Oct 29 Albacore and Bluefish

I'd have say it was great Albacore Fishing. Tom, Mike and Matthew each released an Albacore in about 5 minutes of casting. We didn't stick around to mess up that average. Off the Shoals at Cape Lookout we went and we found a full fledged Bluefish Blitz. The guys caught them on every cast and they kept all they wanted to clean. After that it was a struggle. We fished for Gray Trout and Speckled Trout and all we got out of that was a 13" Speckled Trout that was not up to current NC standards. I did toss the cast net a couple of times and load the boys up with quite a few large Jumping Mullets. Back to Beaufort Inlet and we played with Bluefish for another hour before we called it quits. I liked these guys, they were out for Blood. The top picture clearly shows that somebody had a worse day than we did. Hopefully nobody got injured. Total Catch for the Day: 3 Albacore, 1 Speckled Trout and 80 Bluefish

Oct 28 Speckled Trout, Gray Trout and Bluefish

My crew couldn't make it today. I hope Steve gets to feeling better and I really hope the fishing is a little easier next time. That was 2 tough days. The weather was rotten again today with a Small Craft Advisory in place. But with a live well full of Shrimp, I got a chance to go explore some places to fish when "you can't fish anywhere else". It was pretty interesting and I caught a few nice Speckled Trout up to 2 lb 8 oz. Later in the afternoon I ran back to Beaufort Inlet and caught lots of Bluefish, Gray Trout, and Hogfish on speck rigs. Total Catch for the Day: 6 Speckled Trout, 10 Gray Trout, 12 Bluefish and 3 Hogfish

Oct 27 The Navy Ships, Hard Fishing and Bluefish Everywhere

A tough WNW Wind this morning shut down my plan for the Rock Jetty and Cape Lookout Shoals and sent me scrambling for a back-up plan inside Barden's Inlet. Once inside, fishing was poor. I blamed it on a hard falling tide, whatever the reason, fishing was very frustrating this morning. Everywhere we went, Bluefish were on the scene to chomp our live baits. By 10am the wind had fell out and it was off to the Rocks. waiting for us was, of course, more Bluefish. Nearly every cast on nearly every kind of bait. We did manage a Speckled Trout and a Northern Puffer. By noon, we were tired of feeding tackle and Finger Mullets to the Bluefish. Then we ran farther east to look for last weeks Red Drum. All we found was dirty water, Bluefish, and a Southern Stingray. Now was time to push the PANIC Button. All the way back to Radio Island for Bluefish and more Bluefish and a few other small fish. Of course, after my half day charter was over, I returned to Beaufort Inlet and caught plenty more Bluefish and 7 Gray Trout on Speck Rigs. Total Catch for the Day: 60 Bluefish, 7 Gray Trout, 1 Speckled Trout, 2 Hogfish, 8 Pinfish, 1 Gag Grouper and 1 Southern Stingray **2066 Total Fish in 2009**

Oct 26 Bluefish in Windy and Wet Conditions

We got the Bluefish pretty good in Beaufort Inlet this morning. Then we ran to the East to look around. This excursion happened around 10am-11am when the Wind was steady at 25kts and gusting to 35kts. Needless to say, that was nothing but a wet boat ride. We came back to Beaufort Inlet and fished about 4 different places and found dirty water and very few fish. Finally, we ended up right back where we started and Howard, Tom, and I socked it to the Bluefish. It was nearly every cast with anything you tied on. The Bluefish were bigger than the ones we found in the morning. Howard kept about 12-15 Bluefish that were 1+ pounders. Howard also caught a Speckled Trout. When it all said and done, it was a good day to catch Bluefish on a day hardly fit for fishing! Total Catch for the Day: 50 Bluefish, 1 Speckled Trout, 2 Inshore Lizardfish, 3 Pinfish and 1 Black Sea Bass **1986 Total Fish in 2009**

Oct 24-25 Taylor's Creek Cast Netting

I cancelled trips Saturday and Sunday because of the weather. Unfortunately, both days the weather was very, very fishable. Saturday, I think the Ocean would've been unbearable, but the fishing could've been interesting inside the Inlet. By 11am Saturday, I had to go fishing, so off to the Dock I went loaded for Flounder and Red Drum. Conditions were perfect. Clean, high water. Bait was running. The fishing was a bust, though. In 2 hours all I got was a couple of small Flounders and a few of Nature's less desirable creatures. Right before I left I did hit 30 Corncob Mullets throw with my Cast Net. On the 25th, I concentrated on the Cast Netting and it was pretty good. I had a 40 Fish throw and then hit the mother-lode. A 200 Mullet throw, with size from Finger Mullets up to 2 pound Roe Mullets. The Rod and Reel 2-Day Total Catch for the Day: 2 Southern Flounders, 2 Inshore Lizardfish, 5 Pinfish and 1 Northern Sea Robin

Top Water Red Drum Action

Hard to beat this action. It was hard to stop fishing long enough to try to take some action pictures. Here is what I got! The second from the top picture is a school of Cownose Rays. The others are of Red Drum crashing on Top Water Plugs. I mean to say, a thousand Red Drum hitting a Top Water Plug until one finally gets hooked up. The pictures don't show the sheer numbers of Drum. Catching them was easy with a hook, it was a little harder with the camera. Hey, I'm a fisherman, not a photographer. That's GREAT FISHING!!

Oct 22 Red Drum Fishing Can't Get Much Better

I wish that I had a Charter today, or yesterday. Fishing simply CANNOT get much better. Great weather, clear water, and huge schools of Red Drum. So once again, with nothing else to do, Chris and I went fishing. Today we left the Dock at 12pm. We caught Flounders out of the sloughs and gullies off Shackleford Banks for an hour. Then we ran to the East to catch Bluefish. We found plenty and were having a blast catching 2-4 pound Bluefish on every cast with metal and top water plugs. Then, we suddenly found our boat surrounded by the biggest school of Red Drum that I have seen this year. Thousands of fish. We saw fish up to 30+ pounds. Miss the school and catch a Blue. Hit the school and catch a Drum. That's the way it went for 4 hours. Chris released a 18 pound Red Drum. My biggest was a 15 pounder. We caught fish on every cast all afternoon. We caught them on metal, plugs, Gulps, whatever. We left them biting and headed for home. As for the Bluefish, the ones near the Red Drum schools were large ones as well. Chris got a 6 pound Bluefish. I got a 5 pound Bluefish. Off Shackleford Banks we briefly stopped and cast to Albacore. The Alberts were tough because they were ram-gorging tiny minnows. They didn't want to chase a bait. I finally hooked up and released a 12 pound Albacore. We didn't want to quit because the weather is getting ready to change. Too Bad, the great fishing can't last forever. Total Catch for the Day: 40 Red Drum up to 18 lbs, 40 Bluefish up to 6 lbs, 12 Summer Flounder up to 17" and 1 Albacore

News and Observer and the Cape Lookout Lighthouse

Two items of note. First, Capt Marty is the subject of an article in today's News and Observer. That's pretty cool since it is my hometown News Paper. It is about fishing, of course and can be found in today's Outdoors Section. Second, this month the Cape Lookout Lighthouse is celebrating it's 150th birthday and the NPS is lighing up the Lighthouse with spotlights. It is a very pretty thing to see up close. Last night, my wife and her parents made the trip up to the Cape to see the Lighthouse. It was a beautiful night. It was hard for me not to be thinking about all those Speckled Trout out at the Jetty, but I fought off that urge and just walked around and explored the Lighthouse. It was a pretty cool experience and a great way to spend time with family.

Oct 21 Awesome Red Drum Fishing and More

Today was nothing but flat out catching fish. We got a late start because of an Oil Change, but 20 minutes after the launch, Chris and I were sitting on a 1000 fish school of Red Drum. Three hours later we had released our 30th Red Drum and boxed a pair in the slot. The only thing that interupted our Red Drum mission was the 2 Albacore that I released. By the end of our Drum session we must've looked like the Pied Piper because we had 5-6 other boats that were following our every move down the Beach. It was pretty comical since I was really the only person that could see the fish. Not only was I instructing Chris where to cast, I was akso trying to coordinate the placement of all these other boats and direct 10-12 guys that were casting. Needless to say, the Drum were getting spanked pretty hard. After we couldn't take it anymore, Chris and I ran to the east and found all the Bluefish in the world, including a bunch of "legit" 4 pounders. All in all, it was a great day of fishing and hardly NO casts were wasted. Total Catch for the Day: 32 Red Drum, 30 Bluefish and 2 Albacore **1826 Total Fish in 2009**

Oct 17-19 More Poor Fishing and Bad Weather

Slow, slow fishing with the rod and reel, but there was pretty good cast-netting up a Hatteras. Conditions went from horrible to pretty damn nice by last night, but the fishing never recovered though. Fishing in a 40kt NW wind and rain was pretty messed up. I still caught a couple of fish in the bad weather and I hit 1 cast with the cast net for 65 pounds of Roe Mullet. The middle night was horrible, but the first Squid of the year showed up and wiped out a school with the cast net. Big Squid, up to 17" total length. Enough to feed 4 people. The angling highlight came when a small Red Drum attacked my finger mullet. Odd because for all the fishing I do at this spot, this only the second Red Drum I ever caught there. The last night, I managed to catch a 19" Southern Flounder and 9 really nice Squid on a squid jig. Some were bigger than I like to fry at 20" total length. Squid are a blast to catch on light tackle. I also caught the last Ladyfish of the year, a small one. In between all this, a few Black Sea Bass were biting. Total Catch for the Period: 1 Southern Flounder, 1 Red Drum, 1 Ladyfish, 7 Squid and 10 Black Sea Bass

Oct 14-16 Windy Night Fishing

Weather conditions have not been good for night fishing around structure with live bait. The ever present Black Sea Bass have thinned out. Their numbers are way down. Gray Trout have filled a little of that void. However, it's all about the Flounders where I'm fishing! Past Septembers have been great. 30 fish nights and fish up to 10 pounds. I missed all that this year. Now, it's mid-October and I'm fishing for ghosts. The wind and rain, dirty water and lack of bait are making it hard. There are a few Flounder around though. I'm averaging one Flounder bite per hour and trying to make the best of it. So far I've managed to catch 7 Flounders with a big fish at 21" and just under 4 pounds. All others were from 20" to 16". The Gray Trout are striking live baits and are 15" to 17" each and are a nice bonus. The Black Sea Bass have been 8" to 14" and there were enough keepers to fry up a batch! Cast Netting has been pretty good. I had a single cast that netted 30 pounds of Roe Mullet. So far this week, we've eaten Flounder Sushi Rolls, Fried Sea Bass and Gray Trout and Grilled Mullets. Total Catch for this Report: 4 Southern Flounders, 2 Summer Flounders, 10 Gray Trout, 1 Bluefish and 30 Black Sea Bass

Oct 12 Excellent Albacore and Bluefish Casting Action

Javier joined me today for a half day of fishing. We were looking for some action. After warming up on some Bluefish inside Beaufort Inlet, we went out in the Ocean looking for some bigger fish! It didn't take long! His first cast connected with an Albacore. Great start. Lots of Albacore and lots of opportunities to put lures in the "strike zone" today. The Albacore were much bigger than the one's we found a couple of weeks ago. Two of the fish we caught were in the 12 pound class. Plus, excellent Bluefish action inside and outside Beaufort Inlet. The wind made life difficult to the east and farther off the Beach, so we stuck with what was good. Today that meant Albacore and Bluefish. We searched briefly for some Red Drum and we casted briefly for Gray Trout. Fishing was pretty good today because we stuck with the easy things and that made my job pretty easy! Javier also caught the first Willet ever caught on Top Water Charters. I need to get a Bird List together some time in the future. Total Catch for the Day: 6 Albacore and 30 Bluefish

Oct 11 Great Fishing in Taylor's Creek

I stayed on shore today and it was a good thing. I caught a "Double Carolina Inshore Grand Slam",I caught a new career largest Croaker and I got a cooler full of fish. All this without the aggravation of boating! The double slam was made up of 2 small Southern Flounders, 5 fat Speckled Trout, and 6 slot and up-sized Red Drum. My big Croaker weighed 2 lb 10oz. That Croaker is only slightly larger than the other dozen that I caught. All these Croakers were over 2 pounds. The Red Drum ranged in size from 25" to 29". I also broke 2 off in structure and pulled the hooks on an app. 12 pounder that I hooked over an Oyster Rock in 2 feet of water! The suprizing Speckled Trout ranged from 18" to 22" each. I even got an odd-ball 2 pound Sheepshead. All these fish were caught on 5" white Gulp Jerk Shad. Now for the bad news. I caught 2 monster Lizardfish and in the chaos that followed a vicious Lizardfish strike that ran under the dock and I thought it was a nice Red Drum, I knocked my "Un-Replacable Landing Net" overboard. This happened in 10 feet of water and the tide was boiling. Dispite an hour of recovery efforts, I didn't get my net back. This was a 30" diameter aluminum hoop on a 15 foot telescopic handle. This net was responsible for all my Hatteras Sheepsheads and Flounders and all my Taylor's Creek Red Drum and Flounders. Total Catch for the Day: 6 Red Drum, 5 Speckled Trout, 2 Southern Flounder, 13 Croaker, 1 Bluefish, 1 Sheepshead and 2 Inshore Lizardfish

Oct 9 Amberjacks and More

Pretty weather today, finally. We spent our day trying different things and some worked and some didn't. First thing in the morning we stuffed the livewell with Finger Mullet and topped it off with quite a few nice Bluefish in the Inlet. The Blues were sitting in 2-3 feet of water and the casting action was great with metal and top water plugs. Then it was off to the Reefs for some Flounder fishing. That was a complete bust. After that we swam a few Mullets around and tried to catch some larger Spanish Mackerel. Dick had a 4 pounder to the boat and the hook popped out. Ouch! Then we had 2 bite-offs. Double Ouch! We gave it up on the Spanish Mackerel and moved out a little farther to see what we could find. Thankfully, we found Amberjacks and the fishing was spectacular! Watching packs of fired up Jacks chase down and devour 1-3 pound Bluefish. Every Bluefish in the live well was crushed. We won most of the fights, but we lost a few too. Garland released 4 and I released 2. Dick gave up Amberjack fishing a while back. He sat back and laughed! These Amberjacks were from 25 to 32 pounds each. We battled a 50 pound Jack on light tackle and lost him to structure. It was downhill after that. We casted to Albacore unsucessfully. We searched for Red Drum without success. Finally, we moved inside the Inlet and caught more Bluefish, a couple of Gray Trout, Lizardfish, Black Sea Bass, and small Gag Groupers. Fishing the past 2 days had it's ups and downs. Hopefully, some great days are ahead! Total catch for the Day: 6 Amberjack, 12 Bluefish, 2 Gray Trout, 2 Gag Grouper, 1 Black Sea Bass, and 5 Inshore Lizardfish *1629 Total Fish in 2009*

Oct 8 Casting to Spanish Mackerel and Bluefish

When the wind is already blowing at 7am; I never really know what the day will be like. It might be a tough one. Thankfully, my clients wanted to catch fish and they were very realistic. When we found some Bluefish west of Beaufort Inlet first thing this morning, they said "Let's Whack Em". Music to my ears. After catching all the Bluefish they needed and stuffing the livewell, we headed east to look for something different. A quick look at the Cape Lookout Shoals and all that nasty brown water and choppy whitecaps and I decided that it wasn't worth it. We looked around where the Spanish and Albacore were 2 weeks ago and that produced nothing. So we headed back to Barden's Inlet. Before we got there we saw about 6-8 of the smallest Spanish Mackerel you'll ever see jump. Worried about what we might be doing for the next 7 hours, I told the guys to start casting. I figured it was going to be a 2 minute stop and if we were lucky we might catch a 8" Spanish Mackerel. Little did I know that 90 minutes and 35 Spanish Mackerel later that we had "made our day". These Mackerel ranged from 11" throw backs to 2 pounders. Most were over 1 pound. Nice fish on the spinning rods. After that, the day was a struggle. We fished for King Mackerel with less than ideal baits and never got a bite. It was disappointing because there was a decent bite taking place! We searched in the very dirty surf for schools of Red Drum that we never found. We briefly chased schools of Albacore that were a little too erratic for our liking. We casted to 2 different Rock Jettys and came up empty. Total Catch for the Day: 50 Bluefish and 35 Spanish Mackerel.

ITS OFFICIAL: Top Water Charters has a State Record

The DMF has approved Chris Chadwick's 11 lb 3 oz Spadefish caught with Capt Marty and Top Water Charters back in June. Incredibly, the one Chris had officially weighed was probably one of 7 or 8 Spadefish that was caught aboard my boat during a couple of weeks of fishing on a shallow water Wreck up at Hatteras. BJ Swain, Tony Willis, and I all caught fish that crushed the previous State Record. We goofed up a cleaned several 10-11+ pounders before I realized the Record was pretty low. Chris and I set out to break it on June 14 and we accomplished our mission. Way to go Columbo. A no-fishing duck hunter just a couple of years ago, now he is in the Record Books!

Oct 6 Blackfin Tuna and Wahoo

Unfortunately, the title of this report could've been "Elusive Yellofin Tuna Completely Avoid Us" or "As Close as I ever got to a Bigeye Tuna". Oh well, here it is. Today, Steve Bittman and I went Tuna Fishing approximately 35 miles ESE of Oregon Inlet. Fishing had been pretty good so I decided to fish up that way before I headed back home. After the day was done, it was pretty disappointing, but very exciting. The Blackfin Tuna fishing was pretty good for us, but we never got a single bite from a Yellowfin Tuna. There were quite a few 40-60 pound Yellowfin Tuna caught. Our catch consisted of 2 sizes of Blackfins. Unfortunately, the majority of ours were in the 1/2 to 1 pound class and nearly all of these "Termite" Tuna were released. We did manage to catch 6 that were in the 7-10 pound range. We also caught 1 out of 2 Wahoo bites. The one we got was a 26 pounder and another bit off right at the boat. We had a White Marlin or a Sailfish attack a transom bait 3 times but didn't get hooked. The best (and worst) part of the day was when the Smoker hooked up 5 Bigeye Tuna right beside us. They caught caught 1 earlier and were working an area of bait over a ledge. They got covered up just as we arrived in the area and that was the end of that bite. Over an hour later, they put 3 fish in the boat (189, 180, and 150 pounders) We marked the school of Bigeyes three times, sitting a depth of 10 fathoms, but we couldn't get a bite. Neither did the other 25 Charterboats that were converging on this spot. Anyway... That was as close as I've been to a Bigeye Tuna and it sure did raise the awareness and the adrenaline level on the Boat. There were some tense minutes of absolute "readiness". We were stoked. Then we got a strike! And it was another 1 pound Blackfin Tuna. Back to reality. Total Catch for the Day: 25 Blackfin Tuna and 1 Wahoo