Friday, December 30, 2011

Dec 30 Speckled Trout Limit


The title might be a little deceiving. The fishing was very strange. Fishing in a spot that was dead yesterday.... Fishing in a spot that, by all accounts has been dead for 2 weeks. Fishing in a spot that has traditionally been an early season spot for Speckled Trout.... So today I left the dock at 1130 because I was bored. Right at the top of the tide. I dropped anchor in a spot near the boat ramp, just to waste a few minutes...... First cast. Wham. A 2 lb 8 oz Speckled Trout. Second cast. Third Cast. Fourth Cast. Wham wham wham. There's my limit. Incredible. 100 casts later.... stuck on 4 Speckled Trout from 2-3 lbs each. Amazing. Could these be the last fish of 2011? Total Catch for the Day: 4 Speckled Trout up to 3 lbs

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Dec 29 Beautiful Weather and Lots of Dogsharks




Stephen and I fished together on July 4th. It was rough as a cob and I tried to talk him out of it. But he had come all the way from Syracuse, NY and he came to fish. So we went and Stephen caught a pile of Bluefish and a 125 lb Blacktip Shark. So today was going to be much different. In good ways and bad! Fishing early was a struggle. Fishing late was a struggle. Watching wildlife was spectacular. Blue Planet material. Gannets, Loons, Scoters, Gulls, and Terns by the hundred. Bottlenosed Dolphin, of all sizes, everywhere we went. Hundreds of them. And one, maybe two Humpback Whales. The one whale stayed in our area for over an hour. Acres of Menhaden were definitely feeding the Blue Planet today... What about the fishing? The Cape Lookout Rock Jetty sucked. The Cape Lookout Shoals sucked. AR 315 sucked. Rouse's Slough sucked. In the middle of all that, we jigged up 15 Spiny Dogfish on speck rigs in 55 ft of water off Cape Lookout as our friendly Whale circled. My apologys to Stephen for the poor fishing. Last time I was apologizing about the weather. Next time we are due for a perfect day. Total Catch for the Day: 15 Spiny Dogfish up to 10 lbs and 1 Black Sea Bass

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Last Night's Journey



To begin with, Squid fishing was good. The Squid were small. I guess we're having "popcorn calamari"... The jig was bigger than the Squid. The aggressive little demons would still attack it though. I ended up with 39 Squid. Not bad.... On to the main event! So I caught a bucket full of baby crabs. At 1245am I took my position and waited for Mr Tautog to show up. Holy Cow what a wait. I felt like a Blue Heron. I stood and I stood and I stood. A few times I got dizzy/sleepy and nearly fell to my death. Finally at 435 he showed up. Casting a baby crab in the dark in 12 kt wind was a trick, but I hit the right spot a few times. For 5 minutes he would charge the crab and flash under it. Then (in the dark) it looked like he had a hard time eating it. I suppose Tautog are better known as daytime feeders and maybe eating at night is a challenge? Finally about 450 I got a bite and missed. Then another, and another. I was furious now. I dropped another crab and a crewmember walked up and distracted me..... My line came tight! I got him finally, but the hook pulled. Then another Tog showed up, the big one from the night before. Now it was 455 and time to load. I dropped one final crab and wham, he nailed it. When the Tautog broke the surface, it was obviously not the big one, but thankfully it was a Tautog! Mission accomplished. My whole life is better! Total Catch for the Night: 39 Squid and 1 Tautog

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Dec 21 NO FISHING REPORTS

Once again, I am very sorry about the lack of fishing reports! In all honesty, there has been a lot of other things going on. Christmas and lack of interest in fishing charters have made combined to keep me off the water for another week.. Now I'm back up at Cape Hatteras and I am working another night shift. Pretty much, its just like last week. On the Hatteras side, I caught 17 Squid and they were very small ones. Just right for bait. Late last night, I caught a Toad and a Sea Bass and I gave up. After firing up the Ferry at 430am, I took one last look over the rail at 455 and there swam the fish of my dreams (right now). A 6-8 lb Tautog was chasing and pinning Crabs against a piling. I watched in a stupor for a few seconds... With traffic coming aboard, I snapped out of my trance and ran to my truck and grabbed my rod and a Squid. With a minute before time to leave, I got back to the spot and Mr Tog was gone.. Dammit. Why do I feel that fish was symbolic of my entire life? Tonight I will try to get him, but the weather is worse and my odds are poor. Wish me luck! Total Catch for the Night: 17 Squid, 1 Black Sea Bass, and 1 Oyster Toadfish 

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Dec 10 Squid Jigging

They are back...............

Friday, December 9, 2011

Dec 8 Not So Good

Here lately I've been haunted by the Full Moon. Fishing tonight was no exception. Not sure if the Moon is completely full or not, but one thing is definitely certain..... I am not having one of my better fall fishing seasons!   Hopefully, the winter fishing will make up for it.....On to the latest Fishing Report......... The Hatteras Squid run has fallen off. Needing Squid for Tautog bait, I did manage to catch one nice one at 15". Other than that I purposely snagged 5 more baby Squid in the 3"-4" range. Snagging anything at that size was a challenge. On the other side, I could only manage 1 Oyster Toadfish on the hook. I did see the largest Tautog that I've seen since cousin Tony reeled in a 6 pounder back in 1989 at AR-315. The one I saw tonight was a 5lb Tautog but I couldn't entice him to bite. He was patrolling the shadow line by a large concrete stanchion. The Togs are slurping small crabs off the surface and the 5 Tautog that I have captured all had stomachs full of crabs.... I only have a small handful of fishing gear so I'm pretty restricted in my attack. I need a dip net to catch some crabs, but with 4 in my garage at home, I just cant justify buying another one so I can try for the elusive 5 lb Tautog.... Speaking of Togs, the ones that I have eaten rank up there with the finest tasting fish I have ever eaten.... Total Catch for the Night: 6 Squid and 1 Oyster Toadfish

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Dec 7 Ferry Dock Fishing

First of all, I apologize for the lack of reports. Last week at Beaufort, the weather was nice but I had boat trailer and truck problems. I also had no charters, so I let it rest. No boating and I surely missed some great Speckled Trout fishing. I did walk out to Radio Island a couple of times and caught some undersized Speckled Trout............ Moving ahead to this week, I am back to work at Hatteras. On tuesday night, I fished for squid on the north side dock and tautog on the south side dock. I actually had an interesting catch. I caught one Tautog and a variety of other fish, including a 16" Black Sea Bass. The Squid fishing wasn't so good. Reports from up the shore, at Oden's Dock, was a great run of Squid........ Last night, wednesday, the weather was horrible and I did not fish... Total Catch for the Report: 25 Speckled Trout, 1 Tautog, 5 Black Sea Bass, 10 Bluefish, 3 Oyster Toadfish, and 2 Squid