This morning we had 1 Speckled Trout bite. Steve made it count with a big one, a 5+ pounder. Other than that, it was tough. We caught a mess of Spanish Mackerel, Bluefish, Sheepshead, and Hogfish. We also threw back Pinfish, Sea Bass, Flounders, Tomtates, Ringtails, Groupers, and a Ribbonfish. Lots of variety, I'm sure I forgot something

Oct 30 No Trout, No Drum, Albacore Fishing

I needed some help today. My apologies to Dean, my angler. Everything I tried, failed. We fished the Rocks and despite of seeing a fair number of Speckled Trout caught, we didn't catch any. We searched hard for Red Drum and couldn't find any. Finally after a long ride, we found a few Albacores and released 2. I had my shot at being a Hero today and couldn't get it done. While sitting on Anchor at the Rock Jetty, I saw a brown shape approaching our boat from a long ways off. Thinking Cownose Ray, I did nothing but sit there. As the fish came closer, it suddenly became clear that this was NO RAY. This was a Cobia and it was an 80+ Pounder. As it turned and swam down the port of my boat, 20 feet away, all I could do was cast a Gulp Bait on 6 lb. test on the trout rod. Saving me some embarrassment, the huge Cobia ignored my bait and sunk into the depths. I'm not sure if this fish would've hit a livebait or not, but I surely wasn't prepared for this golden opportunity.

Oct 27 Rain and Wind

Bob and John braved the rain and wind (dirty water and extreme tides too) this morning and we were hoping the fishing would improve. Maybe it did, but not by much. John had the highlight--an Albacore hooked up for 10 seconds until the hook pulled. We looked around briefly in 4-6 foot seas and driving rain and said, "Enough!" Other than that, the guys caught 20*Gray Trout, 20*Hogfish, 25*Croaker, 5 Spots, 3 Lizardfish, 3 Black Sea Bass, and a Bluefish and a Flounder. Everything was released to fight another day.

Oct 26 Slow and Wet Day

I knew it was going to be a struggle against the conditions, but I didn't know it would be this bad. We rode from Beaufort to Cape Lookout to the Shoals back to Beaufort Inlet then 5 miles west of Beaufort Inlet and finally fished inside from the MHC Port to Lennoxville. We got wet early and stayed wet all day. We tried dead bait, live bait, and artificial. In the end we caught 1 Cobia, 1 Shark, 2 Bluefish, 2 Stingrays, and a mixed bag of Pinfish, Hogfish, and a Sea Robin.

Wind and Rain

Come on now, it's October and it's time to go fishing. Looks like the weather will be very unsettled until early next week. I believe the fishing will get very good very quickly after all this bad weather blows through here.

In the meantime, I will be running long and hard in search of good fishing in very challenging conditions the next couple of days. Stay tuned to see what we can come up with against a small craft advisery and heavy rains.

Today I caught a pair of 29" Red Drums in Taylor's Creek while gathering bait for tommorrow's fishing trip. It was nice to see the larger class of fish back in Town.

Get Ready for Fishing!

I'm home for 21 days and will be looking to fish at least 15 of them! Last night while cleaning a big catch of Hatteras Jumping Mullets, I caught 4 baby Red Drums in the 14" range and several Croakers.

Oct 15 Red Hot Mackerel Bite

Chris and I went out for a 3 hour Mackerel fishing trip and it was a great bite. When it was over we had caught 10 King Mackerel and 4 Spanish Mackerel. We released 7 of the Kings that we could unhook without damage and we kept the rest. These Kings ranged from 28" to 11 pounds. Not big, but plenty fiesty on the light spinning tackle we were using.

October 13 Amberjacks and Albacores and Mackerels

Brant Ballou wanted his first Amberjack today. He ended with his first Amberjacks, his first Albacores, and his first King Mackerel. Amberjack fishing was outstanding for numbers, but we could not locate any 40+ pound fish. Between the 2 of us, we finished up with 10 Amberjack releases, 7 Albacore releases, 1 King Mackerel, and 3 Spanish Mackerel. We also caught a wide open Bluefish bite in the Inlet and filled our livewell with 1-2 pounders.

October 12 King Mackerel Chewing

Dan, Mark, Scott, and Gerald nailed the Kings this morning. The Kings were flying high and we never went more than 5 minutes without a strike, until the bottom fisherman pushed us off our spot. Everybody kept 1 King and we released the rest. Mark and Scott also caught nice Spanish Mackerel. A couple of our Kings were real nice ones and we turned the big ones loose to fight another day!

October 10 and 11 Taylor's Creek Red Drum

The Dock has been alive. Unfortunately, it ain't been that good. On the 10th, as I was cleaning fish, I caught 5 Red Drum in the 14" range. On the 11th, I caught 3 more 14" Red Drum, but was fustrated by large Lizardfish and huge schools of marauding Pinfish. Adult Pinfish in the 10"+ range. great Grouper and Amberjack bait. Come on WIND, quit blowing! It's October and the days are blowing by, literally.....