Friday, February 29, 2008

Feb 29 Hickory Shad Fishing


I couldn't stand it any longer, I had to go fishing. So I drove to the Neuse and spent 90 minutes casting. It wasn't great, but I had 7 strikes and captured 6 Hickory Shad, including one that measured out at 16" (total length), plenty big enough for a NC Freshwater Fishing Citation. That's a decent Hickory Shad. Grugs on 1/16 oz leadheads outfished the spoons today. Hopefully, Shad fishing will be as good as it was in 2006 when I had several 100+ fish days during mid-March. Today was a nice start!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Progress Reports

The Boat is coming along slowly. Hopefully, she will meet her deadline for a mid-April meeting with a 12 pound Bluefish and a 40 pound Red Drum! My new T-Top and Tower will be built by Modlin's Aluminum in Farmville, NC. I can't wait to spot that first Cobia, but I think a school of Giant Red Drum will be coming my way first!

My website is getting some attention also. New pictures and updated text. My NC Citation count is getting brought up to date. Right now my count is around 345, not including the NC Freshwater Angler Recognition Program Citations or the one's my clients have accumulated in the past 5 years.

Unfortunately, when the changes are made to the website, my new Rates will go into affect. As of today, my website still shows Rates for 2005, so I'm simply doing what everybody else has already done a couple of times. All I can say is that I believe that I'm still a bargain. Just like my first summer doing this, most of my Half Day clients still have to ask me to carry them to shore!

There is a possibility that I'll get a Shad Fishing trip in this weekend. Hopefully I'll post a real fishing report soon!

Friday, February 15, 2008

Let the Hard Work Begin....

On Valentine's Day, we glassed my new center console. Lots of sanding and painting still ahead. Today I started taking my boat apart. What a chore. Much harder than I anticipated. Once I get the old console and t-top out, I will put in the new console and get ready for my new t-top and tower. Unfortunately, no more fishing for awhile! Hopefully in a month or so, everybody will be very impressed. If everything goes as planned, she'll be ready to roll by early April!

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Feb 3 Finally a Fish Story


We started out looking for Trout and Drum this morning and despite the great weather, we didn't find any fish. So we started riding! Around the Shoals at Cape Lookout and up the beach towards Drum Inlet we went. After about 5 miles, and since we hadn't seen any sign of life, I turned to the east and decided to go check out a wreck in 85 feet of water. So what if all we had was the Trout rods! We arrived at 12 noon and by 1:30 we had 34 Black Sea Bass between 2-3 pounds, 18 Bluefish from 1-2 pounds, 3 Summer Flounder around 2 pounds each, and app. 10 Spiny Dog Sharks, plus quite a few Sea Bass and Bluefish releases. Every fish was caught by jigging metal on 8 and 10 lb. test on the trout tackle. Nice way to save the day!

Friday, February 1, 2008

Lack of Fishing



Sorry for the lack of fishing Reports recently. I have had some Major Medical Issues in my family recently that has drawn my attention away from the water. Add to that the typical winter weather we've been experiencing and my Job relocations from Cape Hatteras to Knott's Island to Ocracoke and I've been 6 weeks without fishing! That is by far my longest stretch with NO fishing since 1985! Hopefully, I will be able to get out and give it a try this weekend (Feb 2nd or 3rd). Next week, I will begin the process of taking my boat apart and hopefully making some huge improvements. I expect to be up and running again by April 1st.


In the near future I will be posting my open dates for my Spring of 2008 Bonito, Albacore, and Bluefish fishing. I also anticipate fishing out of Ocracoke this Spring for Giant Red Drum. This can be a great sight casting fishery. In the meantime, I will be fishing for Hickory Shad in the Neuse River.


On final thing, I will be posting Rate increases on my website in the near future. I have not increased my rates in quite some time and the higher fuel costs and larger boat finally caught up with me. After looking at some other guys rates, I still consider myself quite a bargain and anyone who has fished with me in the past knows that my "half days" are extremely long. Most of my clients actually have to tell me to take them in!


Hopefully I will get a real fishing report up very soon!