Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Jan 27 The Weather Ahead

Today looks like a nice weather day. Unfortunately, the rest of my week off doesn't look so great. But, we've seen bad forecasts turn good before, so I'll watch the weather and hopefully I can get in a quick day of fishing. This has been the worst winter ever. All ready and it aint even February yet! For lots of reasons. I need to break this spell I've been under. Seems like I been fishing for something other than fish....... I need to get back to the one thing I used to be good at! And start working on the Boat's little problems that I ignored all year.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Jan 20 Red Drum in the Surf

I spent about 4 hours in the Hatteras Surf on Wednesday and the fishing was great......For about 5 minutes! A small school of Red Drum swam into casting range just east of the Frisco Pier and the fishing was intense for the 10-12 guys that were right there, right then. I released a nice slot sized Red Drum and could plainly see the color of the fish 100 feet offshore of me. My next cast had 3 strikes until I hooked up again. When I put my hands on this Drum, I looked up and could still make out the school. I thought about carrying this fish to the Beach, but I decided to release him and try to hook one more. My next cast was a mis-cast and I broke off my Gulp. Of course, by the time I re-tied another jighead on, the school was gone. I waited for another hour and never saw them again. No Drum in the box and No Pictures for the Report. Total Catch for the Day: 2 Red Drum

Monday, January 18, 2010

Jan 18 Headed Back to Hatteras and thinking about Last Saturday









I am headed back to Hatteras tomorrow morning and will be working the Night Shift, so hopefully I can get some surf fishing worked in. Maybe I can catch something remarkable! I will be home again on Jan 27th and I will be ready to head back out and search for these Red Drum again. I am avaliable on Jan 28, 29, 30, and 31. Call Me.....Here's another look at Jan 16. It was a perfect day. Why can't we have more days like that! It was a great day to be out on the Cape Lookout Shoals and see Thousands of fish. It was a beautiful sight. Taking pictures of the Drum schools was hard because I couldn't put the rod down long enough. Some of the pictures I did take didn't come out, but none of them showed the sheer numbers of fish. At times, it was one giant school. Other times it would break up into 5 or 6 schools. If it wasn't for so many Red Drum, the white hood would be hard to forget too...........

Sunday, January 17, 2010

2009 Fishing Season Highlights part 1
















The 2009 Fishing Year was a very strange one for me. As usual, I constantly had to cancel trips due to high winds or endure long, hard days of improvising because of the wind. Catching quality fish is always a challenge in those conditions. We also experienced 3 monster rains in summer and fall that changed the fishing. Finally, I also lost about 6 weeks of fishing in the peak summer charter season when I was back and forth to Chapel Hill with a family medical issue. On the positive side, I spent more time freshwater fishing this year than I have in 25 years. I also started fly fishing again. Something I hadn't done in years. My fly rod highlights included a 7 pound Largemouth Bass (on the 3 wt) and a 39 pound Red Drum (on the 7wt). Sweet! As far as my normal fishing year went, I saw more Cobia than ever before and found out that they aren't as stupid as I always thought! More Red Drum were caught on my Boat than ever before, mostly by sight casting with light tackle to massive schools. Albacore Fishing was the best in years. Bluefishing in the Spring was awesome with lots of sight casting to 7-12 pound fish. Sheepsheads were once a mythical fish to me, now they represent the easiest NC Citation out there. I have caught 29 Citation Sheepheads with very little effort the past 2 summers! And finally, the Highlight of the Year was Chris Chadwick's new NC State Record Spadefish that was caught on my boat back in June. One of probably 10 State Record sized Spadefish that we caught. 3015 Total Fish and 51 NC Citation Fish Caught

2009 Fishing Season Highlights part 2
















2009 Fishing Season Highlights part 3
















Saturday, January 16, 2010

Jan 16 Red Drum in a Fish Bowl











I picked a fine day to snap out of my doldrums. The Tower wasn't necessary. Ten thousand Red Drum in 2 feet of crystal clear water surrounded by 10 boats. Plenty of fish for everybody. I released 18 Red Drum that were from 22" to 26". I brought home a 26" keeper. I also picked up Marcus R (he anchored up and jumped in my Boat) while I was out there and he released another 8 and kept himself a 25" Drum. I also bounced around a Wreck amd caught 5 Black Sea Bass up to 3 pounds and some junk. Total Catch for the Day: 28 Red Drum, 5 Black Sea Bass, 3 Spottail Pinfish, and 1 Pinfish

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Jan 6-12 Hatteras Red Drum and Speckled Trout


I am happy to report that there was a very nice Speckled Trout bite in the surf on the morning of Jan 6th at Hatteras. Lots of 3-6 pounders and a few larger. At least these Trout will "have to be caught" and will not simply freeze to death like their Carteret County cousins. Red Drum fishing has been good and was getting better with each passing day. I have been pretty focused on other things this week at Hatteras. I did find the time to catch a 7 lb 8 oz Speckled Trout before I left the OBX on the 12th. This Speckled Trout was foul hooked on a mirrorlure. Earlier in the week I managed to lose a nice Red Drum after a short tussle. I managed to miss the best fishing days. Also, what a great picture of a beautiful fish, DUH! BTW, this report was started on Jan 6th and last editted on Jan 13th. Total Catch for the Week: 1 Speckled Trout

Monday, January 4, 2010

Jan 4 Too Cold for Fishing and The Speckled Trout Die-Off

I'm off to Hatteras tomorrow morning and hopefully being a little closer to the Gulf Stream will warm me up a little bit. I might even scam me a ride out to where the Blackfin Tuna are chewing. Blackfin Tuna on vertical jigs is probably NC's hottest winter time fishery right now. It surely wasn't the 2009-2010 Speckled Trout bite. What was a mediocre season near the Inlets and in the Ocean really got a smackdown yesterday and this morning. For sure North River and Jarrett Bay populations got slammed by the low temperatures and the dip-netters had a bonanza. Lots of 8-10 pound fish and I'd imagine quite a few State Records have been "dipped". Thousands of fish have been carted off to the market, but they were dead or dying anyway. Hopefully some other local populations found some deeper water and survived. Oh well, we weren't exactly having a banner year on rod and reel for Speckled Trout anyway.