Monday, November 26, 2007

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.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

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!

Friday, November 23, 2007

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.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

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!

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

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.

Monday, November 12, 2007

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!

Saturday, November 10, 2007

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.

Friday, November 9, 2007

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!

Thursday, November 8, 2007

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.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

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.

Monday, November 5, 2007

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.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

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!