Monday, April 27, 2009

April 27 Citation Red Drums on Light Spin and Fly
















All morning I told myself that I shouldn't go fishing. I need to get catch the Ferry to Hatteras to go to work tommorrow. But yesterday was so pretty and I wanted to take a few shots at the Chopper Bluefish with my fly rod. So I grabbed Chris and we went fishing. I guess I'll be driving to Hatteras instead! What we found was a suprize. I must say, I ain't no Fly Fisherman. I have never casted a fly to a Red Drum, until today. This might be difficult for some to hear, but my first cast was a bungled toss of about 20 feet. Fortunately for me, it landed among 50 or 75 Red Drum that weighed between 35-50 pounds each. Five Drum rose to my fly and the fastest one ate it. 20 minutes later I released my first Red Drum on fly and it was a 45" that weighed 39 pounds on the Boga Grip. Sorry guys. The rest of my Red Drum came on Bucktails and Top Water Plugs. We used light spinning tackle from 10# to 12#. The first Drum of the day was a 52" that bottomed out my Boga Grip and I caught it on a Storm Chug Bug and it was not a subtle surface strike! We were ready for Bluefish and hit the Red Drum motherlode instead! We found at least 4 different schools and they were all big ones. I think I caught 8 Red Drum that ranged from 42" to 52". Chris released 5 Red Drum that were over 40". We found some small Bluefish, but NO Choppers. We also saw 2 Sand Tigers and a Hammerhead Shark. Total catch for the Day: 13 Red Drum and 5 Bluefish

Sunday, April 26, 2009

April 26 Bluefish and Chopper Bluefish







Jason and crew went for a long boat ride today. From 15 miles Southwest of Beaufort Inlet to 15 miles Southeast of Beaufort Inlet, 100 places in-between and 100 miles total! We got off to a slow start looking for Atlantic Bonito, but the last several hours of our day were full of drama and suspense. Throwing Flys and Top Water Plugs, we had multiple chances at Bluefish from 2 to 10 pounds, Red Drum from 8 to 40 pounds, 3-4 pound Pompanos, and Sharks up to 50 pounds. It surely beat practicing fly casting in the back yard. Unfortunately, this afternoon we were plagued by rising SW Winds and Low Tides. To make matters worse, nearly all the fish that we saw were in 1-2 feet of water and were impossible to get to! But we tried. Jason even got out of the Boat and walked in to cast to Chopper Bluefish 2 different times. We pretty much ran over the few Red Drum that we saw and struck out on 3 straight huge Pompano. We didn't really try that hard on the Sharks. The Bluefish got our best shots. Between 4 of us, I guess that we caught around 15 Bluefish up to 8 pounds. We also caught a few bottom fish early while while looking for the absent Bonito. Finally, Jason caught a 25 pound Cownose Ray on 10# spinning on the way home. We also had close encounters with 2 Ocean Sunfish, including a nice 400 pounder. Total Catch for the Day: 15 Bluefish, 1 Cownose Ray, 5 Black Sea Bass, 1 Oyster Toadfish, and 1 Hogfish

Friday, April 24, 2009

April 24 Striped Apes, Bluefish, and Spanish Mackerel




Great Weather today. Finally. In a normal Spring, with such good weather, I'd be complaining about how poor the fishing was today. But so far, 2009 has been different. It's been pitiful. So today's pretty slow fishing actually seemed pretty good. The time for Atlantic Bonito is here. The only problem today was that there seemed to be a serious lack of bait on and near the high vertical structures that our Bonito seem to like. The good news is, that could all change by sunrise tommorrow. Better news is that there actually a few Bonito around. This morning fishing from 5 miles west of Beaufort Inlet to 5 miles east of Bogue Inlet, we hooked 3 Bonito, released one, and put one in the box that weighed 6 pounds and measured 22". The 3 Bonito hook-ups probably came from 200 casts! So it wasn't great fishing in my book. Bluefish numbers were excellent at one spot we fished. Doubleheaders on speck rigs, but no Choppers yet. All of our Bluefish were from 8-14". We kept 12 that were over 1 pound. We also caught our first Spanish Mackerel of the year and a handful of Black Sea Bass, including 3 keepers in the 13-14" range. We also saw 2 Ocean Sunfish today. Always a welcome sight. Total Catch for the Day: 2 Atlantic Bonito, 40 Bluefish, 3 Spanish Mackerel, 5 Black Sea Bass, and 1 Pinfish

Thursday, April 23, 2009

April 23 Great Fighting Cownose Rays











Another day of High Winds, Dirty Water, and Extremely Low Tides. Today I fished in winds the NWS Weather Station at Cape Lookout called steady 14 mph winds with gusts to 19. Evidently, this weather station is in the Pine Forest. All day we were battered by 20-25 kt SW winds, filthy water, and the lowest tides that I've seen at Cape Lookout in years. The water was so dirty that I couldn't see the bottom in 4 feet of water from the Tower. All my favorite flats at Cape Lookout were completely dry from mid morning to early afternoon. On a positive note, we did see many Loggerhead Turtles. There were so many feeding in the Black Mud inside Cape Lookout Bight that we counted 6 on the surface at one time and there were at least 6 others making mud roils. As far as the fishing goes, today would've been a complete bust, but we did find a huge school of Cownose Rays milling on the edge of a Bar off the east end of Shackleford Banks. There were probably 200-300 Rays in this group. Since the only thing we were looking for today was a Good Fight, we keyed on this school of Cownose Rays and Chris and I released 3 each that weighed from 20 to 30 pounds. We used light spinning tackle and enjoyed fights that lasted from 5 to 15 minutes per fish. Hopefully it was good practice for the future. If the WIND ever quits blowing. Total Catch for the Day: 6 Cownose Rays

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Pictures from Hatteras




These pictures are from another wonderfully windy day (aint they all) at Hatteras Inlet. The top picture is the north side of Hatteras Inlet. Great fishing spot, but the NPS has declared it a Bird Sanctuary. The Black-Headed Gull is a Laughing Gull. A sure sign of Spring. The first one showed up at Cedar Island back in March. The very next afternoon there were at least 20 dozen of them flying around! In case you've never heard them, they sound like they really enjoy making their eggs fertile. Laughing the entire time, that's where their name came from! Yep! The last picture pretty much sums up my 2009 season so far! Wind driven salt spray, dirty water, cold, and miserable.


April 22 BLOW BABY BLOW




Another blown out trip today. How about I sell my Boat and move to Kansas? Maybe then the WIND would quit blowing. You gotta hate that color-filled wind chart. Too much purple (gale force) and lavender (small craft advisory). However, the Weather Guessers still are saying it's supposed to be a pretty weekend. We shall see..... I'm looking for some great Bonito fishing and I'm running out of time! From the sea water temp chart: I like that little orange swirl east of Lookout. Hopefully it will slide to the west a few more miles and deliver the motherlode to the Summerlin Reef by the weekend. To the folks that follow my Blog and expect to see a few nice fish, I am genuinely sorry and apologize for a horrible Spring so far. I cannot get a break from the Wind. Most of the pretty days so far this Spring have happened when I've been at work on my other job. But, there really hasn't been that many pretty days period.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

April 21 More Freshwater Fly Rod Action


Once again, due to high winds, I got my daily Fishing Fix in the Ponds today. With SW winds at Cape Lookout gusting up to 24 knots by mid-morning and Beaufort Inlet covered with white water all day long, I scrapped plans for launching the Boat today. I just couldn't get to excited by the prospect of catching a load of small Croakers and a few Sea Mullet. So I broke out the little 3wt Fly Rod and went bugging. I saw plenty of Bass and Bream on the Beds, but my poor skills and the wind make it difficult to make great casts. I got a few bites on a sinking spider and released a few fish, including a pair of little Largemouth Bass. Total Catch for the Day: 2 Largemouth Bass, 5 Bluegills, and 3 Pumpkinseeds

April 13 Fly Rod Bass


On my way to work and I had to make a few casts before I left town! So I made a quick stop in one of Beaufort's finest fishing "storm water run-off ponds" and used my little 3wt Fly Rod to toss a popping bug around several freshly built Bass Beds. Fishing was a little hard due to rain and wind. I got a few lookers that wouldn't bite and a few that did. I got one fiesty little Largemouth Bass. I also caught and missed a few Bluegills. Total Catch for the Day: 1 Largemouth Bass and 3 Bluegill

Friday, April 10, 2009

April 10 Dog Sharks

Inshore Fishing is tough right now. The good fish, Sea Mullets, Bluefish, and Gray Trout, are hard to find. The SW wind that has been howling for days has not let up and the water is dirty. The Full Moon has the tides running very hard and that has the fish scattered and hard (impossible) to locate. Hopefully, as the moon wanes, the fishing will get better. Today, I had Jeff and his two sons, John and Paul on a half day trip. The fishing was not good, but intereresting. Using very high quality fresh shrimp for bait, we managed very few bites. We did find enough Dog Sharks to povide the boys with some action. Pretty good action. I hope I get this right because, in the name of brotherly competition, it is important. I think John caught a "Boat Record" Smooth Dogfish that measured 45" and weighed at least 20 pounds. Jeff caught a 25 pound Cownose Ray. I think Paul's best catch was a pregnant Spiny Dogfish that weighed around 10 pounds and 2 nice 12" Black Sea Bass. Total Catch for the Day: 2 Black Sea Bass, 1 Bluefish, 1 Gray Trout, 1 Pinfish, 2 Spiny Dogfish, 1 Cownose Rays, and 12 Smooth Dogfish.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

April 8 Sea Mullet and Mixed Bag in the Wind


Columbo and I fished in extremely poor conditions today (Westsouthwest winds blowing steady at 20+ Knots) and our catch reflected how tough it was out on the water. This wind direction and velocity are notorious for making the inshore water very dirty. The surf on the Ocean Beaches is very rough and it that mixes up the water outside and inside Beaufort Inlet. Our final obstacle was the tide, which was high very early this morning. Because of that, we pretty much fished around the low end of the tide cycle today. This is when dirty water is at it's "dirtiest." The tide later in the week will be more favorable, even if the wind keeps blowing. Making drifts for Sea Mullet was difficult today due to the hard running current and high winds. Beaufort Inlet was too rough to fish and scrapped our plan to run up Cape Lookout. There was absolutely NO ACTION in the MHC Shipping Channel or the Turning Basin. All that being said, we finally found a nice spot to drop anchor and there was a few fish biting. There was a good variety in the catch today. I caught 7 different species on 7 straight drops during one stretch. Unfortunately, everything we caught today was pretty small. I did keep 4 Sea Mullet and the left over Shrimp for supper tonight. Columbo had the big fish of the day with his 6 lb. Spiny Dogfish. Total catch for the Day: 4 Southern Sea Mullet, 2 Gulf Sea Mullet, 8 Croaker, 4 Spot, 4 Black Sea Bass, 8 Silver Perch, 1 Hogfish, 1 Pinfish, 1 Smooth Dogfish, and 1 Spiny Dogfish