Dec 30 Black Sea Bass and Spiny Dogfish

Chris and his Dad joined me today and the battle plan was for the Cape Lookout Rocks, the Shoals, the Eastside, and to be bailed out by the AB ARs if all else failed. The Rock Jetty was dead. The Shoals were a little too hostile and the water was dirty and the sun wasn't shining. The Eastside wasn't cool for a "responsible Captain" on a center console in freezing weather and high seas. So that left the At Beach ARs, so we made the frigid run back to the west. Our first stop wasn't good at all. Just a few real small Black Sea Bass. Then we made the run down to 320 and I guess we made a day down there. I wish it could've been better, but at least it was fishy! Black Sea Bass and Spiny Dogfish made our day. A few Pelicans added to the fun. Chris managed a first on Top Water Charters. He actually caught 2 Pelicans on a bottom rig, and I mean he hooked, fought, and landed 2 Pelicans at the same time. Wow! When it was over, Chris had an ice bag full on keeper Black Sea Bass and he and I both kept a Dog Shark to try. Total Catch for the Day: 35 Black Sea Bass up to 13", 10 Spiny Dogfish, 1 Gag Grouper, 3 Spottail Pinfish, and 2 Scup ***3015 Total Fish in 2009***

Dec 29 Tony is Gone

Today we buried the person that I was closest to out of everybody in the entire world from about 1974 until about 1988. My friend and cousin, Tony Englehardt. Tony will never, ever be forgotten by his friends in Beaufort and he will be a constant reminder of how a perfect life can fall apart due to excesses. Nobody could help Tony or even slow him down. Everybody tried. Hopefully lots of people learned a valuable lesson from Tony's experience. Too Much. Too Fast. Too Young. Tony was my fishing partner in my early days. We learned alot together. Nobody showed us anything. But, he grew away from fishing and he and I grew apart. Now he's gone and there is another hole in my life. My best friend from High School did the same thing and he was bigger and stronger than Tony. Ty was 42. Tony was 46. I am 44, what more do I need to see.

Dec 12 Manns Harbor Casting

Perfect conditions. Overcast. Lots of Current. Lots of Bait. Chris and I cast to the Old Manns Harbor Bridge pilings for 5 hours with jigs and eels and never got a bite. Of all the boats we talked to, nobody else did any better. Zeros for the Fleet. Unbelievable. I should've went to the Hatteras Christmas Parade, but I went fishing instead. Total Catch for the Day: ZERO

Dec 9 and 12 Incredible Squid Fishing

Its the same old story and if you read about once, there's nothing else to learn or hear, but the numbers were unreal. On the 9th, I had 2 Squid frenzys that lasted 20 minutes each. On one drop, I caught 3 Squid on one Jig. The morning of the 10th, I cleaned 80 Squid and bagged 83 Squid to give away. That's 163 Squid. These Squid were small ones, from 2" to 10" each. On the 12th the big boys showed up and I torched them. I'm pretty much over cleaning them so I gave them all away. I never counted these Squid, but 7 people got more than they wanted. It was way up a 5 gallon bucket. I guess 75 Squid. These were 12" to 20" Squid. Nice ones. Total Catch for the 2 Nights: 238 Squid

Dec 7 Small Trout, Sea Bass, and Blow Toads

Nice weather today. Nice high tide cycle. Nice baitwell full of shrimp and mud minnows. All we needed was some nice Speckled Trout, but once again, we were thwarted in our efforts. Small Trout after small Trout at the Cape Lookout Rock Jetty. Numbers were good, but the fish box stayed empty. When we left the Jetty, we had probably released 50 Speckled and Gray Trout and we had 4 in the cooler. Next, we went searching for Gray Trout and Sea Mullet among the sink netters and found lots of small Grays and Croakers. Then we headed to the west a little farther and made our day with the craziest collection of fish that I've seen in a quite a while. I reckon I'd call in Blowtoad fishing since Northern Puffers made up the majority of the catch. Black Sea Bass up to 15", Pinfish up to 14", Smooth Dogfish up to 20 lbs and a 17" Gray Trout were the headliners. All these fish were caught jigging speck rigs in 40-50 feet of water. When it was all said and done, we had a nice cooler full of fish, and we had caught 18 different species and released over 130 fish. We never did find the elusive 20" Speckled Trout. Back to Hatteras for me tommorrow so I'm sure the fishing will improve! Total Catch for the Day: 45 Speckled Trout, 25 Gray Trout, 30 Bluefish, 17 Northern Puffers, 15 Black Sea Bass, 3 Summer Flounder, 6 Croaker, 2 Pinfish, 3 Spottail Pinfish, 4 Smooth Dogfish, 1 At Sharpnose Shark, 6 Rock Sea Bass, 1 Bank Sea Bass, 3 Hogfish, 2 Scup, 1 Oyster Toadfish, 2 Leopard Sea Robin and 1 Clearnosed Skate

Dec 4 Speckled Trout and Gray Trout

This morning the tide was right, the water was dirty, the wind was okay, and there was a huge ground swell. Two of the 4 helped the fishing and 2 of the 4 hurt the fishing. How was the Fishing? I guess my expectations are too high. This time of the year we should be smoking the 2-3 pound Trout. This time of the year should produce great days with 7 pounders occasionally. This year is different though and I was pretty disappointed with today's catch. I did get a 24" 5 pound Speckled Trout. That was a freak that ate a live shrimp at dead high tide on the Radio Island Rocks. I also got 4 more keeper Speckled Trout between 15" and 18". I killed a 10 fish limit of Gray Trout that ranged from 13" to 17". All the Gray Trout came from the Cape Lookout Rock Jetty. I also released 2 Gray Trout and 30 Speckled Trout that were too small. Every fish I caught today was caught on live shrimp or mud minnows. The Shoals were too unfriendly to cross this morning to search for larger game. This afternoon I was too disgusted to even attempt it. Total Catch for the Day: 35 Speckled Trout and 12 Gray Trout

Dec 3 Speckled Trout Bite

The Wind has been blowing and the Rain has been falling. What else is new? This afternoon things started to look a little better, so C-bo and I decided to take a little walk out to the Radio Island Rock Jetty. Fishing was pretty good even though the Speckled Trout were mostly too small. During the last 30 minutes of the falling tide, we were averaging a strike on every other cast. That will keep your attention. Between the two of us, we caught 25 Speckled Trout and I had a 15" Trout and a 16" Trout. All the other Speckled Trout were released and measured between 11" and 13". All things considered, I called that a pretty good little fishing rally. Total Catch for the Day: 25 Speckled Trout **2532 Total Fish in 2009**

Nov 28-30 Squid Blitz

On the 28th I got into the biggest school of Squid that I've seen in a couple of years. For a 20 minute stretch, I flat out bailed Squid. As fast as I could. I had to run and get a bucket and that took some time. Afterwards, I had 53 Squid in the bucket and I really don't remember not catching one on any drop. All I had to do was drop the jig, twitch the jig, and flip up a Squid. I couldn't miss. When it was over, I was covered with black ink. The following 2 nights were completely different. No schools. Just flipping the Squid Jig around the lights and I managed to catch 11 Squid one night and 8 Squid the next. Not too bad, but nothing like the blitz on the 28th. Total Catch for the Nights: 72 Squid and 3 Rainwater Killifish

Nov 25 Manns Harbor Striped Bass

I caught a ride with Chris today and we planned on giving some Striped Bass a hard time around Oregon Inlet. Unfortunately, it wasn't a great weather day, so we scrapped our Inlet plans and headed back to the Mann's Harbor Bridge. We were thinking numbers, not size. Too bad for us because we really didn't find either. We did manage to scrap up a few bites on plastic jigs. Unfortunately, Chris and I each lost our biggest Stripers of the day. The ones we caught were 16" to 20" and we released them all looking for a 10 pounder. I really was fun though, I hadn't fished the Bridge since 1999. We also carried some eels with us but we couldn't buy a bite on the live bait. I also caught a Blue Catfish. I guess that shows how much rain we've had. The last fish of the day was drop dead crazy! We were chasing "the only birds of the day" and had ran way inshore on the Manteo side when I picked up a pretty nice Sturgeon. I say "pretty nice" because I have no reference for comparison. I have seen a few jump off the Cape Lookout Shoals in winter and that's about it. For a big fish, I'd guess 15 pounds, he didn't have much fight. I guess he had already made a nice migration just to get where he was and he was pretty worn out. Still an impressive fish and it was nice to get my hands on one. Total Catch for the Day: 6 Striped Bass, 1 Blue Catfish and 1 Atlantic Sturgeon

Nov 24-26 Hatteras Squid Fishing

Night Run at Hatteras in late November gives me 2 different options. Look for Squid all night or rest at night and fish the Beach during the day. I chose the Squid fishing. The first 3 nights produced decent Squid Fishing for short periods of time. The good thing was that the Squid were consistently large ones. Most were in the 12" to 18" range. The biggest Squid was 22". Those are good eating size. I caught 13 Squid on the 24th and 20 Squid on the 26th. I also caught a few Black Sea Bass, but they were hard to land on the barbless Squid Jigs. I also caught a crazy new species for me! A 14" Southern Stargazer. I saw this weird fish that kept swimming around on top under the lights and I bounced my jig off him about 5 times, but he wasn't interested. However, when I dropped a strip of squid in front of him, it was a different story. He slurped it off the surface and a minute later I was trying to figure out how to unhook him. What an impressive fish! Total Catch for the Nights: 33 Squid, 4 Black Sea Bass and 1 Southern Stargazer

Daily Fishing Reports

A person was telling me the other day how much he enjoyed my fishing reports. He said "I can tell the real ones" I laughed and said OKAY and pretended not to hear what he just said. What the hell? For the Record, all my reports are real. I'm a numbers cruncher and my memory is sharp, when it involves fishing. I can tell you off the top of my head that on July 28, 1988 I caught exactly 84 Spanish Mackerel casting a stingsilver on the Cape Lookout Shoals. I am sorry for being so thorough in MY REPORTS on MY WEBSITE. Perhaps some guys don't get numbers worth bragging about, so they accuse me of making up numbers just to make their failures more tolerable.

My Fishing Reports are not the generic, run of the mill fishing reports that are so common on the internet. My reports tell exactly what happened to me, my clients, or my friends on that particular day. Good or Bad. Hopefully, all the days that I should've been working, but I was fishing instead (thousands of these days through the 80's, 90's, and up to 2009) will lead me to more successful days on the water than unsuccessful ones. All my reports are "on the money" and at least 90% have pictures to back me up. Every once in a while I drop my camera overboard or simply forget it.

If the fishing sucks, I can blame it on something, but I'm going to report it as "SUCKS". See June 12. See September 28. If the fishing sucks, the numbers are going to suck! If the fishing is good, I'm going to throw out some good numbers, period. I agree, It aint about numbers, it's about having a good time. Or meeting expectations. Or taking advantage of every opportunity. Or whatever. Regardless of that, I keep count. Always have and I always will. I know for a fact that I caught 1807 fish in 1988. I wrote down every single one and I still got the notepad. If you don't believe in MY NUMBERS, come take a ride on my Boat and count 'em yourself. If you don't believe my Fishing Reports, don't read them. Go home and sit on your toilet and read your Salt Water Sportsman and pretend you're a fisherman.

2386 FISH so far in 2009. Yes I've tried to count every single fish. The Bluefish days with 2-3 guys catching them on every cast is a challenge, but I bet that my margin of error is very small.

Nov 22 Fair Speckled Trout Fishing

Two things were easy today. First, the 2+ lb Speckled Trouts, on 4 straight casts that I caught before another Boat dropped it's anchor right on top of them. Thanks alot. Second thing was, the first Albacore I caught after I decided to chase Albacores. Everything else was a struggle. Trying to catch a 10-fish limit of Speckled Trout proved to be impossible for me. After my 4 quick ones, I had to cross the Jetty and fish back into the wind. That is difficult fishing with a live Shrimp on a Bobber. I scratched out 5 more Speckled Trout before my bait gave out. My Speckled Trout ranged from 15" to 20" and 7 weighed over 2 pounds. The guys that showed up late with fresh live Shrimp were doing okay this afternoon. I couldn't get that last Trout, but that was okay. So I decided to go Albacore Fishing. One cast got me one Albacore. It was a pretty big battle on the 6# trout rod. I should've quit. The second Albacore probably took 30 casts and 5 gallons of fuel. Know when to quit....Total Catch for the Day: 9 Speckled Trout, 2 Albacore, 2 Summer Flounder, 1 Sheepshead, 4 Northern Puffer, 1 Hogfish, 6 Pinfish and 5 Clearnosed Skate

Nov 20 Good Speckled Trout Fishing

Finally Trout fishing! Clifford, Heber and I left the dock at 4am this morning to get the jump on the Speckled Seeking Hordes that we knew were going to go fishing today regardless of the weather. Our first stop was a "secret spot" that apparently aint so secret anymore. We had blacked-out boats approach us in the dark and dark, shadowy figures crawling around on the shoreline. It was pretty funny, but the fishing sucked. I released 3 small Speckled Trout and that was it, so we joined the race to the East. To the Rock Jetty! Here I got lucky. I dropped my anchor in a spot that produced 7 Gray Trout in a matter of minutes. The biggest Gray Trout was 3 lb 8 oz. The others were all 1-2 pounders. Nobody else was doing much so everybody came "our way". About that time, the wind shifted from N to NW and picked up and suddenly we weren't in the right spot anymore. Neither were all the boats that had surrounded us. We already our fish dinner covered so the pressure was off. We made the decision to jump the Rocks and go way inshore to chill out for a while. As soon as we got anchored up Clifford's bobber went down. Good sign. Ninety minutes later, we had 17 Speckled Trout from 15" to 2+ pounds on ice, a few 12" to 15"releases, and a smattering of Bluefish, Pinfish, and Sheepshead. I also got a 6 lb Black Drum that really showed his stuff on a 6# Trout Rod. With a nice box of meat we headed in early and stopped long enough for Clifford to catch an Albacore on a 8# Trout Rod. Total Catch for the Day: 25 Speckled Trout, 7 Gray Trout, 1 Albacore, 10 Bluefish, 5 Pinfish, 1 Sheepshead and 1 Black Drum

Nov 18 More Great Albacore Fishing

This morning, at my first stop looking for Speckled Trout, I caught 15 Bluefish. On my way to my second stop, I saw an few Albacore bust on the surface. That was it for the Speckled Trout Fishing. For starters, I chased wide-ranging schools of fast moving Albacore. A little later, they settled down on Bait Balls and it was "every cast" fishing. Then it got even better. How can it be any better than "every cast"? I guess it can't, but here's the deal. I found an area where there was nothing showing on the surface, the bottom was covered with bait, and the colorscope showed large marks at 30 feet. Anything I dropped it the water and let sink got hammered by an Albacore. Sting-silvers, gulps, green grubs, white grubs, red grubs, black grups, halo shrimp and a speck rig. The speck rig actually caught me double header of 8 pound Albacores. I figured those 2 needed to be removed from the gene pool for being stupid and I might need some Tilefish bait anyway. This melee went on for hours. It was the best Albacore Fishing that I've seen since 1995 when I was hooking them on sting-silvers off the rodtip. Wiggle-wiggle. I also caught a few by simply sticking the landing net into the water beside the boat and wait for the thud. Anyway, this afternoon I'd drop 3 lines in the water and hook 3 Albacores. I love chaos. Anybody who wants to go Albacore Fishing, I'd say regardless of the weather, it aint going to get any better. IT CAN NOT GET ANY BETTER. Total Catch for the Day: 30 Albacore and 15 Bluefish

The STORM of 2009

I'm sure everybody has seen a thousand pictures from the Outer Banks. At Hatteras Inlet, the storm was pretty un-spectacular. It was pretty much a Flood Event with very little problems caused by wave action. Highway 12 on Ocracoke was smacked by the Ocean pretty good. Nothing like what happened North of Buxton though. My picture taking was pretty much confined by the Flood Waters. These pictures are (top 2) Ocracoke Island. Hatteras Inlet. The bottom picture is Hatteras right in front of Teach's Lair.

Nov 12 Squid Fishing at Hatteras

Thursday was a Beautiful Night in Hatteras Village, even as the Beaches were being battered to the South (Hwy 12 in Ocracoke) and to the North (Buxton to Chesapeake Bay) during the high tides. The calm winds and clear water allowed me an opportunity to go out and make a few casts and catch something before everything got blown away! Fishing around the Ferry Docks and Oden's Dock wasn't great but it was interesting and there was enough action to keep me going for a couple of hours. The highlight of the night was a 28" TL Squid (counting the whips) that I caught in the Ferry Basin. I had missed 5 strikes on a Gulp in the same exact spot and I was convinced that it was a baby Flounder laying on the bottom under the lights. After bites 6 and 7, I thought "No way a Flounder is that stupid" I went over to my truck and tied on a Squid Jig. As soon as the Jig hit the water I was hooked up! Seconds later the water turned black with ink and my Squid was jetting across the surface. There's nothing like a big Squid on light spinning tackle! When I finally lifted this Squid out of the water his last blast of water shot 10 feet in the air. The power of the water jets! After that, the fishing was just good enough to keep me going even though I never found the schools of Squid I expected. I ended up with 2 more smaller Squid and had enough calamari for a 4 man snack the next day. There were also a few Flounders and other things biting the Gulps. All the Flounders were too small or borderline 15". Regardless, they were all released. Total Catch for the Night: 3 Squid, 4 Southern Flounder and 1 Inshore Lizardfish

Nov 8 Blueline Tilefish and Sandbar Sharks

I ventured into new territory armed with Butterfish for chunking Tuna and plenty of Metal Jigs as Chris and I headed SE out of Oregon Inlet and headed to The Point. Our Tuna plans died pretty quickly. The Trolling bite was pretty much a steady pick for the Hatteras Fleet and we never found what we were looking for to effectively start chunking. We tried it any way and it was a waste of time. The Oregon Inlet Fleet was somewhere to the North and that's we where we probably should have been. Oh well, there was still plenty of action to be had on the Metal Jigs. Some good, some bad, but it was all very interesting and made for some sore muscles today. One problem we had jigging was Sharks. I'm talking numbers and size. Our boat was pretty much surrounded by 5-15 Sandbar Sharks at every stop. These Sharks were 100-200 pounders and they liked Tilefish, Sea Bass, Metal Jigs and Pork Chop Biscuits! Chris and I each caught several and lost several more. One thing is for sure, reeling in a 150 pound Shark on a Jigging Combo from the bottom in 320 feet of water is a tough proposition. We each got a few Tilefish to the boat. I also picked up a 17 lb King Mackerel on a jig and a 10 lb Albacore on a Top Water Plug. I pulled the hooks on a decent Blackfin Tuna right beside the Boat. Total Catch for the Day: 8 Blueline Tilefish, 2 Black Sea Bass, 1 Albacore, 1 King Mackerel and 6 Sandbar Sharks up to 150 pounds

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