June 29 Citation Sheepsheads

I was feeling like A-Rod in October. Last year I probably hooked 75% of my Sheepshead bites and got enough NC Citations to wall paper my bathroom. My confidence soared. This year the Sheepsheads showed up early, large, and hungry. So I started 0 hook-ups in first 20 bites and at least 6 of them were 8-10 pounders that ate my bait in plain view. Then it all changed. In 2 drops I caught a 9 lb 9oz Sheepshead and a 9 lb 5oz. Sheepshead. I felt a little better. Total Catch for the Day: 2 Sheepsheads

June 24-28 Missed Bites in Hatteras

So far this week I have fished for Sheepshead, Flounder, and Striped Bass. The main target until last night was Sheepshead. The shift that I'm working is not a good one for Sheepshead. Regardless, early in the week I had my chances. On Wednesday I had a 8-9 pounder do a headstand to eat an Urchin that I had dropped right in front of him. He ate it right in front of my eyes and when I set the hook I felt his weight for 1 second. Ping, and he was gone. The barb never found a soft spot. Sunday afternoon it was the same story. A 8-10 pound Sheepshead ate 3 Urchins in rapid succession and got away with it every time. I had him hooked up one time, but the hook only stuck for about 5 seconds. Also, I have played with a procession of 1-4 pounders that cannot engulf the Urchins that I use for bait. So I'm like 0 for 14 on Sheepshead bites. My success level has been better on Striped Bass. I've seen one, fished for one, and caught one that was 18" and 2 pounds. Now I'm waiting for another one to show up. Saturday night I decided to check out one of my summertime Flounder hang-outs for the first time this summer. The fishing was good until the tide quit running. Very good. Bites as fast as the bait touched bottom. Unfortunately, I only got 40 minutes of good fishing. I caught 6 Flounders and had 5 keepers up to 18". Southern and Summer Flounders both represented. I also made another mistake. Expecting all small fish, I didn't get out the "Dedicated Flounder Combo". Instead I used a light spinning rod with 10# test and it cost me a big Flounder. The last bite of the night was a nice one. I fought a give and take battle with this Flounder for 30 seconds, in 8 feet of water, and I never saw the fish. Finally I lost him under the dock. My instincts say that it was at least a 5 pounder. Sunday night was a little slower, I only had 5 bites and caught 4 Flounders. Total Catch for the Week: 7 Southern Flounder, 3 Summer Flounder, and 1 Striped Bass

June 24 My Favorite Day

June 24 has always been a great day for me to fish. In the early 80's through the 90's, I always fished on June 24 and always had either a great day or caught a great fish. Here lately, I have not been able to fish this particular date on a yearly basis. One of my earliest, and greatest big fish adventures happened on June 24, 1988. On that date, Rich Chadwick and I were trolling for Spanish Mackerel from Rich's 18' Boston Whaler with size 00 Clark Spoons. For those who don't know, that is a very, very small spoon with a very small hook. It is commonly used when Spanish Mackerel are feeding on tiny minnows and is definitely not a "big fish bait". Fishing was good that day and we were having a great time catching Spanish Mackerel. Then something amazing happened. While I was reeling in a fish, a huge Amberjack came out of nowhere and swallowed my hooked Spanish Mackerel. Amazingly, the tiny hook on the Clark Spoon hooked the big Amberjack's rubbery lip and the fight was on! An hour later, Rich and I pulled the 66 pound Amberjack into the Boat. Amazing! When I went to unhook him I found the tiny Clark Spoon's hook was completely straightened and the only thing that had held this fish to the rod was the barb of the hook! That day, that fish, got me hooked on fishing and that feeling of wonder, shock, suprize, and accomplishment have never left.

June 22 Bluegill Frenzy

I decided that yesterday was so much fun, that I'd do the same thing today. A few years back, I can not imagine trading a day of King Mackerel and Sharks for a day of Bream fishing. My fishing evolution is running in reverse. Today I fished 6 different Ponds in Beaufort and Morehead City and pretty much found great fishing for Bream everywhere and not-so-good Bass fishing. I think the Bass fishing could've been much better, but remember that when I'm freshwater fishing nowadays, I am an amatuer Fly Fisherman. So it was all Popping Bugs and the Big Frog today on the Fly Rod. In one spot this morning the fishing was so good that I caught 12 Bluegill without ever having to move my feet. All together, this tiny Pond resulted in 25 Bluegill and 3 Largemouth Bass. I caught a few other fish in another spot and then moved to a MHC shopping area and hit 4 additional Ponds. I was looking for a big Bass here but struck out on the Big Frog. Once I started back up with the Bug the fishing took off again and lots of Bream were caught. Lots. One Pond in particular seemed to have a never ending supply of small Bluegill and a few small Largemouth Bass. Numbers were as crazy as the average size was small. I did catch a few that were decent, but overall it was a numbers day. I also managed to catch a trophy today, a 9" Green Sunfish that came as a total suprize from a small pond at the MHC Shopping Compound! Total Catch for the Day: 6 Largemouth Bass, 50 Bluegill, 3 Pumpkinseed, 1 Green Sunfish, and 1 Green Sunfish X Bluegill Hybrid (all on Fly Tackle)

June 21 Lots of Bass on Bugs and Frogs

It's been a week since Chris caught that Big Spadefish and I been itching to go fishing. Today I went back to my favorite Urban Waterhole to see what was biting and I was very impressed. The water in this Pond has cleared up alot since the last time I checked it out. There were Bream Beds everywhere and the fish were very aggressive. I know a fly rod ain't my strongest method of fishing and the wind only allowed me to fish about 40% of this small Pond, but it still worked out great. In 90 minutes I caught and released 4 Largemouth Bass and 12 Bluegills on popping bugs. A couple of Bass were 2 pounders, which are decent fish for this Pond. The first Largemouth Bass I caught came from just offshore of 3 Bream Beds and there were 3 other Bass that followed my hooked fish right up to my hand. It was pretty cool in the clear water. **On the early afternoon trip to the same spot, I caught 2 Largemouth Bass, 4 Bluegills, and 1 Pumpkinseed. **On trip #3 (late afternoon) I had the best session yet. I got out my 7 wt Rod and was casting a big popping frog and the action was incredible. Largemouth Bass on 5 of the first 7 casts! 8 Largemouth Bass all together, all in 20 minutes while Meredith sat in the truck fuming. It was absolutely awesome surface smashing strikes on the Frog! I can't imagine having a better time fishing than I had today, even in the Boat. I did hear about a decent King Mackerel bite today. We'll see what tommorrow brings. Total Catch for the Day: 14 Largemouth Bass, 16 Bluegill, and 1 Pumpkinseed (all on Fly tackle)

June 20 NO FISHING UPDATE

Sorry guys, no fishing at all for Top Water Charters. I've been land-locked up in Chapel Hill with a family medical issue. It looks like I'll be headed back up there in the near future and I am trying to figure out a plan to attack the resident fish populations of the Eno River and Jordan Lake. I just got back to Beaufort and I know that there are plenty of Sharks just off the Beach! Maybe Sunday oy Monday I'll get a chance a sneak out there and give them a workout.

The progress on the State Record Spadefish has stopped until I go back to Hatteras and get information on the Scales and the signature of the Weighmaster. Then, as soon as Chris gets back from Venice, Louisiana he can sign the form and he should be in the NC Record Books. By the way, Chris reports that in Venice every single cast results in a Speckled Trout, a Red Drum, or a Marine Catfish.

State Record Update

Chris and I have received the forms and instructions to make the 11 pound 3 oz Spadefish that Chris caught on Sunday June 14 the new NC State Record. I've been reporting Giant Spades on a certain Wreck up at Hatteras for a couple of weeks now and honestly the one Chris caught was probably not the biggest one that we've caught. I will not be suprized if this fish isn't topped in the near future. I'm pretty sure I've seen quite a few 13-14 pounders swimming around up there!

June 14 State Record Spadefish and More

Chris and I are trying to make it official this time. Chris caught a 11 pound 3 oz Spadefish that we weighed in on the certified scales at Teach's Lair Marina and if this is approved by the NC DMF it will be the New NC State Record Spadefish. The record presently stands at 9 lb. 2 oz and don't forget that I cleaned at least 5 over 10 pounds last week. So today's plan was for Cobia and Triggerfish. The Cobia fishing wasn't great. We saw 3 that were in the 35 pound range that we couldn't catch and Chris got a catch and release on a small one at 28". Chris pulled the hooks on one of the 35 pounders after a 30 second battle and the other 2 refused to bite. Damn! This hasn't been my year for Cobia! So it was off to the Hesperides where we caught all those huge Spadefish 2 weeks ago. Last Thursday, all the Spadefish were gone and the Wreck was covered up with ultra-aggressive Gray Triggerfish. Therefore, today we figured on catching Triggerfish and they didn't disappoint us. Lucky for us, the big Spades had reappeared also. The Wreck was completely covered with life! We got anchored up we started to whack the Triggers pretty good and then something amazing happened. I caught a Spadefish on a speck rig tipped with a tiny piece of Squid. Then another and another. The Trigger frenzy had rubbed off on a few of the Spadefish. We were dropping our lines into a swirling tornado of Triggers and Spades. It was amazing in the crystal clear water. By the time we decided to go back inshore and continue searching for a Cobia, we had accumulated 35 Triggerfish and 8 Spadefish in 60 minutes. Three Spadefish over 10 pounds and Chris had the obvious biggest one that weighed 11 pounds 3 oz at Teach's Lair. Now I will see if I can do the work to make this official. Stay tuned! Total Catch for the Day: 8 Spadefish (5-11 lb 3oz), 35 Triggerfish (1-3 lbs), and a 28" Cobia released

June 12 Nothing but Blowing Wind and Spray

Sight Casting for Cobia in 25 knot SW wind and blowing spray is a difficult proposition. Here's how bad it was, a 30 minute Boat Ride from Hatteras Inlet to Diamond Shoals turned into nearly 90 minutes on the return trip. Pure misery. In between there was 7 Cobia opportunities that went awry because of horrible casting conditions. Tossing bucktails to Cobias from a wildly pitching deck, into the wind, with the wind, or across the wind is nearly impossible. Salt water in your eyes doesn't help either. We got shut-out today. If my memory serves me correctly, today was the first time since Oct 24, 2006 that I've gone completely fishless on a Charter! Today was a big challenge and we were very, very close on at least 3 of those Cobias! Too bad because it was a great crew. Total Catch for the Day: Zero

June 10 Cobias and Triggers

First up, an insane school of Triggerfish has devoured 3 acres of State Record Spadefish on the Hesperides. Seriously, Spadefish numbers on this wreck are down probably 90% from last week. Today we didn't even try to catch a Spadefish, but David and I caught 18 Triggerfish in 10 minutes. No bottom rigs needed, these Triggerfish were on top and we bailed them like Dolphin. Before we left I even caught one on a Top Water Plug. These Triggerfish were the most aggressive school of fish I've ever encountered. I'd rather take my chances with a Great White Shark than swim with these little monsters. This wreck would be a good place to "lose" somebody! More importantly, Sight Casting for Cobia was outstanding today on Diamond Shoals. From 8am until 9am we saw probably 15 Cobias and 10 of them were 50-70 pounders. Five sets of big doubles! Unfortunately, these fish were not biting. It was the most incredibly fustrating fishing event of the season so far. There were 3 boats up there this morning and the bucktails were flying......And the fish weren't biting. Finally, the other 2 boats hooked up, we were out of position, and it was over! So David and I left in search of other Cobias in other places. Here's what we found. First David got a 32" release on the Outer Shoals. Then I got a 36 pounder out of a school of 5000 Amberjacks that pushed his way to the front and ate a huge Top Water Plug. Then I got a 33 pounder on a Bucktail deep jigged at the base of Diamond Shoals Tower. Then I got a 33" release off a Stingray's back up near Cape Point. Right after that, David got a 34 pounder of the same Stingray. Finally, I tossed back a 35" Cobia that I felt sorry for right in the middle of Hatteras Inlet. We caught 6 out of 20+ Cobias and we saw lots of big ones. Total Catch for the Day: 6 Cobias (33, 34, and 36 pounds) and 18 Gray Triggerfish

June 7 Southern Eagle Rays and a Cobia

John. Justin, and Sarah fished with me today and we battled the elements most of the day. This morning was rainy and thunder boomed in the distance. Fish-killing ENE wind blew all day from 14-18 knots and inshore fishing was horrible. We spent our morning trying to sight cast and during our 70 mile boat ride all we saw was 2 small Cobias and several small Amberjacks. Sarah caught and released a 30" Cobia while John's Cobia somehow avoided the hook after engulfing his squid twice!. None of us could get a bite off the same ole Amberjacks that have been sitting under the Trawler Bouy for the last 14 days. They have seen every artificial bait on my Boat by now. By afternoon we went inside and floated the net with Menhaden and ran back out to the Cape Lookout Bight to give Bait Fishing a try. Fishing was interesting, but we did not get a Cobia bite. We did catch Bluefish, Southern Eagle Rays, Southern Stingrays, and Sharpnose Sharks. The Southern Eagle Rays are unusual and are not as common as their larger cousin, the Spotted Eagle Ray. We catch lots of Skates, Stingrays, Butterfly Rays and Cownose Rays, but Southern Eagle Rays aren't common. The ones we caught today were nice sized too, around 30 pounds each. They were great fighters and made smoking runs. Finally, on the way home, we fished a beautiful tideline off Beaufort Inlet and we found nothing. Total catch for the Day: 1 Cobia, 1 Bluefish, 3 Southern Eagle Rays, 3 Sharpnose Sharks, and 2 Southern Stingrays

Other Fishy Things from Hatteras

I didn't do a report on this in my usual manner, but last week at Hatteras I did manage to catch about 18-20 Squid on Squid Jigs. These were much smaller than the ones some of you might remember me catching back in December of 2007. That was great Squid Fishing with as many as 50 per night up to 25" long! These guys were much smaller, but still fun and great eating. I also caught several Spadefish and Black Sea Bass around the Ferry Docks. Finally, here is also a picture of BJ Swain's 57 lb Cobia doing battle in 5 feet of crystal clear water.

June 5 Bouy Fish in the Wind

It was blowing 15-20 SW today and lots of clouds were blowing through. Sunshine was spotty. During one of these moments of sunshine I found a school of small Cobia sitting under a Bouy near the Beach. Before I ever came down out of the Tower I had already cast 2 Bucktails and hooked 2 Cobias. Once on deck I got another one to smack a Top Water Plug. Too bad they were all 28" to 31" fish. Finally, after releasing 2 Cobias and as I was about to land the last one I noticed another Cobia swimming with the hooked Cobia. This one ate a whole squid tossed in his direction and a few minutes later, Cobias number 3 and 4 had been released. All this happened on a scouting trip to look for Bait. I thought about trying to set up and do some bait fishing, but I never tried. I'm getting pretty good at catching these baby Cobias. However, I am getting the feeling that every time I go back to work at Hatteras, the Cobia bite here in Carteret County goes off. That is 2 years in a row that it's been like that. I'm sick of it. At least I've got another night run coming uo at Hatteras and hopefully I'll have my boat up there again. Total Catch for the Day: 4 Cobia (all released)

OUCH We fileted 5 NC State Record Spadefish last Saturday!

I just checked out the NC Salt Water Fishing Record Page and the State Record Spadefish is 9 lb. 1 oz. My Boga-Grip is certified by the IGFA so it is accurate enough to establish a World Record. On June 1, BJ Swain and I caught 5 Spadefish over 10 pounds and BJ actually had 2 Spadefish at 11 pounds. All these Spadefish were weighed on my 15# Boga-Grip. We cleaned them and never officially weighed them because there is no NC Citation for this species. It is pretty damn stupid that this fish isn't recognized by the NCDMF as a Citation Species and it was pretty stupid of me not to be aware of the "Low Weight" of the NC Record for Spadefish. However, being at Hatteras that week, I was not "plugged in" to the Internet and it's vast information was not as readily availiable. So BJ's NC State Record Spadefish joins my IGFA All-Tackle World Record Hickory Shad (2 lb 9oz) that I cleaned, my IGFA All-Tackle World Record Southern Kingfish (Sea Mullet) (2lb 14 oz) that I cleaned, and my IGFA All-Tackle World Record Blacknose Shark (43 lbs) that I released, as IGFA and North Carolina Record Fish that were never submitted.

June 2 Bad Move

I had to try Ocracoke today. It was on the way home and there have been lots of Cobia caught just offshore of Ocracoke Inlet this year. Not today though. While me and 4 other boats searched the tide lines off Ocracoke, everybody else was smoking the Cobias at Hatteras (where I left) and Beaufort Inlet (where I was headed). Bad move on my part. Ocracoke Inlet was rough and the water was dirty. Grass was everywhere. BJ caught a baby Hammerhead Shark on a bucktail right out of the Inlet. That was all we saw in 4 hours. Total Catch for the Day: 1 Hammerhead Shark

May 31 World Class Spadefish

I hate it when a Fishing Guide says "World Class Fishing". World Class for who? I use that term very sparingly. That being said, I'm going to go ahead and say it today. Fishing a Wreck that sits on Diamond Shoals, BJ Swain and I caught 15 Spadefish. An astounding 5 of these Spadefish were over 10 pounds, and BJ landed 2 that weighed 11 pounds each. All these Giant Spades were caught in a little less than 2 hours. This was just a little diversion to sight casting for Cobia. Cobia Fishing was pretty good too. Our biggest problem was that the majority of the Cobias we found were swimming on the bottom. We could see them easy enough in 3-6 feet of crystal clear water, but we didn't see most of them until it was too late. Two that we saw in plenty of time were BJ's 57 pound Cobia and my 55 pound Cobia. There was another 60+ pounder that was cruising with a school of Bluefish and incredibly these pesky bastards jumped in front of our Cobia and hit the bucktails. The Cobia swam off into the wild blue yonder without 2 of his escorts. Then there was the 35 pound Cobia that flat out had a death wish, that ate my bucktail right under the boat. I somehow managed to lose that one. Oh well, we were 2 out of 9 on Cobias today in nearly perfect conditions. We also hammered a school of Bluefish. We saw a 25 pound King Mackerel and scattered Atlantic Bonito on the Shoals but failed to connect. Total Catch for the Day: 15 Spadefish (3-11 pounds), 2 Cobia (55 and 57 pounds) and 12 Bluefish (1-2 pounds)

May 28 Hatteras Gaffer Dolphin and Huge Spadefish

Tony and I went out fishing this morning with a 3 pronged plan of attack. Our targets were Dolphins, Amberjacks at Diamond ShoalsTower, and a Cobia on the Shoals on the way home. When it was over we were 2 out of 3 with a really nice bonus. First up was a couple of hours of trolling for Dolphin. We fished an area where the fishing had been great, so good that the only boats fishing near us were 4 long-liners. They were loaded up with Dolphins and the Hatteras Charter Fleet was fishing somewhere else. The fishing was still good for us and we didn't have to stray from our plan. In 3 hours of trolling just south of the Tower, we caught 11 Dolphin that weighed from 10 to 18 pounds each. Then it was off to Diamond Shoals Tower where Tony got a 25 pound Amberjack and I caught a 15 pound Amberjack. So it was off to look for a Cobia. Running NW toward the Shoals, I decided to check out a real shallow Wreck that sits on the offshore end of Diamond Shoals. What we found was a Spadefish Heaven and they were "grown ones". In an hour of hardcore effort, I had caught an 8 pound Spadefish and a 9 pound Spadefish. Tony struggled to keep these Giant Spadefish out of the Wreck as he broke off 4 or 5 monsters. Finally we ran inshore and gave a quick search for Cobia. Running out of time because I had to go to work, we did a 15 knot search of the Shoals and the Beach and didn't see any Cobia. Total Catch for the Day: 11 Dolphin (10-18 pounds), 2 Amberjack (15 and 25 pounds), and 2 Spadefish (8 and 9 pounds)