Aug 31 Awesome Red Drum Fishing

Brad and his crew fished with me today and we got a late start due to the victorious ECU Football Team! The weather man did his usual great job, 5-10 NE wind? As usual it was 5+10 NE. The wind and a rapidly growing ground swell made the Shoals a little scary (where the motherlode of Bluefish was yesterday) so we looked elsewhere. After a long search we found a nice school of 25"-32" Red Drum, 75 fish at least. Casting soft plastics and metal on light spinning tackle, everybody (5 anglers) caught 2 or 3 each. I figured we caught between 10-12 Red Drum total and we picked out 4 keepers at 27" and we released the rest and all but 1 was out of the slot, too big. We caught a few Bluefish in the 2 lb class and saw a couple of nice Sharks, schools of Pompano, a few monster Sea Mullet, and a Tarpon. We looked for a Shark to catch later in the afternoon and couldn't find a single one.

Aug 30 FISH EVERYWHERE

Today was a very fishy day! I would like to say that we had a great day, BUT.....We did catch lots of fish, but two particular species left us completely baffled. Flounder and Spanish Mackerel. In my opinion, the Flounder fishing on the nearshore ARs out of MHC has sucked the last 2 years. From 2002 to 2006 I could catch 10 fish over 20" any day from June until November. Last year was terrible. This year I really haven't tried. Today we did, with good bait, and all we got was Black Sea Bass and Lizardfish. As far as the Spanish Mackerel go, we had 12 bites from big Spanish on live bait and for a myriad of reasons, we lost every single fish. Pulled hooks, bite off the swivel, they even bit off the blood knot at my shock leader connection. Plenty of guys were catching 3-5 pound Spanish Mackerel, but we were not among them! We eventually made our way to the east where we did find the biggest concentration of Bluefish that I've seen in 5 years. Amazing numbers. We caught app 25 from 1-3 pounds. We also found a small school of Red Drum and Gerald caught a 5 pounder. We saw hundreds of Sharks up to 100 pounds cruising the shallow water. The final blow was a nice Pompano that I hooked from the tower. I passed the rod down to Gerald and started to climb down for the net and the hook pulled. Our Citation Pompano in the 4 lb. class was gone. Par for the course on this day!

Aug 29 Fishing Tommorrow

I managed to do my part for the environment, my bank account, and local fish populations by staying out of my Boat this week. Besides, the Dock fishing has been okay and dirt cheap. Tommorrow I'm headed out with Gerald Currin and we're looking for a light tackle adventure. I've got around 20 dozen Mullet that are ready to go. Special thanks to Marcus R for catching me some bait. Marcus R is the best with a 3 foot cast net that I've ever seen. He was spinning it today into the wind 30 feet and hitting perfectly on top of pods of 10-25 Finger Mullet. He was catching entire schools in the small net, time after time. Like I said, at 30 feet! Today I caught 3 Red Drum and 3 Black Sea Bass at the Dock.

Aug 28 Morning Drum, Lunchtime Flounders, and Afternoon Drum

Checked out the Dock three times today. This morning I caught a Red Drum pretty quickly and when I brought him to the top, about 15 of his buddies follwed him. When it was over I had caught 5 total Red Drum, all under the slot. The Drum in the picture was 16" and was released. I looked around for a Flounder and found none. I did see monster Stingrays, large Jumping Mullets, Sheepsheads, and Spanish Mackerel. Checked out the Dock again after lunch and a few Flounders have shown up. I got 3 Flounders and kept an 18" Southern Flouder and released a pair of 15"ers. Later in the afternoon I made my third trip down to the dock and found plenty of action. Small Red Drum, Black Sea Bass, and Lizardfish were chewing. During this 30 minute session I caught 3 more Red Drum. Total for the day was 8 Red Drum and 3 Southern Flounder.

Aug 27 Citation Flounder

Slow, Slow, Slow in the creek today. Conditions are perfect but the bites were hard to find. I made one bite pay-off big during low tide this morning when a 25" Southern Flounder that weighed 6 lbs 5 oz decided to eat my 6" finger Mullet. Later in the afternoon, when the tide was perfect, fishing was very disappointing. In 75 minutes of swimming Mullets around heavy structure all I caught was a 10" Red Drum and a 16" Southern Flounder.

Aug 26 Poor Fishing Today

Pretty Bait. Nice Flood Tide. Clear Water. Late August. That is the perfect recipe for a small scale Red Drum and Flounder killing in Taylor's Creek. However, in two hours of fishing all I produced was 4 Inshore Lizardfish and 1 Black Sea Bass. On a positive note, 2 of the Lizardfish were nice ones. Taylor's Creek is over run with very aggressive schools of small Pinfish. They were killing my finger Mullets pretty quickly. I might trap a few dozen tommorrow just to teach them a lesson. Also, looks like a good chance for rain the next couple of days. It will be interesting to see how it affects our fishing.

Fishing Goals, Priorities, and Gas Prices

A couple of people have asked this question: "Why does the text on your website spend so much time talking about types of fishing that, according to your fishing reports, you never even do?" Good question. Here's my answer. First, most of that text is 5 or 6 years old and fishing changes and my preferences change. Second, as a Fishing Guide, I take people out and do the things they want to do or the things I think we will be most successful at. Third, and most importantly, because as I have gotten older and spent more days on the water, my goals and interests have shifted. When I was young, I fished inshore because that was all I could do. Through the mid-90s to 2001, I fished as many as 12 King Mackerel Tournaments per year. I fished for King Mackerel probably 50-75 days a year. From the late 80's until around 2001, I went Offshore Trolling every possible chance I got when King Mackerel Tournaments didn't create a conflict. Finally, I worked on a Headboat in 1990 and 1991 and also fished commercially for Grouper off and on through the 90's and until around 2005 I still spent 10-25 days a year Grouper Fishing. Somewhere during all of this King Mackerel, Offshore Trolling, and Grouper Fishing, I really started missing the Inshore Fishing again and that is now my primary focus. Plus, how can I not say the price of GAS is also a big factor! All that being said, I do miss the King Mackerel and Grouper Fishing and hope that I get more chances to fish for them during the fall of 2008! By the way, the first picture is a 35 pound Gag Grouper that I caught in Feb. of 1991 with Capt. Pizza Kannon in the background. The second picture is a 46 pound King Mackerel, my largest of an 18 fish catch that weighed over 500 pounds in Nov. of 2000.

Aug 24 The Final Citation Sheepshead?

Okay, all good things must come to an end. Next shift, I'll be on the Ocracoke-Cedar Island Ferry and all my Sheepsheads will be safely out of reach 13 miles to the Northeast. By the time I return to Hatteras in September I will be a "Flounder mode". So the 8 lb. 10 oz. Sheepshead that I caught today could be my last one until next summer. It was a blast! That's 12 over 8 pounds from 1 single cluster of Pilings and over 30 total with 4 "babies" between 3 and 4 pounds. All the rest were 5-7 pounders. Wow!

Aug 22 Citation Sheepshead Frenzy!

I finally had some help with all those Sheepsheads today! Dave "Fog" Radke, a world famous mate from West Palm Beach, Florida to Oregon Inlet, NC, who now in "semi-retirement" started working with us on the Hatteras Ferry was crewed up with me today. Fog and I were casually playing around with a urchin on a string and hardly trying. Suddenly as I was pulling my Urchin in to re-cast a crazed 8-9 pound Sheepshead charged up out of the depths and exploded on my bait. And missed. Fog went ballistic. A man who has caught hundreds of Blue Marlin, thousands of White Marlin, and has old pictures of himself, as a kid, with 30+ pound Snook stacked like firewood went apeshit over a Sheepshead! Two hours later, I had a 8 lb. 9 oz. and a 8 lb. 3 oz. Sheepshead and Fog had a 8 lb. 4 oz., a 7 lb. 4 oz., and a 4 lb. Sheepsheads. Awesome. Same cluster of pilings. We're in the 30's now with 11 over 8 pounds!

Aug 21 Another Sheepshead

I got another Sheepshead today. This one weighed 7 lb. 8 oz. One bite and one fish in about 10 minutes of fishing. There are still a few hanging around that same cluster of pilings!

Aug 18 Citation Flounder and Broken Lines

Another "nearly" great day of fishing. 6 Southern Flounders and 2 Gulf Flounders on live bait that measured 24", 22", 22", 20", 19" and three released. The 24" Flounder weighed exactly 5 lb.s. The bad part was that we hooked up 7 Red Drum in heavy, heavy structure and even with the 80# PowerPro we couldn't keep them from breaking off. I finally managed to catch a smaller Red Drum at 24". Also giant Lizardfish and roving hordes of Pinfish made fishing interesting and aggrevating. We caught several of the Lizardfish. Lots of bait around, nice size too. Fishing is good now and should get better. Too bad I've got to go back to Hatteras tonight. The total for the day was 8 Flounders and 1 Red Drum.

Aug 17 Every Cast Mackerel and Bluefish

Ferdinand and I fished to the east today and it was very fishy, to say the least. First thing we encountered was school after school of Spanish Mackerel. We would get long drifts with multiple casts in a row hooking up. Then we would run to the next school and do it again. These Mackerel ran from 10" to 2 pounds. After an hour we had enough and went to look for our next challenge. I guess we caught close to 40 Spanish Mackerel, keeping all we wanted and released the rest. On the shoals we searched for the school of Drum I fished on Tuesday, but we never found them. We even set out on foot at one point to fish a hard to reach spot, but that didn't work either! We did find the motherlode of Bluefish. We caught Bluefish from 1-3 pounds until we couldn't take it anymore. We caught them on metal and top water plugs. We probably caught around 50 Bluefish, keeping a few and releasing the rest. Finally, on the way home, we ran over a huge school of Red Drum. We spent a good 2 hours searching for them and waiting to see if they'd come back up on "their spot" but we never saw them again. Oh well, a good day that nearly turned great! Total for the day was 40 Spanish Mackerel and 50 Bluefish.

NC Record Blue Marlin Caught

While we were wasting time in the Neuse......The crew of the Mimi was doing big things in the Pirate's Cove Tournament. 1228.5 Pounds!

Aug 15 NO Tarpon NO Nothing

Heber and I went Tarpon fishing today. Reports of hundreds of Tarpon in the Neuse River sounded good. Was it better than the fact that I've seen Tarpon on the Cape Lookout Shoals the last 3 times I've been up there? I doubt it! The Neuse River is a mighty big place! In the end, we rode 98 miles and saw NO Tarpon, and got hammered by a Squall. I should've stayed "in my back yard" and looked for a Tarpon.

Aug 14 Spadefish, Blue Runners, and Bluefish

Good News. The Spadefish are finally acting like Spadefish. They are aggressively attacking jellyfish on the surface and when these conditions occur, they are easy to catch. That was the case today. I caught 13 Spadefish, released 11 and kept 2 for the table. The keepers were 4 and 5 pounders. I released some bigger and some smaller. They are great fighters. I also caught 10 Bluefish in the 3 lb. class. I also caught 2 nice sized Blue Runners in the 3 lb. class and a Spottail Pinfish. I saw Tarpon and Sand Tigers today and was unsuccessful in my attempts to catch them. There appears to be a resident group of Tarpon on the shoals at Cape Lookout this summer. I saw them today and Tuesday and I saw them in June. I need to figure out a plan of attack! Total for the day was 13 Spadefish, 2 Blue Runners, and 10 Bluefish.

Aug12 Part 2 Flounder Fishing

Brant wanted to try it again tonight and I thought I knew a good place for some quick easy action. Unfortunately, we couldn't make it out until the bottom of the tide, so our fishing suffered. Brant did get a few fish, including a 19" Southern Flounder, a Rock Sea Bass, and a Lizardfish. Hopefully tommorrow morning we can catch a few more of those keeper Flounders.

Aug 12 Hundreds of Red Drum!

Brant and I found a crazy fishing spot today. A huge school of Red Drum in about 18 inches of water, surrounded by white water and huge Blacktip Sharks. It was high impact fishing to say the least. Our best attack was for me to hook em up from the tower and pass the rod down to Brant. While Brant waited out the first run, I'd back out of trouble. Then we'd beat the Sharks off our Drum. Too cool. Brant and I caught 3 Drum each, from 30" to 26". We also caught 5 nice Bluefish in the 3 pound range on top water plugs. In addition to several hundred Sharks, we also had close encounters with a Barracuda and a Tarpon. All of this action was in 2 feet of water. Total for the day was 6 Red Drum and 5 Bluefish

Aug 10 More Sheepsheads

Starting to sound like a broken record! I caught 2 more Sheepsheads today. These 2 weighed 5 and 6 pounds each. I'm definitely starting to see less bites and smaller fish, but all these fish are still coming off the same cluster of pilings. It has provided some great fishing this summer. In less than a month, I've caught 25 Sheepsheads with 8 weighing at least 8 pounds!

Aug 9 Tilefish Chewing !

One of the hottest fisheries in NC right now is Blueline Tilefish out of Oregon Inlet. I checked it out today and it is well worth the effort. This fishing reminded me of Headboat fishing in the mid-70s. Drop to the bottom and hold on! Chris, Billy, and I made 1 drift in 230 feet of water and we put a big hurt on the Tilefish. We caught our 15 fish limit and released 15-20 more. It's been a long time since my arms ached from reeling in fish! These fish were caught on cut bait and metal stick baits. I had 2 Citations at 10 lb.s and 12 lb.s 10 oz. Billy had 2 over 13 pounds. After that we looked around and fished briefly for some other stuff but didn't find any success. That's okay, today was all about the Tilefish. Special thanks to Chris for steering the BOAT directly to the FISH!

Aug 7 A Dead Fish and a Dead Dream

The traffic finally showed up at Hatteras Inlet and we've been too busy to fish. I have found time to make a couple of nice hauls with my cast net. Jumping Mullets and Squids have been the big catches so far. On a sad note, I hate to report that I have killed an app. 15 pound Sheepshead. MY 15 POUND SHEEPSHEAD!! After breaking him off on July 13th and 25th, I never encountered him again. Then on August 5th I noticed a monster Sheepshead that was dead and floating near a pair of pilings near South Dock. The dead Sheepshead was "surfing" in the hard running tide, obviously attached by some means about 15 feet from one of the pilings. I jumped on a Dredge Tender and went to investigate and there he was, Mr. Big, dead as a doornail with 2 hooks in his mouth and a 40 foot shot of PowerPro wrapped up in a piling. Too far gone to bring in, I did measure him at 30". By the 7th he was gone to the crabs. A cruel twist of fate for me and the Sheephead and a great revenge for the crabs!

Aug 4 Sheepsheads, Jumping Mullets, and Squid

This tour of duty at Cape Hatteras got off to a very "fishy" start. Fishing the late night falling tide usually ain't to good. Last night was a little different. First up was 18 Loligo Squid from the Hatteras side. Then came 4 Sheepsheads out of 7 bites in pitch darkness from the Ocracoke side. I thought that was impossible. I was wrong again. These Sheepsheads weighed 7 lb. 9 oz., 6 lb. 10 oz., 6 lb. 3 oz., and 2 lb. 8 oz. Finally, I tossed my cast net on a school of Jumping Mullet and caught 8 that averaged 3 lb.s each.

Aug 2 Groupers, Jacks, and Cudas

Chris and I started out looking for some top water action but we found none. So we went Flounder fishing instead. Pretty quickly the Flounder fishing idea passed! Groupers and Amberjacks were picking off our Flounder baits as quick as we could drop them. What a blast on the light tackle. We lost lots of tackle, but after a couple of hours we had caught 12 Gag Groupers from 22" to 7 lb.s. We got our 4 fish limit of 25" to 27". We also caught and released 10 Amberjacks from 10 to 18 lb.s. After that was done, we went Barracuda fishing with the tubes and released 3 of the 6 that we got strikes from. These Barracudas ranged from 10 to 17 lb.s. Chris also caught a Spanish Mackerel. I had a first for me, an Atlantic Flyingfish on a sabiki rig. Along with about 10 dozen Round Scad, Bigeye Scad, and Spanish Sardines. The Sardines drove the Grouper crazy. We also caught 9 Vermillion Snappers and 2 dozen Tomtates. 12 Grouper, 10 Amberjacks, 3 Barracuda, and an Atlantic Flyingfish.

Aug 1 Flounder are Snapping

Flounder were snapping in Taylor's Creek this morning. My first 2 drops resulted in a pair of 20" Flounder. That's a 3 pounder. After a great start, it settled down to a steady bite on Flounders from 17" to 14", Red Drums, Gag Groupers, and Lizardfish. When I finally ran out of bait, I had my 8 Flounder limit. The final tally for a couple hours work was 14 Flounders, 4 Red Drum, and a couple of Groupers and Lizardfish. For the afternoon session, I was pressed for time and didn't have a good supply of bait. I still managed to catch 4 Flounders up to 19" and 1 Smooth Dog. Overall, in around 3 hours of actual fishing time, I caught 18 Southern Flounders and 4 Red Drum.