Top Water Charters Fishing Reports and News Beaufort Morehead City Atlantic Beach

Jan 30 UPDATE

2012-01-30T12:01:00.000-05:00

I am headed back to Hatteras tommorrow. I have the Night Run and I am taking my Boat. There have been a couple of Bluefin Tuna caught inshore at Hatteras. Therefore, I will be doing some Bluefin Tuna fishing this week/next week if conditions allow it. Please call me if anyone is interested. 252-241-8350... Wed Feb 1 through Mon Feb 6

Jan 28 Spiny Dogfish Heaven

2012-01-28T17:16:00.001-05:00

It was too pretty to sit on the shore... I was wishing I was in Va Beach.. I was wishing I knew where some good fish were down here in Beaufort Inlet.. I was bored.. I was missing Robin.. Sooooooooo, I launched the Top Water Boat! First time in a while. The Ocean was pretty, but there was some groundswell.. I debated headed west, but I am always pulled east! Off Cape Lookout, I found some Loons and Mergansers over some marks. So I dropped a speck rig and quickly got rewarded with a Dogshark. Then another and another and another... Quite a few, in fact. Big, pregnant female Spiny Dogs. 10-12 pounders. After getting my reel on, I continued my journey to the Shoals. Same old story, ever since Hurricane Irene the Shoals have sucked. I hope that something changes up there before Spring.. The Cape Lookout Shoals are poor and the formation is as bad as I can remember. I have been scouring those Shoals 50+ times a year for 20+ years. So, I consider myself a knowledgable person when it come to the Cape Lookout Shoals... (While I continue to fail in less important fields such as.... Personal Finance, Relationships, Health, but hey, at least I'm good at something)... Anyway, I crossed the Shoals hoping to find acres of Albacore and rolling Striped Bass... Negative... What I found on the Summerlin Reef was 4 small Red Drum, a handful of Bluefish, Black Sea Bass, and a Oyster Toadfish... With such a sterling catch, I am disappointed to say, I left my camera at home. I'm sorry! Total Catch for the Day: 10 Spiny Dogfish up to 12 lbs, 10 Bluefish up to 10", 8 Black Sea Bass up to 8", 4 Red Drum up to 14" and 1 Oyster Toadfish

Jan 26 Striped Bass gnawing off Virginia Beach

2012-01-26T23:03:00.002-05:00

What a great day to be fishing... The Blue Planet was putting on a show. Humpback Whales and Gannets. Striped Bass and Bluefin Tuna. Miles of Menhaden. The biomass was incredible. Right off the metropolis of Va Beach.. I knew I had arrived in the big city when Sea Tow was broadcasting an Info commercial every 10 minutes on the VHF Radio.... Welcome to the BIG TIME I guess.............Back to the Fishing! It took a few passes, but catching 3 Bass, then 2 Bass, and then 3 Bass again and our 4 man bag limit was met and we were done by 9am! All the fish were probably Chesepeake Bay fish in the 20-24 lb class. They were caught right at the mouth of the Bay. I also lost a nice one that I guess was 40+ pounds. I've never felt a Striped Bass run like that. Ever. Damn probably would've been a new career best for me, but the hook pulled.... We pulled off 2 others and that was it. 8 out of 11 Striped Bass in 3 hours of trolling in a huge fleet of boats right off Cape Henry..... Then we ran in to the dock and we dropped off our fish. Then it was off to the Tuna grounds.... We should've headed home! A few hours of Bluefin Fishing was fruitless for us. We did see one boat doing battle with a Bluefin Tuna in 35 foot of water a couple of miles off the Beach. We watched him spin counterclockwise for a hour and we left him spinning off False Cape.... We came home after a couple of hours trolling and running around. We called it a great day. A Bluefin Tuna would've made it a perfect day! Total Catch for the Day: 8 Striped Bass up to 24 lbs

Jan 24 FISHING SOON

2012-01-24T21:11:00.000-05:00

Its been dead.... I been in a SLUMP..... Just as the depression deepens, looks like I'm headed to Virginia Beach on Thursday to sample a little fishing! Thank Goodness.... Saturday, Sunday, and Monday I will be home and looking to go..... Any takers!

HAPPY NEW YEARS

2012-01-04T01:31:00.001-05:00

I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and I hope that 2012 is a great year for fishing. In the near future, I will do my year in review and toss out some meaningless statistics. I also would like to apologize to those of you that read my blog on a regular basis for "getting slack" towards the end of the year. I am planning on fishing hard in 2012 and hopefully the action will be fast and the fish large and hungry! In the near future, I plan to try to get in a little action on Striped Bass, Bluefin Tuna, Speckled Trout, and/or Red Drum. I am also optimistic that the Hickory Shad run is a good one this year. The past couple of years have been poor. Well, thats about it from for now. I have just arrived back in Hatteras for a week of freezing cold Ferry Rides. Hopefully this cold trend will jump start the Striped Bass run off Oregon Inlet. If it doesn't, well shoot, I'll just have to stay bundled up with Robin. Sounds like a win-win situation to me!

Dec 30 Speckled Trout Limit

2011-12-30T15:54:00.001-05:00

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

Dec 29 Beautiful Weather and Lots of Dogsharks

2011-12-29T22:18:00.002-05:00

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

Last Night's Journey

2011-12-22T15:03:00.000-05:00

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

Dec 21 NO FISHING REPORTS

2011-12-21T16:55:00.000-05:00

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

Dec 10 Squid Jigging

2011-12-10T22:28:00.000-05:00

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

Dec 8 Not So Good

2011-12-09T22:56:00.001-05:00

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

Dec 7 Ferry Dock Fishing

2011-12-08T16:29:00.003-05:00

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

Nov 30 Robin's Birthday, IGFA International Angler Magazine and Time for Fishing

2011-11-29T21:54:00.004-05:00

Today is Robin's Birthday. It's going to be hard to sneak in a fish or two.......

I have a photo and a trip description in the Nov/Dec edition of International Angler Magazine. I am a IGFA Certified Captain so if you fish with me, please remind me to give you a free IGFA Membership

I'm back from Hatteras and ready to go fishing. Speckled Trout should be on-fire. Red Drum, Gray Trout, Sea Mullet, and Albacore should be avaliable. Call me if interested at 252-241-8350.

Nov 28 World Record Tautog on Fly Near Miss

2011-11-29T07:54:00.008-05:00

I've caught a bunch of Squid this week. All my friends have eaten plenty of calamari. So, to mix things up, I broke out the 3wt fly rod. On the North Side, I found the Squid eager to attack a fly or anything else that moves. On a fly, the problem was hooking one. Squid are impossible to hook unless they "grab" a point. That's why a "squid jig" has 8-16 points. Anyway, drawing strikes, losing them and landing a few of them is a blast! Squid after Squid. Night after Night.another. It has been Great fun..... Meanwhile, over at the South Side, there hasn't been a lot of action. But I've been playing with the fly rod anyway..... Lots of empty drops with the Squid jig and empty casts with gulps, grubs, and mirrorlures... I didn't try the fly rod over there until Sunday Night. After a few empty casts and after dropping my fly by a set of pilings suddenly a mystery fish darted out of the shadows and examined my fly. A look but not a take! "What on Earth was that" I wondered. On my next cast, the fish rolled out of the shadowsbagain and turned on it's side. No mistaking that profile. Tautog, and a nice one too. Not a traditional fly fishing target, to say the least! Not my field of expertise, but I would think it is nearly impossible to target and not very receptive to a fly.... But, hey, I had found an opponent and I was in a ballgame! The next cast was looking bleak, then with one mad rush, the 3-4 lbTautog enhaled the fly right before my eyes and I was hooked up! The tiny 3wt rod was bent double, triple, flexing to the reel seat as my hefty Tautog dug for the bottom. Twenty seconds later, the hook pulled... It was over dammit. In retrospect, the 2011 IGFA Record Book showed the 6 lb Tippet Tautog Records to be at 1lb 10oz and the one I hooked up was easily a 3-4 pounder. Anyway, he escaped so what the heck........ The great thing was, now I could focus on Squid on the North side and Tautogs on the South side. Fearing that my ultralight fly rod was overmatched around all the rocks and pilings, I went to conventional tackle and 40# mono for Tautog......... After losing the first Tautog on fly Sunday night, I managed to land 3 later that night from 2-3 pounds each on cut squid. Monday night I caught another 2lb Tautog, but I had a shot at a 5-6 pound career best Tautog, but I couldn't coax this one to eat. He charged the bait, flashed underneath, rolled, and did a headstand on top of it. It was 20 minutes of drama and tension, but the big one never ate the bait! Bait fishing bycatch consisted of baby Bluefish, Bass, and Oyster Toads... Meanwhile, on the Hatteras side, The Squid continued to bite..... Total Catch for Sunday and Monday Nights: 38 Squid up to 18", 4 Tautog up to 3 lbs, 6 Bluefish, 1 Black Sea Bass, and 1 Oyster Toadfish Pictures Later

Nov 26 Squid on the Fly Rod

2011-11-26T02:39:00.003-05:00

This was a fishing session spawned out of pure boredom and insomnia. Unable to sleep, I basically did what I been doing since 1970 when my Dad had to drag me off the Morehead Ocean Pier every Sunday Afternoon........ I went fishing! And since Squid are different, challenging, plentiful, and tasty right now, we can say I went Squid fishing. For a new twist, I broke out the 3wt Fly Rod. It didn't take long! Unfortunately, with 1 point, as opposed to 10-14 points on a squid jig, I pulled off 75% of my strikes. Regardless of the difficulty in landing them, I did proudly catch my first Squid on a fly rod. Whether they were landed or not, each strike resulted in a nice battle because the Squid were reluctant to let go of the fly. I actually had several violent surface strikes with healthy splashes of water and lots of black ink spraying. I also managed another big pile of Squid. For variety, little Bluefish were also crashing the fly with reckless abandon. I also played around with a squid jig and managed another first, 2 Squid at the same time on one jig! It was 2 hours of fun on a very dark, beautiful night, with lots of falling stars. Total Catch for the Late Night/Early Morning Session: 14 Squid up to 17" and 6 Bluefish

Nov 25 Squid are Biting Good and My Girlfriend is Happy

2011-11-25T21:34:00.005-05:00

As my girlfriend sits 8 miles up the road in Buxton, what on earth is Capt Marty up to late at night? Squid Fishing of course......I'm catching them too.... Last week, for the first time in our 5 month old whirlwind romance, Robin said, "You fish too much, give me a break!!!" I thought to my self, "Oh Jeez, here we go again, I hate to lose this woman, how can I balance this." This week, so far I don't have an answer, but thankfully Robin is at her parents house and everything is great and she really isn't keeping close tabs on my fishing habit this week. Whew!!!! Anyway, my buddy Frank Folb. Jr is catching Squid at a good rate as well....... Our buddy Al Farkas is castnetting them...... The Great Hatteras Squid Run of 2011 is alive and well. Frank had a 12 Squid on a jig in 10 minute rally... I had a 8 Squid on a jig in 5 minute rally... Aside from the rallys, it's slow and steady....Then Al bombards the flock with his net and chases them to the Gulf Stream... Minutes later, another flock show up and the bite resumes.. Frank's night is half over... Mine is done. I caught enough for another big platter of calamari. 2011 is winding down and it's time to go fishing!!!! Total Catch for the Night: 18 Squid up to 16"

Hatteras Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T18:04:00.002-05:00

Capt Marty has a new cell phone! Feel free to call me up and harrass me! Next week, if anyone wants to go fishing Nov 30, Dec 2, Dec 3 or Dec 4 please contact me at 252-241-8350. I would expect the Speckled Trout fishing to be extraordinary....... Also, Happy Thanksgiving to friends, family, and even to my opponents and enemys.... Today the Ferry Dock served up Chicken for lunch. I assume the general thought process was that everyone would go home to a big turkey dinner.... Not Capt Marty. Breaking from tradition, I pulled out a premium can of 2 layered Norwegian Sardines. Adding to the fineness of this culinary delight, I poured off the oil and added vinegar. I'm drooling like Pavlos Dog as I type. Hope everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving dinner as much as I will enjoy mine.

Nov 22 Late Night at Hatteras with Squid and Speckled Trout

2011-11-23T13:01:00.003-05:00

With bad weather right around the corner.... I pushed the limits of my endurance and did a double header tonight of Squid jigging and mirrorlure slinging. Both ideas worked out for a change! The Squid were off to flying start, I caught 9 nice Squid pretty quickly, but I turned that fishery over to a friend that wanted some calamari worse than I did. After cleaning up the mess I made cooking up some Speckled Trout fillets in the galley earlier, I got bored and drove out to the Frisco Pier. It was a beautiful night, but the tide was falling and was really low water already. I said, what else do I have to do, so I tossed the first cast of the night.... Three reel handle turns later, the rod bowed and a 18" Speckled Trout surfaced and shook his head all the way to the beach. An hour later, I had 4 Speckled Trout on the Beach. That bag limit was made up by 2 at 18" and 2 at 17". I also released 4 smaller ones from 15" to 13". Another very satisfying Speckled Trout expedition. I love them on a mirrorlure, at night, from the surf. Nice adventure. Total Catch for the Night: 8 Speckled Trout up to 2 lbs and 9 Squid up to 19"

Nov 21 More Speckled Trout Action

2011-11-21T12:29:00.002-05:00

Weird 5am until 10am half day today. Small Speckled Trout biting all morning. Periods of every cast catching a fish for Barry and Joey. Lots of fish tossed back. We were hurt by the falling tide today. When it was over we had 5 keeper Speckled Trout between 16" and 19". Still fun, but it was just a letdown after yesterday's afternoon bonanza. Most interesting catch was Barry's 10 lb Southern Stingray on a grub and 6# mono in a hard running current. Touch and go battle. We were praying for a Black Drum. Darn it. Total Catch for the Day: 70 Speckled Trout up to 19", 1 Bluefish, and 1 Southern Stingray at 10 lbs

Nov 20 Most Satisfying Trout Day of the Year

2011-11-20T16:47:00.003-05:00

Fishing was tough early today. We started at the Cape Lookout Rock Jetty. We caught enough small Trout to get quickly bored. Then we tossed metal at a few fleeting Albacore glimpses... Then we rode the Shoals and up the Eastern Beach. Then we jigged speck rigs off Shackleford Banks. Looked at a fleet of boats catching nothing in Beaufort Inlet. Then we caught a few small Trout at Radio Island. Then my guys were over it and ready to go home...... And I checked one last place, and there were 2 boats back there...... And I got a quick look at Buddy Hardesty netting a Trout. So we tried it...... Two hours later, we had 5 Speckled Trout between 3 lb 8 oz and 4 lb 8 oz. We had 11 more between 17" and 20". We also released more small Trout.. Very satisfying. Total Catch for the Day: 60 Speckled Trout up to 4 lb 8 oz, 2 Bluefish and 2 Croaker

Nov 19 Crazy Trout Numbers

2011-11-19T18:10:00.001-05:00

Marcus R and I debated going for larger Trout (Boat, Cost, Aggravation) or going for numbers. We decided to go for the high numbers. So we walked out to Radio Island and pretty much bailed Trout for 4 hours. We fished 3 hours and combined we caught 160 Speckled Trout. We had several keepers, including a 19" Speckled Trout that I caught. After lunch at the Royal James, we went back and caught 80 more Speckled Trout. In the late session, we had zero legal keepers. Wow. Total Catch for the day: 240 Speckled Trout up to 19" and 3 Bluefish

Nov 18 Nearly Every Cast Speckled Trout

2011-11-18T18:35:00.000-05:00

Seeing that I could care less. Let the secret out..... Anybody. Anybody that wants to catch all the Speckled Trout in the world, walk out to Radio Island on a falling tide and start catching them, ok! This afternoon, I fished for 90 minutes and released 75 Speckled Trout. I had a 15 straight cast streak. Missed a cast. Then I had a 12 staright cast streak. That's 27 Speckled Trout in 28 casts. I never went more than 4 casts without a bite. The vast majority of these fish were 12" to 13". But there were a few 14" Speckled Trout in the mix today. I caught all my fish on a simple green rub and green jighead today. Toss in 1 Bluefish for variety. I also saw No. Puffers, Black Drum, and Hogfish by the bait fishermen. Total Catch for the Day: 75 Speckled Trout and 1 Bluefish

Nov 16 Good Speckled Trout Fishing

2011-11-17T00:03:00.000-05:00

I made the hike out to Radio Island this afternoon on the falling tide and the fishing was good. It was a little difficult because the Trout were tight to the rocks. Cast a little too far, and you'd end up in the rocks.... The Trout were mostly too small. I did have my 4 fish limit of Trout in 20 minutes however. I caught 3 Speckled Trout that were 16" and I also kept a 14" Trout. All together, in less than 2 hours, I caught 30 Speckled Trout and it took me 30 minutes to find them. All caught on green grubs. Total Catch for the Day: 30 Speckled Trout up to 16"

Nov 13-14 Late Night Squid Blitzes

2011-11-13T18:40:00.004-05:00

After a slow night of jigging for Squid, around midnight the bite turned on and I had a 30 minute frenzy all to myeslf. I probably hooked, caught, or lost Squid on 20 straight drops, and at worst, I was hooking a Squid on every 3rd drop. The amazing thing was, these Squid which were up to 25" long and probably larger, were in 4 feet of clear water, under the lights and I couldn't see them in the water. I could see the bottom however. It was amazing to make drop after drop and hook Squid after Squid. After 10 minutes, the water was black with ink. Finally when the initial run tapered off, I had 24 Squid and probably lost at least that many. After the first frenzy ended, I had to work a little harder. I guess the school had moved a little bit and I never really found them again. Or, I caught them all........ Anyway, moving up and down the Sea Wall, I found a bite here and a bite there. In the next 30 minutes, I probably caught 10 more Squid and I finally gave it up and went to bed for the first time in 48 hours. Sheeesh. On the 14th, I really didn't have it in me, but squidding was pretty good late at night. I did manage to whack 14 Squid before giving my rod up to a couple of guys who had never caught one. I also managed another trophy Squid at 24". Nice Calamari. Total Catch for the 2 Nights: 48 Squid up to 25" and 1 Bluefish

Nov 9-10 Squid Jigging

2011-11-09T23:44:00.007-05:00

Life was so good when I put my boat up, packed my bags, said my goodbyes to my Parents and my lovely Girlfriend, jumped in my old fishing truck and drove to Hatteras. Two days later, I'm sad and lonely and ready to go home. But, this is a Fishing Blog, so here's my fishing report.... Casting mirrorlures in the surf has been a waste of time so far. Huge swell from a distant low pressure system is really screwing up the Hatteras Island surf. So I'm now focusing on the docks and under the lights. The first night has been really slow but I just caught a beautiful Squid on a squid jig. Adding weirdness to this bizarre report, I also caught an Oyster Toadfish and a Bluefish, both on the squid jig............ The second night is really interesting. The Squid are biting. So far, I've managed to land 8 Squid on the squid jig. The interesting thing is, I have lost 6 more than were much larger. I've never had a problem landing Squid. Tonight's different. I pulled off 4 that I couldn't pull off the bottom.The other 2 were huge Squid that actually popped the 10# mono. One I had on the surface, hooked by his whips, and I actually trried to lift him and his body stretched out (whips included) 4 feet long. The Squid jetted one last time, soaked me 7 feet away with black ink, and popped the line! Unreal. This damn Squid was at least 8 lbs... I have since switched to 20# test mono, but the wind has shifted and picked up to 25 kts, with cold rain. I fear that it's over.... Oh well, calamari tommorrow...Total Catch for the 2 Nights: 9 Loligo Squid up to 14", 1 Oyster Toadfish, and 1 Bluefish

Nov 7 Fair Speckled Trout Fishing

2011-11-07T17:15:00.002-05:00

The past couple of years by mid-November, we could count on catching all the undersized Speckled Trout you would ever want to catch. Today, that was not the case. We had to work. We even had to work for the 10-12 inch Trout. That made for a tough day of fishing. With the same amount of time invested, yesterday's catch was far better. But, it was still okay. When the day had ended we had 16 keeper Speckled Trout, including a 5 that were 20" long and weighed 3 pounds, and I had a 22" that weighed over 4 pounds...... A 20 kt NNE wind and dirty water made the Trout fishing tough today. We searched briefly for Albacore and Red Drum but we came up empty. Total Catch for the Day: 50 Speckled Trout up to 4+ lbs and 1 Bluefish

Fishing Tommorrow then I'm headed to Hatteras

2011-11-06T23:03:00.000-05:00

My vacation is nearly over! I am looking to smoke the Speckled Trout again tommorrow, but after that it's back to Hatteras for a week. Back to my other life as a Ferry Engineer. Sheeeesh...... I hate that. Looking ahead, when I get home the following week, I have lots of open dates from November 15 through November 21. I would expect the Speckled Trout fishing to be really good. With colder water, I will be making the switch over to live shrimp for bait and I expect a big week for large Trout! Night fishing should be great. Also, walk out fishing at Radio Island should be producing easy 100 fish days. In other words, it's TROUT TIME. Anyone that needs a little help getting on the water, give me a call 252-241-8350. Albacore and Red Drum are other possibilities inshore and King Mackerel should be on-fire 20 miles east of Beaufort Inlet!

Nov 6 Great Speckled Trout Fishing

2011-11-06T19:16:00.002-05:00

Today we went looking for Albacore. The wind was blowing out of the north at 20+ kts. Korey said "Do I need rain bibs?" I said "I dont have any on, and I don't plan to wet myself, so no, you don't need them" With that comment, Albacore fishing went out the window! A quarter mile off the Beach and blowing spray would soak you. And freeze you. And there were NO Albacore along the Beach.... Facing a shutout, we went to the Cape Lookout Rock Jetty with low expectations. Cold wind and dirty water. But, the tide was rising and it was fishable. What we found was a fisherman's wonderland. Every cast to every three casts, we would catch a Speckled Trout. For an hour, they were all too small. In the next hour, they turned into 17" to 21" Speckled Trout. Grubs and Mirrorlures, it made no difference. The largest Trout of the day was my 3 lb 8 oz Speckled Trout. Korey caught one Bluefish. We only fished a couple of hours. We saw no Albacore anywhere. We saw the best Speckled Trout fishing of the year. Total Catch for the Day: 120 Speckled Trout up to 3 lb 8oz and 1 Bluefish

Nov 4 Great Albacore Fishing..... Terrible Conditions

2011-11-04T14:55:00.001-04:00

Holy Cow this morning. Cold Rain that became cold rain driven by 30 kt NNE winds. The Albacore didn't seem to mind. Silversides are getting set out the Inlet and down the Beach and the Fat Albert Gang is all bunched up in a feeding orgy.... I caught 12 Albacore on probably 30-40 total casts in 120 minutes of hell in a mid-morning fishing expedition. I fished 12# and 6# spin today. Caught a pair of 12 lb Albacore on the light tackle. Little too rough, and wet, and cold to enjoy the light stuff! Also of note.... This morning, last night, and yesterday Dock Fishing in Taylor's Creek has produced an additional 8 Southern Flounders, including 4 Flounders at 3 lb each. All the others are 15" to 18". Good fishing on live Pinfish and Gulp. I also tossed the cast net a couple of times and have caught 50-60 lbs of Jumping Mullet that were pretty damn good both grilled (wed) and fried (thurs)... Can not get Robin back to the Dock. She says she's not going back until I top her 5+ pound Flounder. Beginners Luck..... Total Catch for this Report: 12 Albacore up to 14 lbs and 8 Southern Flounder up to 3 lbs

Nov 3 Night Mission....... Mission Accomplished

2011-11-04T02:57:00.001-04:00

Fished from 10:15 until 1:45am. Collectively we caught 40 Speckled Trout. A few were too small. Lots of 14" keepers and a few larger up to 16". All the fish were caught on light spinning tackle with gulps or mirrorlures... The first place we tried was a bust. However, the second place we tried was just barely good enough that we couldn't leave! We never made it to the Cape Lookout Rock Jetty. We should've went up there, we probably would've had a shot at some bigger Trout plus some Red Drum... Oh well, nice night with a great anglers. Beautiful Night. Total Catch for the Night: 40 Speckled Trout up to 16"

Nov 3 Carolina Inshore Grand Slam X 5

2011-11-04T02:43:00.002-04:00

No charter today, dammit... The lovely Miss Robin is get pretty much moved in and squared away... Boat fixed... Light winds, sunny, good tides... Guess what I did.... Finally... Went fishing and fishing was good. Albacore were everywhere, but competition was tough and the fish were moving around alot. I tried for an hour and released 5 on metal and light spinning tackle.. Then I went to the Cape Lookout Rock Jetty and fishing was excellent, nearly every cast fishing!. Unfortunately, I wasn't in the "Large Trout" spot so I didn't get involved with that. However, in an hour, I did manage to catch a bunch of Speckled and Gray Trout and 2 nice Red Drum. Then I found some more Red Drum on the Shackleford Banks Beach and caught a few more. Finally, back in Taylor's Creek and the Flounder were chewing again. I caught 4 nice ones up to 4 lbs and a couple of throwbacks with very little effort. All in all, a great day. Sorry about the crappy self-portraits, but thats all I got when fishing alone... I need some help guys... Let's go fishing! Total Catch for the Day: 5 Red Drum up to 7 lbs, 6 Southern Flounder up to 4 lbs, 18 Speckled Trout up to 1 lb, 2 Gray Trout up to 2 lbs, 7 Albacore up to 12 lbs, 1 Black Sea Bass at 13", 4 Pinfish and 1 Spottail Pinfish

Nov 1 Flounder's Chewing

2011-11-01T18:05:00.001-04:00

It took about 5 seconds this morning to see that the fish were biting today. It was windy, so today's cancelation was a tough call.... So with not alot happening, I went fishing and tried to drag Robin along. Against her will she caught a 4 lb Flounder and a 5 lb Flounder. Not sure if a bikini pic is going to be possible. Not sure if a bundled up pic is even going to be possible! I'm still working on that....... Fishing was good inside, in a couple of hours we caught Red Drum and Flounders. We failed in a Speckled Trout quest, but we really didn't try! And the day is not over. I got a livewell full of Flounders and a nice tide tonight. As of now, Total Catch for the Day: 5 Red Drum up to 7 lbs, 14 Southern Flounder up to 5 lbs, 8 Pinfish, and 6 Inshore Lizardfish

Oct 26 The Broken Down Boat Update

2011-10-22T12:58:00.001-04:00

The Top Water Boat is crippled and Capt Marty is scrambling for a back up boat! This aint good at this time...... After making a serious effort at fixing this problem myself, the Top Water Boat is now in the shop. It is scheduled to be released from the boat hospital by the first of next week so hopefully I will resume fishing activitys quickly... With the tide beginning to work in my favor at night and Capt Columbo returning from his recent battles with the Houston Texas Shipping Channel, I do expect some Red Drum, Speckled Trout, and Flounders pics to be published soon....

Oct 21 Slow Inshore Fishing in Improving Conditions

2011-10-22T10:51:00.000-04:00

Fishing was hard this morning. High Winds from the past 2 days and heavy rains had created lots of problems on the inshore fishing grounds. This morning, the water was filthy, the wind was blowing 18 kts from the west, and the Ocean was confused and angry... Our dilemma was, how far out was the cleaner water where we might find Albacore and was the forecast of diminishing winds and seas accurate?? So we stayed around Beaufort Inlet early and the fishing was very hard and slow. Brent did manage a 19" Speckled Trout. We also caught a handful of Puffers and lots of garbage. The most exciting moment of the morning was Ken's Atlantic Stingray on light tackle. Then we went riding, east and west, for 70 miles.... We pretty much found nothing. We never found an Albacore, a Bluefish, or a Red Drum. We tried all sorts of radical approaches. Reports from all over were poor, but I believe we probably should have started fishing 15 miles out and that would've been a long, cold, wet ride early in the morning. King Mackerel fishing was probably our best bet in hindsight! Finally, the last fish of the day was a 4 lb Black Drum that Ken pulled out from under a dock at Crab Point and Mark lost a nice Red Drum beside the boat. Ouch. Brent's highlight was the awesome new rod and reel that I failed to find him a fish to pull the drag. My apologies to this fine crew and this hard day of fishing. By the way, conditions did improve throughout the day and by late afternoon, it was beautiful on the water. Total Catch for the Day: 3 Speckled Trout, 1 Black Drum, 1 Spot, 1 Bluefish, 6 Northern Puffers, 1 Atlantic Stingray, 1 Croaker, 1 Southern Sea Mullet, 1 Spottail Pinfish, 1 Rock Sea Bass, 8 Black Sea Bass, 15 Pinfish, 20 Hogfish, and 2 Inshore Lizardfish

Oct 19 Rain and Wind Report

2011-10-19T13:14:00.001-04:00

We fished today in absolutely horrible conditions. Pouring Rain. Wind that spin around the compass from SW to NE and back to SE. The wind blew 20 kts from the SW, then became light SE, then it blew 30 kt NE, finally it settled back to 20 kt from the SE when I pulled up the boat... The fish didn't know what to think. We fished 3 places and the fishing was across the board poor. We did, as predicted, catch a high volume of small fish. The top catches were a 17" Speckled Trout, 3 Northern Puffers, a baby Gag Grouper, and a Clearnosed Skate.... That top fish list tells the tale on this day. We should've stayed home! But, it was still fun! Total Catch for the Day: 25 Pinfish, 25 Hogfish, 3 Speckled Trout, 3 Bluefish, 1 Spot, 3 Sand Perch, 10 Black Sea Bass, 1 Gag Grouper, 1 Spottail Pinfish, 1 Clearnosed Skate, and 1 Oyster Toadfish

Oct 18 What a Forecast (GALE WARNING)

2011-10-18T21:44:00.002-04:00

I been sitting up at Hatteras, the weather has varied between fair and beautiful.... The scenery has been spectacular.... And no I haven't seen a Speckled Trout! So now I'm back in Beaufort for 21 straight days and in typical October fashion, I'm looking at 20-25 kt winds, pouring rain, and a bunch of possible cancelations... But tommorrow's crew says "Go For It"... so into the rain and wind we shall sail... We will probably be looking for Spots, Hogfish, and a plethora of other bottom feeders. Hopefully they will be abundant and hopefully they will be biting!

Oct 10 Taylor's Creek Failures

2011-10-12T00:34:00.003-04:00

Okay, this WAS THE WORST FISHING EXPERIENCE I've had since the mid-90s. I snuck out of the house in the middle of the night to fish a tide. I had plenty of bait and conditions were "right". I had caught a nice Southern Flounder earlier in the day, but was plagued by Lizardfish. So what happened next was a catastrophe. First Mullet to the bottom gets eaten. When I set the hook, the rod bowed as a big Flounder exploded off the bottom. Glancing to see where the net was, I missed something. The rod tip snapped up and the fish was gone. WTF? My line broke (I thought) where my braid joined my shock leader. Dammit. It seemed like a 5+ pound Flounder. I quickly re-tied another Carolina Rig with no shock leader. 80# braid straight to the swivel. Next Mullet down and it gets slammed. The rod bows and as the fish surges, the line parts. In the dark, I spin the reel handle in disgust. "Is the braid rotten, I wonder?" Looking around, I'm out of leader material.... So I drive all the way home. Carefully I enter the house to get some mono. Robin's dog explodes.... Robin explodes... "You'd rather fish than be with me!"...... "No Darling, but the Flounder, Baby, you wouldn't believe how big they are! "..... "Show me one!"..... "I can't yet".... You get the picture! Anyway, I get back to the Dock and my next Mullet hits the bottom and is chomped. I lift the tip and its glued to the bottom and the rod tip is chewing to the beat of a monster.... I count to 25 and set the hook. This monster explodes off the bottom and heads offshore... And I clearly see the 80# braid seperate at the rod tip. Oh My God. No. I look and see the glass insert is broken and has a razor sharp edge. It took 3 losses for me to figure it out. Three Citation Flounder. (A guess). I pop the ceramic out and tried it with no insert. Never had another bite. No Flounder to show Robin. Stayed out all night on our last night together for 7 days. I'm in trouble over fishing and I actually care. And, the Flounder kicked my butt. It was a horrible night. Total Catch for the Day: 1 Southern Flounder and 5 Inshore Lizardfish

Oct 7 Windy, Cool, and Speckled Trout

2011-10-07T16:36:00.004-04:00

I had a cancellation this morning and it seemed like a pretty day so...... I promised Robin warm weather, light winds, and hungry fish. Standing there in a Black Bikini this morning, she said, "Will you take my picture when I catch a big fish" Hell Yeah! Unfortunately, when we hit Beaufort Inlet, the NE wind was pushing 20 kts and it was too cold for Bikinis or Robin. So we hit a couple of places inshore and Robin DID NOT CATCH a fish worthy, in her opinion, to be photographed. The Northern Puffer was as close as we got! So I let down the few of you that come here for something other than fish! As for the fishing, we caught 15 Speckled Trout and a handful of garbage and managed to have a good day despite the cold wind..... Total Catch for the Day: 15 Speckled Trout, 6 Black Sea Bass, 1 Pinfish, 1 Northern Puffer, and 1 Inshore Lizardfish

Oct 5 The Big Return to Fishing

2011-10-05T17:05:00.004-04:00

Tom and Mike are great return clients and they brought along 2 buddys this morning.. I have been out of town for 21 days, so I was a nervous wreck. The fishing storys I'd been told were of great Albacore fishing and vast numbers of Blacktip and/or Spinner Sharks.... At the end of a long half day charter, we found World Class Albacore Fishing on spinning tackle and Out of this Universe Spinner and Blacktip Sharks on cut Albacore..... In between we caught Spanish Mackerel, Bluefish, Red Drum, Summer Flounder, and Cownose Ray. Fishing for the all the other stuff was good, but not up to Top Water Charters standards. The Red Drum were in the dirty water and hard to spot. We found 2 small schools of them. Hooked 4 and landed 2. Our Red Drum captures were 26" and 25". The Bluefish were in the shallow water with 4 foot breakers on the stern. The Spanish Mackerel were everywhere, but no where in particular. All blind casting. The Bluefish and Spanish Mackerel ranged to over 2 lbs. The Albacore were small ones in the 4-6 lb range. We were casting over huge schools of breaking fish and honestly, Albacore fishing could've only been better if the fish would've been larger. The days highlight was the leaping Sharks. We found an area where they were jumping at a rate of 8-10 per minute. Turned out to a huge area teemimg with giant Spinner Sharks and large Blacktip Sharks. Once we arrived, it didn't take long to hook the first doubleheader. One broke off and we landed a 80 lb Blacktip Shark. Before leaving, we released a 125 lb Spinner Shark and 150 lb Spinner Shark. I lost one a 100 pounder on a top water plug on 10# spin and at one time we had 50 Sharks swarming around the boat. The final detail about the day was the 45 lb Cownose Ray Mike snagged on a stingsilver. He got winged and is headed for the grill. Total Catch for the Day: 14 Albacore up to 8 lbs, 14 Bluefish up to 2+ lbs, 3 Spanish Mackerel up to 2+ lbs, 2 Red Drum at 8 and 7 lbs, 3 Summer Flounder less than 15", 2 Spinner Sharks up to 150 lbs, 1 Blacktip Shark at 80 lbs and a 45 lb Cownose Ray

Oct 1 21 Straight Days of Work is Coming to an End

2011-10-01T13:22:00.001-04:00

I am still at work! I'm sick of it and I am ready to go fishing. I will be home on Tuesday October 4th. Hopefully, the winds will be light and the fish will be chewing... I have some open days that week. For those interested in things other than fishing, Robin is fine and me and her are getting along fine. As I was looking around her room, I found a Red Drum Citation. Could this be the one???? Open dates Oct 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10

Still at Stumpy Point

2011-09-22T16:27:00.001-04:00

Looking for some Good Karma. Sacrificing Fishing to help Hatteras Island. I will be working 21 straight days..... 9 down and 12 to go..... sheeesh! Ready to go fishing again starting in October.....

Sept 13 I'm in Dare County

2011-09-13T02:45:00.002-04:00

Back to work tommorrow for me. I'll be ferrying from Stumpy Point to Rodanthe. Not a real exciting run, to say the least. Hopefully this week I will spend a couple of nights over on Hatteras Island. Give me a chance to look around and I might even get a chance to wet a line. From what I hear Hatteras has been on-fire leading up to this full moon and has had none of the dirty water that plagued me on Saturday. Im also going to be exploring a few fishing possibilities in and around Manteo. I've seen some beautiful ponds and of course the ditches around Stumpy Point have to hold some life........ Next week I am wide open. I will be fishing with Capt Tuggy and Capt Columbus, however I'd love to pick up a charter or two. My open dates are Sept 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26. Its time to catch a King Mackerel. An all day trip this time of the year could possibly see King and Spanish Mackerel, Bluefish, Red Drum, Albacore, Amberjack, Barracuda, Grouper, and Flounder.... All on the same day. Give me a call and let's go fishing! 252-241-8350

Sept 11 Red Drum and Speckled Trout on Foot in Beaufort

2011-09-11T23:34:00.001-04:00

This is my favorite kind of fishing. A trip where I have less than 5 dollars invested.... Fishing the high tide in Taylor's Creek on Hunter's Dock. Its the season for Red Drum and Flounder. The tide was right. The moon was right. Robin is in Buxton sleeping peacefully. I had nothing better to do.... First cast with a 5" Jerk Shad got smoked... Three minutes later I was still in the fight. Then the neighbor's dock pilings got involved and it was over. Incredible. Tough way to start this little fishing adventurencredible! My next bite was an oddball. As soon as I set the hook, this fish came to the surface and shook like a wet dog. A minute later a 20" Speckled Trout slid into the grass and into my hand. Looking good now. The next hour produced 5 Red Drum from 26" to 31". All these came off the little Beach down from my dock. All these Drum waged war in a tight area between 2 docks. Each Drum was reluctant to dive under a dock and thus they were not very smart and they were captured. The lucky one's were released. Lack of a Flounder kept me from the coveted "Carolina Grand Slam".Total Catch for the Night: 1 Speckled Trout at 20", 5 Red Drum up to 11 lbs and 8 Bluefish

What Else is New

2011-09-11T12:08:00.003-04:00

Nothing is really new, but Capt Marty might be looking at the world a little differently soon......... Other than that, recovering from Hurricane Irene. Ferrying from Stumpy Point to Rodanthe. People .....have asked because I've been quiet, but Robin and I are still dating and it looks pretty serious and permanent. Recently, we have been spending time apart because of the way the Storm affected Hatteras Island, but all is well in Paradise. We did get to spend a day together recently and we checked out Hurricane Katia and we found ourselves in a place called Water Lilly. What a beautiful place. What a beautiful girl. Enough, Let's Go Fishing. Its what I do best!

Sept 10 Part 2 Cedar Island Red Drum Chewing

2011-09-11T11:39:00.003-04:00

Fishing all day in the Atlantic Ocean sucked. I beat my head against a wall all day. I also knew the Drum bite had been pretty good in the Sound/River. So even though I was pretty tired I decided to go for it. I also knew that come Monday, I will be headed back to Manteo for 7 more days of the Stumpy Point-Rodanthe Ferry. So this is pretty much it for my Giant Red Drum window. Its about to close, so I'm in panic mode. With 2 friends close by that had been itching to go, we got a late start and by 900 we were set up. By 945 it was looking good. By 11 it was an epic chew. By 130am, it was over. Started with 5 rods, ended up everybody holding a rod and fishing 3 rods total. Non-stop action. Dan and Tom each had 10 releases. I had 9 releases. I had a 50 pound Red Drum on the Boga Grip. The smallest Red Drum was around 40 pounds. Awesome fishing. Best I've seen in 4 years, but I missed it last year while doing something stupid. Can I do that one over. Sorry, all pics on Cell Phone, I will work on getting them transferred. Total Catch for the Day: 29 Red Drum up to 50 lbs

Sep 10 Hard Inshore Fishing

2011-09-11T11:26:00.004-04:00

Fishing for the first time after a major Hurricane is always a challenge. The fact that the storm was 2 weeks ago was supposed to make things easier. Also, I knew the fishing was pretty good last Saturday while I was at Hatteras made me think today would be a good day. Unfortunately, I was wrong. An Unforecasted 15-18 kt SW Wind, a Screaming East to West Longshore Current, Dirty Water, and a Horrible Afternoon Tide Stage made everything we tried to do a challenge. The fact that Shark Island is completely gone took away the incredibly fishy habitat that I'd been hammering since May. The Cape Lookout Shoals will still be a great place to fish, but they are changed forever. The 2-3 foot SW chop coupled with the 4 foot SE Hurricane swell made searching the Shoals impossible today. All in all, it made for a tough day of inshore fishing. We tried 6 different things and they all failed. We fished 2 extra hours and I just couldn't make it happen. Sorry Guys. Total Catch for the Day: 1 Little Tunny, 1 Crevalle Jack, 1 Ladyfish, and 1 Southern Stingray

Sept 6 Good Red Drum Fishing in the Neuse River

2011-09-07T09:32:00.000-04:00

Lots to do today so this is going to be short and sweet. We fished late afternoon/early evening. It was bumpy on the Neuse River. Fished down at Piney Point. Fishing was good with a real good hour right before dark. Missed a few bites. We expected the fishing to really take off after dark, but it never materialized. We finished up with one slot Drum to keep. We released one 20 lb Red Drum. All the rest were Citation releases, with 3 in the 50 lb class. Tuggy had the best for last with a 54 lb Red Drum that was the last one caught. Total Catch for the Day: 11 Red Drum and 6 Southern Stingrays

Hurricane Irene Aftermath and Stumpy Point

2011-09-06T00:58:00.001-04:00

How long has it been. It seems like a lifetime ago that we rode out Hurricane Irene. Robin was in Beaufort with me and we had a good time during the Hurricane. No real damage around here, just shingles! Then I got called to duty at Stumpy Point on the Ferry. For the next 7 day, we carried construction vehicles and an assortment of other stuff over to Hatteras Island. Somehow, Robin got over there and somehow, I came home without her. Looks like I'm in for a long week. So...........Let's go fishing. Please. Tommorrow I will update my open dates and all the stuff I have neglected!

The First Hurricane Irene Cancelation

2011-08-24T10:54:00.000-04:00

Well its a beautiful day and I've had my first Hurricane Irene cancelation. I think the Ocean is getting a little bumpy. Who knows, I may go for a little boatride as soon as the Time Warner Cable guys gets done rigging me back up

Aug 15 Bluefish Chewing and Great Jigging Variety

2011-08-15T16:03:00.002-04:00

Mark and his boys joined me this morning for a half day adventure. I owed them a good one after botching Friday/Saturday Night. It was a little breezy and choppy this morning in our first spot, but the fish were there and the fish were hungry. It wasn't every cast, but there were enough Bluefish on metal to make sore wrists and hands. Then after stuffing the livewell and the cooler, we went east looking for a big Sand Tiger. Unfortunately, the usually cooperative Sharks were not biting our baits today. We did manage to have some serious fun by dropping stingsilvers to the bottom and ripping them back to the surface. Interesting mix of Jacks and other oddball fish. All in all it was a success, but I did mess up a little by heading back across the Shoals to look for Spanish Mackerel.. The Mackerel were nowhere to be found and our search for Red Drum was wiped out by a steering failure in my upper station. That really sucked and needs my attention. Fast! Total Catch for the Day: 60 Bluefish up to 3 lbs, 2 Amberjacks, 1 Blue Runner, 1 American Red Snapper, 1 Spanish Mackerel, and 1 At Sharpnose Shark at 8 lbs

Aug 14 Cedar Island Wind, Lightning, and Waterspouts

2011-08-15T16:01:00.001-04:00

Bad news. I pushed this trip back a day to take advantage of SW wind. The guys that fished Friday night got beat up by the East wind, but they caught a few fish.... So Sat Nite was looking good. Nice 10 kt SW wind. But, as we arrived at the boat ramp a dark cloud was coming. We sat out the first rain in our trucks. An hour later, we scrambled. We anchored up and started fishing with rain and lightning in the vicinity. The pressure gradient turned the warm SW wind into a cold NE wind. It was rough. The very thing I tried to avoid. Two differences though, the fish were not biting and there were big storms all around. We stuck it out for 3 hours. Missed a Monster Shark and caught a Bluefish.... Then as I stared west into absolute darkness, a bolt of lightning lit the sky behind us.... And clearly illuminated was a monster waterspout and it was on not too far away! I tried to deny it... I told Mark to watch the western sky and wait for lightning.... Seconds later a serious groundstroke to the west. I said what did you see. Mark said, "A Tornado!" Goodbye fishing grounds... Not in the Dark! We hauled it to the boat ramp. I drove back to Beaufort in driving wind and rain and amazing lightning... My fault guys, we should've caught them Friday night and stayed home saturday.... Captain Failure...Total Catch for the Night: 1 Bluefish

Aug 11 Part 2 Slow Red Drum Fishing

2011-08-12T10:33:00.001-04:00

Berkley, Chris, and I made the 40 mile trip east tonight to sample the Southern Pamlico Sound Red Drum fishing and it was a little disappointing. The forecasted SW winds never materialized and we bopped in the swells delivered by 15 kt NE wind. Not our best Drum winds! We stuck with it and we caught a 25 lb Drum around 9pm and a 45 lb Drum right at 10pm. We thought the 10 oclock Drum was the "start of the bite" but the bite never came and it was over. All said and done, it wasn't worth it.... Total Catch for the Night: 2 Red Drum up to 45 lbs

Aug 11 Bluefish and Barracudas

2011-08-11T16:37:00.001-04:00

Jeff and his boys went today on a half day trip and we had a great trip last year that made expectations high! Fishing was the same or better this year. Last year they bailed Bluefish and caught Amberjacks. This year they tore up the Bluefish on every cast and did well on Barracuda. The Amberjacks are still missing and I dont have time to search for them on a half day trip. Jeff had the big fish of the day when he released a 35 lb Barracuda. I am still camera-less and the big Cuda was released beside the boat before I could pull out my phone! We caught a 20 lb Barracuda later and missed a few spectacular strikes. The boys also caught some nice Spanish Mackerel on metal. Jeff lost the day's big mystery fish after a fairly long battle on light spinning tackle. An unknown fish ate a stingsilver just off the bottom and we chased it offshore of the wreck and lots of long runs and lots of throbbing. My guess was that it was a large Blackfin Tuna. Oh well, can't win all of our battles, but I wish we could have seen what we were up against. The 12# spinning tackle was slightly over matched in this battle.... Total Catch for the Day: 50 Bluefish up to 3 lbs, 2 Barracuda up to 35 lbs, and 2 Spanish Mackerel up to 3 lbs

Aug 8 One More Day in Hatteras

2011-08-08T06:00:00.002-04:00

Another week on the Big Island has come and gone and I will be headed home tonight. The key to good fishing next week and good life in general will depend on whether or not I can coerce Robin to get in the old fishing truck this afternoon to make the journey back to Beaufort. I think it's going to have a happy ending! My schedule is pretty full next week between fishing trips and a Coast Guard License Physical. As it stands right now, I got Friday August 12th open and that's it. If nobody calls, I'm sure I can find somebody that will go fishing with me. Robin. Or I could stay home and do nothing. Robin. Or I could go to the Courthouse and get married. Robin. Just kidding, that was for your benefit Tuggy..... Anyway, looking for some Red Drum anglers starting this week and my next 2 weeks off. Its time to get the Citation Train Rolling again. Call me at 252-241-8350.

Capt Marty is back at Hatteras and ROBIN

2011-08-02T22:39:00.004-04:00

Cape Hatteras is a different kind of good now. Really, really good. When I'm at work, I watch the Jumping Mullets and Sheepsheads swim around... They used to drive me crazy. I'd be tossing a cast net all morning and dunking Sea Urchins all afternoon..... Now I stand around grinning and waiting to get off work so I can go see ROBIN...... Waiting to see ROBIN..... ROBIN is so sweet, and smart, and thoughtful, and kind, and cool, and cute, and beautiful, and Smoking HOT, I really feel like the luckiest guy around... Those Citation Sheepsheads are lucky too. Because since I met ROBIN, I aint been chasing them this summer... Does anyone blame me? Huh? When I get home, I got Friday August 12th open. Fishing has been awesome, but so has Life in general. Once again, thanks to ROBIN. Anybody want to go that day please call me at 252-241-8350... Everybody have a great week... In the meantime, please don't wake me up from this dream that I'm dreaming!

Aug 1 Every Cast Bluefish and More

2011-08-01T14:30:00.001-04:00

Howard and crew bailed the Bluefish this morning and the Bluefish were much bigger than they were Sunday. The first school we hit and the last school we hit were both solid 2-3 pounders on every cast on metal lures. In between, we merely caught 1-2 lb Bluefish on every cast for 2 hours. Sigh. We also had a short flurry on Spanish Mackerel. Then we rode the Shackleford Banks Beach looking for a Red Drum. Failed. We cruised west looking for an after lunch Mackerel. Failed. We ended up jigging metal at AR 315 and found plenty of action on a variety of fish. Total Catch for the Day: 75 Bluefish up to 3 lbs, 10 Spanish Mackerel up to 2 lbs, 1 Southern Flounder at 18", 12 Black Sea Bass up to 14", 1 Rock Sea Bass, 1 Oyster Toadfish at 3 lbs, 1 At Needlefish, and 4 Inshore Lizardfish

July 30 Bluefish and Sand Tigers

2011-07-31T10:04:00.001-04:00

Same mission as yesterday. Stuff the box, stuff the live well, and go find something huge. First thing in the morning, the Bluefish were there. A dozen black schools of them. Every cast. Three anglers hooked up. I even joined the fray. We bailed them. For an hour. Stingsilvers were flying and popping off. Bluefish everywhere. Then we went looking for a fight. Brandon was ready. The first bite was a let down. A freaking Sharpnose Shark on a butterflied 3 lb Bluefish. What a letdown. Next bite was a monster. Brandon aint no 7 year old like yesterdays "monster slayer" but the fight was similar. Then the hook popped out after 10 minutes and that Shark was still on the bottom. We never saw this Shark....... A few minutes later, Brandon released a 150 lb Sand Tiger and he did it in 3 minutes. Makes me wonder how big the other one was! After the Shark and facing a "pick up the girls" deadline, I made a critically bad decision to go Amberjack hunting. It was a failure. A 14 mile round trip to fish for 15 minutes. Duh. No Amberjacks present and we missed a Barracuda bite and had a few other Barracudas swarm us but the bait was too smart and hid under the swim platform behind the motor. I was furious, needless to say. Sorry guys, we should've gone Blacktipping.... Total Catch for the Day: 75 Bluefish up to 3 lbs, 2 Spanish Mackerel at 2 lbs, a 7 lb Sharpnose Shark, and a 150 lb Sand Tiger

July 29 Every Cast Bluefish, Deep Jigging Mackerel, and a 250 lb Shark

2011-07-29T15:33:00.004-04:00

Yeah, it was worth the wait. The weather was much prettier today than yesterday. It worked out good for Chris and the Boys.... The worst part of our day was that I didnt have my camera! I missed alot of great action shots on Bluefish and Spanish Mackerel. The schools of Bluefish were insane today. We spent a couple of hours casting over thousands of 1-4 lb Bluefish. Stuffed the cooler and the live well. Then we headed to a wreck that was covered up with Spanish Mackerel. We caught a few, but we had bigger fish to fry. One drop to the bottom and we got what we were looking for and then some! An epic battle between a 7 year old boy and an 8 ft long Shark...... And, the boy won! Classic. Probably the second largest Shark ever on Top Water Charters.... Not counting the Basking Sharks we have snagged and released. Anyway, it was a great day, non-stop action, a never to be forgotten Shark for a kid, lots of good eating fish, and a mission accomplished! Total Catch for the Day: 60 Bluefish up to 4 lbs, 10 Spanish Mackerel up to 2 lbs, 1 Pinfish, 1 Inshore Lizardfish, 1 At Thread Herring, and a 8 ft long 250 lb Sand Tiger Shark

July 28 Too Much Wind

2011-07-28T19:48:00.000-04:00

I hope I did the right thing..... Chris had a AM halfday charter and since we were both free tommorrow, I decided that we should let this wind blow out and try again in the morning..... Hopefully, the winds will be lighter, the seas smaller, and the fish hungrier tommorrow.... In the meantime, Robin and I went swimming and hung out and had a great day.....and we didn't catch a single fish!

July 18 Awesome Fishing Period

2011-07-18T18:07:00.001-04:00

Today was one of those days.... Very consistent and easy Spanish Mackerel up to 2 lbs on metal first thing in the morning. A leaping missile attacks of 100+ pound Blacktip Sharks in open water a few miles east.... Hammering a school of Spanish Mackerel... Watching them chase down and engulf live Mackerel right by the boat was incredible... Then 2 acres of 1-3 lb Bluefish on every cast and up to 4 per cast on one of my crazy rigs! Bigger Bluefish too. Heather lost a 4-5 pounder because I didn't get the net quick enough. Scott had a 1 lb Bluefish chomped in half by a larger Bluefish. Then we ended up the day with 65 and 75 lb Blacktips on live Bluefish and cut Mackerel in the skinny water. What a blast. Easy day and, of course, I got to go back to Hatteras tommorrow. Total Catch for the Day: 12 Spanish Mackerel, 60 Bluefish, and 3 Blacktip Sharks

July 17 Robin, Mackerel, and a Shark

2011-07-17T19:04:00.000-04:00

Today I took my new girlfriend, Robin, out for a boat ride. We frolicked in the water. We caught 50 Sand Dollars.... Then I hauled her into the Ocean. I nailed 5 Spanish Mackerel in 6 casts on metal. Then we shutdown to drift and relax. Of course, I had to drop a half Mackerel overboard and turn the clicker on. Great timing, Capt Marty. At least, I finally got a fishing picture of Robin to put up for those who have been asking.... Hopefully there will be lots of more to come, for a long, long time. Believe it or not, she is cooler and sweeter than she is HOT. That's a hard reality for me to deal with!!!! Yep, it seems Capt Marty is hooked and it feels like 200# and a circle hook. I'm finished..... Total Catch for the Day: 5 Spanish Mackerel and a 15 lb Blacktip Shark

July 16 Bluefish, Sharks, and East Wind

2011-07-17T09:53:00.001-04:00

Today we had grand illusions of Dolphin on light tackle. Amberjacks, Kings, and Cudas. Unfortunately, the weather man gave us 15 kts of east wind and 3-5 foot seas that pretty much made life in open water miserable..... So we went to a sloppy spot and cast for Spanish Mackerel, then we went and caught some Bluefish from small up to 2 lbs. After looking at some places we "couldn't go to" we found a nice quiet place that was pretty active with Sharks. The highlight of the day? I had a good one when Stacie caught a 75 lb Blacktip Shark and a nightmare when I suffered a steering failure in the Tower and nearly wiped out a Boat and a family on the beach at Cape Lookout. I am truly sorry for scaring anybody! It will definitely not happen again. Total Catch for the Day: 30 Bluefish up to 2 lbs, 7 Spanish Mackerel up to 1 lb, a 50 lb Southern Stingray, 1 Hogfish, 1 Black Sea Bass, 5 Inshore Lizardfish, and a 75 lb Blacktip Shark

July 13 Blacknose and Blacktip Sharks

2011-07-15T11:41:00.003-04:00

Kevin and family fish a great half day with me today. I took them to the "sure kill" Bluefish spot and loaded the live well with 1-2 lb Bluefish and put enough in the box to to make everyone happy. Then we left the Bluefish behind and went looking for a Shark. Now came the easy part. In the last hour of our trip, we caught 3 adult Blacknose Sharks, a 45 lb Blacktip Shark that was a perfect specimen, and also released a Southern Stingray. The Blacknose Sharks were really cool because we were catching them in 2 foot of water. Weight guesses where probably 35 lbs, 28 lbs, and 20 lbs. The Blacktip Shark was cool because he stripped 200 yds of line in 5 seconds and gave my thumb a burn like I haven't had since Dec of 1989. Great Day. Great Charter. Total Catch for the Day: 40 Bluefish up to 2+ lbs, 3 Blacknose Shark up to 35 lbs, 1 Southern Stingray, and 1 Blacktip Shark at 45 lbs

July 7 Stuck on an Island

2011-07-07T10:27:00.001-04:00

I'm back at Hatteras and I'm working a non-fishing shift, so I don't expect to catch anything much. But, I might get lucky, who knows! Next week, if the weather is decent, I would expect the fishing to be excellent. Lots of action, and hopefully, some big fish. I know they are here, just got to be able to get to them! My Open Dates are GONE. Sorry about that!

July 4 Great Casting Action and Smoking Blacktips in Shallow Water

2011-07-05T22:13:00.001-04:00

Honestly, today was too rough for a center console..... I am not taking somebody fishing to get paid. We are all in for catching, or all in for exploring... I figured out from pleading "its too rough" with Stephen that #1 we came too far to be denied and #2 he was wanting to catch a bunch of fish.... He was warned, and he said "Let's Go!" So we turned the corner at Barden's Inlet at 7am and got smacked down by 25 kts of SW wind and 6-8 foot seas in a falling tide and ripping long shore current. An hour ro the Shoals and a long search finally got us the other side. Then we pulled into a Bluefish wonderland. Periods of "every cast" fishing followed by searches for something else. We stayed for hours and we rocked and rolled and we slayed the Bluefish. Then we went up the Beach to the North and searched for anything else. Nothing. Back to Cape Lookout and I decided to try a spot that Ive been watching develop.... A pair of 2 lb live Bluefish went overboard. Minutes later a 125 lb Blacktip leaped beside the boat. Then the first strike occured. It went from there he is..... to all the line is gone in about 10 seconds..... The amount of drag we were fishing was incredible. And the hook pulled. Again and again. We were 0 for 4 at one point and I was starting to believe that we were jinxed in a Slough covered with the biggest, baddest, fastest Blacktip Sharks I'd ever seen. Finally, we got a manageable 100 pounder and Stephen released him. Thank goodness. That was it for the catching and a long boat ride home followed and we searched Barden's Inlet, Beaufort Inlet and 8 miles between. But it was the 4th of July and there was a lot of cocunut butter in the water... No fish! Total Catch for the Day: 45 Bluefish up to 3 lbs and a 100 lb Blacktip Shark

July 3 Bluefish, Bluefish, and more Bluefish

2011-07-05T21:51:00.001-04:00

The weather was okay for fishing but it was a war-zone for catching fish because of where I knew we had to go! 18-20 knots of SW wind and 4-6 foot seas. I knew where the fish were, but it was a helluva ride to the spot. I'm not sure how safe it was, but we beat and battered our way to a spot where we could catch a 2-3 lb Bluefish on nearly every cast. Metal and Top Water Plugs. Unfortunately, yesterdays Spanish Mackerel bite never materialized but the Bluefish were chewing. I also saw a couple of large Ladyfish that tried to eat a top water plug but they were unsuccessful. Too bad, that would've been really cool. After loading the live well and the cooler we battered our way back to a place to where "I thought we could catch a big Blacktip Shark". But, honestly, we got there too late and the tide had turned and the boat traffic was brutal. We did have a huge Blacktip Shark devour a live 3lb Bluefish and smoke 300 yards of 50# mono in a matter of seconds. Reel Dump for sure. As quick as I dumped the anchor, the line went slack and we recovered our Bluefish, still on the hook. Without a single mark on it! Unbelievable. Total Catch for the Day:75 Bluefish from 2-3 pounds

July 2 Spanish Mackerel and Bluefish on Every Cast

2011-07-05T21:27:00.001-04:00

Jason and crew joined me for a pretty rough adventure but I knew a good spot that was very, very fishy and was in the lee of the SW wind and swell. the only problem was the ride there and the ride back... Looking back on it, this was the gravy and was just the tip of the iceberg for the next 2 days. We found a spot where the Spanish Mackerel were biting pretty good early in the morning. After a short frenzy, it turned into straight Bluefish. Every cast on metal. You couldn't miss! With a live well full of Bluefish and a cooler loaded with Blues and Mackerel, we had intentions to go Amberjack fishing but decided to go back to the Cape Lookout Bight had try for a "calm water" Blacktip Shark. Unfortunately, our only catch on the Shark Spot was a 60 lb Southern Stingray. Other fishy things I saw were a big Pompano and a 40 lb Barracuda on the Cape Lookout Shoals. Total Catch for the Day: 15 Spanish Mackerel up to 1 lb, 40 Bluefish up to 3 lbs, and a 60 lb Southern Stingray

July 1 Bluefish and 90 lb Blacktip Shark

2011-07-01T18:07:00.001-04:00

Testing my concentration to new heights, Robin caught Bluefish on every cast up to 4 lbs and livebaited a Bluefish to a fired up 90 lb Blacktip Shark. 100 lb Woman vs. 90 lb Shark. It was a pretty Shark, but................ This was pretty much a scouting trip for the upcoming weekend and honestly, fishing was great but we were not looking to slaughter a bunch of fish. Looked like Mackerel, Bluefish, and Sharks are here IN FORCE. Sorry guys, I picked a hell of a day to leave the camera at home. Total Catch for the Day: 8 Bluefish up to 4 lbs, 1 Spanish Mackerel, a 90 lb Blacktip Shark

June 1 Largemouth Bass Chewing

2011-07-01T18:03:00.003-04:00

Korey, Chris, and I at Lennoxville. Korey had a 6lb 8oz Bass. I got a couple of fat 4 lb Largemouth Bass. Thanks to Korey for allowing us access to all these large Bass that have been Beaufort's hidden gem for decades. Total Catch for the Day: 13 Largemouth Bass

Flounder and Oyster Toadfish

2011-06-26T16:32:00.001-04:00

There is a "crab bloom" happening at South Dock over on the North end of Ocracoke Island. Thousands of Blue Crabs from mature females to babys the size of dimes are everywhere. Oyster Toadfish must love them. Last night I set a personal one day record of 18 Oyster Toadfish. Between the Blue Crabs and Toadfish, Flounder fishing is nearly impossible. The past two nights, I have caught a few Finger Mullet to supplement the Silversides that I've been using for bait. That has helped the Flounder count. I am also starting to collect a very nice bag of Flounder filets and a huge bag of cleaned Blue Crabs. My momma will be happy when I get home. All you can eat Blue Crabs. My Dad, not so happy. Total Catch for 2 Nights: 5 Southern Flounder up to 17", 3 Summer Flounder up to 16", 27 Oyster Toadfish up to 3 lbs, and 1 Black Sea Bass

June 24 The Day that Changed my Life

2011-06-24T17:01:00.000-04:00

On June 24, 1988 I woke up as a normal 21 year old idiot. That night when I went to bed my life had changed...... That afternoon I was reeling in a 1 pound Spanish Mackerel that I hooked trolling on a 00 clark spoon in Beaufort Inlet. On its way to the boat, something swallowed it. An hour later I had a 66 pound Amberjack laying on the deck of my Boston Whaler. Life would never again be the same. 33 years ago. Holy Cow. If it wouldn't have happened, where would I be?

Cape Hatteras Blue Crabs and Poor Fishing

2011-06-23T23:35:00.004-04:00

I'm back at Cape Hatteras for a wonderful week of ferrying the traveling public across Hatteras Inlet. As always, I will try to catch a few fish while I'm here. So far, the fishing has been as bad I've ever seen it at South Dock in my 10 years of effort. Perhaps its because my fishing time is occurring during the falling tide.... Perhaps there is too much grass and other debris in the water.... What I really think is it is due to the incredible number of Blue Crabs that are dominating my fishing hole.... Wednesday night, I'd had enough of nothing and set a crab pot. Three hours later, I shook 28 Blue Ccrabs out of it. I also dipped a few with my landing net and caught a few on live Mullet. Thursday night's crab count was 16 Blue Crabs out of the Pot. Remember, this is basically a 3-4 hour soak time and baited up with inferior bait. Chopped up Pinfish and Sand Perch aint the best crab bait! Pity the poor Flounder that settles on the bottom at South Dock. He is in for a short stay or he is gonna get his ass pinched! Hopefully, the 60 kt wind and torrential rain we just had will "shuffle the deck". I did fish Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights with a rod and reel and so far, it was been nothing to brag about.... At all.... The absolute highlight of my fishing week so far was last night. I had a shot at a Houndfish that made about 3 passes under the ramp where my Ferry was tied up. This was NO ORDINARY Houndfish. At first glance I thought it was a Freshwater Gar. Happens occasionally at Hatteras, especially drought summers and especially after bad storms. But it was so big it couldn't have been a Spotted Gar, the kind are common to NC waters. I thought thats a damn Alligator Gar. The monsterous variety down in Texas and the Gulf States. On it's next pass I got a better look, it was clearly just a Houndfish. But this monster was pushing 7 feet and had an enormous girth for this species. The MFer looked like a damn Wahoo! It would've been a "News Maker" if I could've landed it, I promise that. Total Catch for the 3 Nights: 13 Oyster Toadfishs up to 2 lbs, 2 Southern Flounder, 9 Sand Perch, 1 Black Sea Bass, 4 Bluefish, 2 Atlantic Silversides, 4 Croakers, and 5 Pinfish

June 21 Largemouth Bass in Beaufort in the Morning

2011-06-21T16:43:00.004-04:00

Before leaving for Hatteras and a week of work on the Ferry, Korey and I made one last early morning trip to "Lunkerville" and the fish were biting, just not the big ones. Between the two of us, I think we caught 9 Largemouth Bass and I had the largest at 3 lbs. Little bit of a letdown...... I did have a big one eat my plastic worm, but I missed on my hook-set.......... I also caught a decent Bluegill on a plastic worm. I tried to use him for live bait. It was a long cast to the pot hole I was targetting. On my first cast, things were looking good! The Bluegill was running around in circles and jumping out of the water. I was getting ready to "raise my Bass Bar!" Then the Bluegill got grassed up and it was over. I reeled it in, cleaned him off, and re-cast him. Nothing. Damn. Total Catch for the Morning: 9 Largemouth Bass up to 3 lbs and 1 Bluegill

June 20 Quest for Something Big

2011-06-20T16:56:00.002-04:00

After last nights blow, we decided it was too windy for the Ocean this morning. So, after a long "should we go" discussion we got a late start and went looking for live bait and planned to "roll the dice" on a BIG FISH. Pretty quickly we caught a cast net full of Menhaden and headed to Cape Lookout. We got about 2 hours of incoming tide and it was pretty steady action. Unfortunately, our big fish turned out to be a 75 lb Southern Stingray. We also caught a 23 lb Blacknose Shark. The light-line was zinging left and right. Three missed strikes, a few Bluefish, and 2 Houndfish were causing the commotion. We were hoping for a shot at a Tarpon today but it never materialized and I've seen a couple of 20-25 lb King Mackerel up there the past couple days. Regardless, it never happened for us today.... The last hour of fishing was spent scouring the skinny water and sightcasting to Blacktip Sharks. We didn't get a strike, but we had some "hair raising" encounters. Total Catch for the Half Day: 3 Bluefish, 1 Southern Stingray, 1 Blacknose Shark, 2 Houndfish, and 8 Smooth Dogfish

DIABLO's Final Resting Spot

2011-06-19T23:16:00.006-04:00

Since I discovered them in the the mid 1980's Beaufort has had 3 Ponds down in Lennoxville that were legendary producers of Giant Largemouth Bass. Anyone able to access them was able to catch "Bass of a Lifetime" on a consistent basis. Unfortunately, the place was nearly inpenetrable. Thick brush on the shoreline and extensive shallow flats of mud and mats of grass protected tiny pot holes in the grass that were teeming with 8-12 lb Largemouth Bass. These legendary Bass can supposedly leap 6 feet out of the water a snag snag Dragonflys, Redwinged Blackbirds, and Purple Martins from the air! Huge Water Moccasins ruled the shoreline and Giant Eastern Diamondback Rattle Snakes ruled the approaches to the Ponds..... We can deal with all that. However, the ONE THING that stood between you and fishing history was a Giant Pit Bull/Rottweiler mix named Diablo that lived nearby and ruled these woods with his blood curdling bark, his snarl, and his mouth foaming growl. The 50 feet of heavy gauge, rusty chain that drug behind him added to his mystique. I always figured he pulled down the side of a house to escape his bonds.... Legend had it he had survived a few Shotgun blasts and it only made him meaner and stealthier. That Dog made the Legend of the Lennoxville Ponds on par with the legends of Bigfoot, Sasquatch, The Abomible Snowman and the Loch Ness Monster.... Today, Max and I paid homage to Diablo's final resting place. The fear of my adolescence has been exercised. Maybe I can sleep tonight for the first time since 1985 without being haunted by Diablo. My God, has it been 26 years since I felt his hot breath and rabid slobber on my bare legs as I ran for my life...... and dropped 2 rod and reels and my tacklebox......all the way to Freedom Park! I never looked back and it took 20 years to return....

June 19 Bass and Bluegills

2011-06-19T22:41:00.001-04:00

Yesterday afternoon and today I fished 3 different ponds. Fishing was poor, bad, and decent in each different location. Korey and Max were with me today. Kory and I caught about 5 Largemouth Bass each. This time, the size was a little different. I had the biggest fish at 2 lbs. Yesterday afternoon, I caught 4 Bluegills on a bettlespin. Low Low Low water in the Beaufort Mung Holes. In danger of massive die-offs in a couple of places. Total Catch for the 3 Ponds: 10 Largemouth Bass and 4 Bluegill

June 18 The One Hour Fishing Lesson

2011-06-18T12:38:00.001-04:00

Korey gave it to me today in Pond #1. A 6 lb and a 7 lb Largemouth Bass where I was the PHOTOGRAPHER and not the ANGLER. I changed baits one time, from a buzzbait to a plastic worm, and I couldn't hardly get a cast off without snapping a picture. That one little hesitation cost me!! Plus, Korey had the home field advantage???? Things settled down on Pond #2 and I found me a 4 and 5 pound Largemouth Bass. We each caught 5 Largemouth Bass each and this was in 60 minutes total in and out time! Incredible. Total catch for the Day: 10 Largemouth Bass up to 7 lbs

June 17 Long Slow Afternoon

2011-06-18T12:28:00.000-04:00

After getting killed off the Beach all day Wednesday, and with 15 kt SW wind and 3-4 foot seas battering you every 3 seconds..... Today I played it closer to shore. First we caught 5-7 dozen perfect baits. Filled the live well with hand sized Menhaden. Things were looking good. Then we headed up to Cape Lookout to fish. Not necessarily expecting a Cobia, but wishful. I would be happy catching "cool Sharks". And on the incoming tide, all was going well. Steady action with a variety of good and bad things. Then while comtemplating leaving, a school of Tarpon appeared a 100 yards east of us. Moving away but reason to stay. Fishing continued to be interestingly good. Then the tide changed...... For the next 6 hours we ran 60 miles and tried 5 different things. Failure X 5...... We did see our bait get nervous and raise our awareness.... When that's a highlight, YOU ARE IN TROUBLE. Regardless, it was a good day. We didn't get pulverized and these guys understood good day/bad day better than most.... Thanks Kevin and I'm sorry it wasn't better. It was long and I tried everything I knew and everything that we had! Total Catch for the Day: 3 Southern Stingrays up to 75 lbs, 1 Blacktip Shark at 50 lbs, 1 Blacknose Shark at 35 lbs, 3 Smooth Dogfish, 4 Bluefish, 1 Cobia, 10 Black Sea Bass, 1 Southern Flounder, 1 Pinfish, 3 Oyster Toadfish, 3 Sharpnose Sharks

June 15 Blow Baby Blow

2011-06-18T12:08:00.002-04:00

5 -10 west winds and 1-2 foot seas forecasted....,. And at 8 am when we cleared the Cape Lookout Shoals we were looking into 15-18 kt NE winds and 3 foot wind chop mixed with 4 foot ground swell. Great. My entire 3 progged plan of attack centered on fishing in this direction. After a long thought process and discussion, we rolled the dice that #1 it was a early on a long full day trip and #2 things could change rapidly if the wind fell out.... So the first several hours consisted of a rough and dangerous search of the Shoals that resulted in NOTHING and a very tough job of fishing a Wreck in heavy seas and high winds. The Wreck fishing yielded 3 big fish lost in structure and a decent sized fish lost to a mystery cut-off. Barracuda? Raised steel? We'll never know. We left this spot after lunch time with probably 20 Black Sea Bass, 4 of which were 3 pounds each. So after another meeting, we headed for another Wreck 4 miles north. Once we got there, the wind and current was less and 2 things were obviously in large supply. Spadefish and Sand Tigers. At first glance, the Spadefish were gonna chew and we were smart enough to pick up Spadefish bait that morning. Toss out a Jellyball and they would boil on it. DAY SAVERS! However, the wind made casting light baits impossible and sea/current would set us directly in the Spadefish schools in a matter of seconds. We tried every angle and every approach. Nothing would work. All we could do was watch them eat and when we presented our baits, feeding would stop. I couldn't believe it. The day was turning from bad to disasterous. Making matter worse was the curious habit the Sand Tiger Sharks, big ones at 100+ pounds each, had of rising off the bottom and swimming to the boat and them diving back to the bottom. Daisy chains of them. And them sumbitches wouldn't bite either! We even sacrificed a 3 lb Sea Bass for bait. Nothing would bite. Period. We ended up a rotten day with a an hour of bait fishing inside the Cape Lookout Bight fishing with inferior bait (peanut Shad) and caught a few Dogsharks, Sharpnose Sharks, and Southern Stingrays. The highlight (lowlight) was a 30 lb Cownose Ray that Brad fought after purposely snagging on the Shoals. Worst day ever, mostly because Brad, 2 days out of Afghanistan, and I really wanted to make it happen for him..... Total Catch for the Day: 20 Black Sea Bass up to 3 lbs, 1 Cownose Ray, 3 Smooth Dogfish, 1 Sharpnose Shark, and 2 Southern Stingrays

June 13 Dock Rock

2011-06-14T18:58:00.003-04:00

Tonight I fished for 30 seconds. I made one toss with a gulp 5" jerk shad and caught a 5 lb Striped Bass that was harrassing Silversides around the Ferry Ramps. There was 2 Striped Bass there and the wromg one ate my bait. The other looked to be 7-8 pounds. He hightailed it when his partner was hooked. Total Catch for the Night: 1 Striped Bass

June 11 Slow Flounder Bite

2011-06-14T18:55:00.003-04:00

The action has pretty much ground to a halt. Paul Terry didn't even make an effort. I fished all night. Pretty much 4.5 hours of fishing and caught 5 Flounders. I did manage to land a 17" Southern Flounder and lost another nice one. However, that aint quite fast enough for me. Also, there is nothing else to eat your bait. When you fish a live bait on the bottom, under lights, near heavy structure, less than a quarter mile from Hatteras Inlet, and go an hour between bites.... Thats terrible fishing! The only other bite I had was when I pretty much sight-casted a Silverside to a Stingray in the shallows. Mistake born out of boredom! But I did manage to land a 10lb Atlantic Stingray a few minutes later. Total Catch for the Night: 5 Southern Flounders up to 17" and a Atlantic Stingray

June 10 More Flounders, Bigger Flounders

2011-06-11T15:58:00.003-04:00

We were using a new cast net that allowed us to better catch the Silversides and as a result we have more bait, livelier bait, and larger bait. The Flounder fishing is a little better. However, the lack of by-catch is amazing. Paul Terry faded on me around 3am again tonight, but he did catch a 20", 3 lb Southern Flounder. Total Catch for the Night: 4 Southern Flounder up to 20", 8 Summer Flounder, and 2 Oyster Toadfish

June 9 Flounders

2011-06-10T16:30:00.005-04:00

Still no Finger Mullet. Live baiting for Flounder has pretty much evolved into moving dead Silversides across the bottom. Paul Terry faded on me tonight so our head to head fishing battle ended. The actual fishing was so-so. Long waits between Flounder bites and little else eating your bait. Weird. Total Catch for the Night: 6 Southern Flounder up to 16", 4 Summer Flounder, and 4 Oyster Toadfish

June 7 and 8 Hatteras Dock Fishing

2011-06-08T14:21:00.004-04:00

Night 1 (June 7) Capt Marty vs. Paul Terry. I fished sea urchins and blue crabs for Sheepshead most of the night. I had one bite on a crab that I missed. We were not able to catch any decent live bait for Flounder.... Paul fished a 2 hook bottom rig. The catch of the night was Paul's Gulf Sea Mullet, which is the first Sea Mullet I've ever seen caught in the Ferry Basin in my many nights of hardcore fishing in this location since 2002. Victory to Paul Terry

Night 2 (June 8) Capt Marty vs. Paul Terry. Fish were biting tonight. The headliner was my 1 lb 4 oz Southern Sea Mullet that I caught on a live Silverside. Very strange combination. On my next cast, I caugh a 1 lb Southern Sea Mullet. Catching a Sea Mullet on live bait, at night, under lights and by heavy structure is not a normal catch. Doing it back to back was Double Weird. The Flounder and the Oyster Toadfish were also biting. Victory to Capt Marty Total Catch for Both Nights: 2 Southern Sea Mullet, 1 Gulf Sea Mullet, 11 Southern Flounder, 14 Sand Perch, 14 Oyster Toadfish,1 5 Bluefish, 7 Black Sea Bass, 8 Croaker, 9 Pinfish, and 1 Conger Eel

My Nightmare

2011-06-07T15:12:00.001-04:00

Here I sit at Hatteras, start on Night Run tonight. The Ocean is calm and winds are light..... And my boat is sitting in Beaufort.... Looks like I finally made a smart financial decision! To make matters worse, Chris is on the water in a Top Secret Carteret County Location and he is tossing deck-dried Sand Perch into a school of Tarpon... Good Grief... You can never be ready for those things when they pop up while sightcasting! Anyhow, I will be pursueing Flounder, Sheepshead and trying to scam my way onto a boat somewhere before the week is up.....

June 6 Chopper Bluefish one more time

2011-06-06T16:00:00.000-04:00

Chris and I made a quick trip on his boat today and tried to whack the Chopper Bluefish one more time. I'm due back at Hatteras tommorrow so I knew this would be my last run at a Citation Bluefish for 2011. The last one I weighed was 14 lbs 12 oz. Ouch.... So today, we found far less numbers. They bit good for a little while. Then they shut down. We each hooked at least 5. We actually landed 1 big Bluefish each. Nowhere near 15 lbs. Oh well. I did catch a smaller Blue on a big popper. The highlight of the day was some serious "Ray Viewing".... Total Catch for the Day: 3 Bluefish up to 2 lbs

June 4 Excellent Top Water Bluefish

2011-06-04T17:56:00.001-04:00

I took Korey and Max today for a half day adventure and yesterday's weather changed our plan. Then I had a cast netting catastrophe. Then an hour was wasted catching 2 Menhaden, and one of them disappeared! Now in panic mode, I prayed the "new wave" Bluefish with Phds in Sportfishing Avoidance might save me.... And they did! For some reason, this morning nearly every group we cast a top water plug to responded with reckless abandon. It was like the old days. At one point, I could hear one of my bit off plugs rattling a half mile away. Then came the calvary, and the bite faded. After the good time with the Chopper Bluefish, we went sight casting and found nothing to cast to... Later, we diced a Bluefish for bait and caught a Sharpnose Shark and a Butterfly Ray. The weather was better than yesterday, but tide and current is still horrific and is killing the inshore sight casting fishery. The Cape Lookout Shoals are also evolving into a new form and I despise it... Shark Island is becoming the new Cape Point. Acres and acres of shallow, sandy flats to the west are also killing the Shoals. I must say in decades of fishing Carteret County, I have never seen so much sand! It sucks. Total Catch for the Day: 8 Bluefish from 8-14 lbs, a 60 lb Butterfly Ray, and a Sharpnose Shark

June 3 What's Crazier?

2011-06-03T16:45:00.006-04:00

Whats crazier, a weatherman that says light and variable winds and 1-2 foot seas and sends us out in a Center Console Nightmare......... Or a 300 lb Blue Marlin swimming in 90 foot of water? So this morning with a great weather forecast, we decided to go Dolphin fishing. We caught a couple of Almaco Jacks early and by 830am, it was increasingly difficult to drop live baits on a wreck in 90 feet of water. With seas and winds increasing, we started our troll to the SE with the wind and seas at our backs. Two hours later, we did a 180 degree turn and the first wave we met dipped the bow and put 100 gallons of sea water on deck... What was that forecast again? So now we're 30 miles offshore and beating our way back into 6 foot seas and a 20 kt NE wind. Great. Picking at the Dolphins. To make the story short and sweet, 2 hours later we are inshore of the 14 Bouy and I see an 8 foot torpedo surfing on top in the mounting seas. Hey what the hell is that I ask myself..... Its basic appearance was a combo of darker shades of brown and purple, it was a very rigid swimmer, its pectoral, tail, and dorsal fins were erect, it has some amount of striped coloration on its flanks, and (I'll be damned) that's a nice beak sticking off his freaking nose.... But this is 90 foot of water, so it can't be... Regardless, a quirk of fate and turn of fate just before seeing the damn thing has put it on a path, crossing right to left, right through our 6 ballyhoo spread. So I scream at my stunned crew, "Y'all see that?" And 3 out of 3, everyone sees it, everyone one of them argues every sensible excuse I can give as to how it can't be a Blue Marlin... So 3 veteran fishermen and one relatively inexperienced fisherman all agree... It was a screwed up, not hungry, somewhat "lost" Blue Marlin that passed through our spread, approximately 60 feet off our stern. The 6 foot waves that obscured him a couple of times, also showed him in plain view to us a couple of times. The angry, but educated fisherman in me wouldn't allow me to believe what I was seeing. Not here, not now. If the bastard would've just ate a damn ballyhoo, all doubt would've been removed..... We were so mad a Skip Waters, that Blue Marlin was headed for the damn grill if he'd been hungry and "made our day". Anyway, 40 Black Sea Bass and a timely Coast Guard Boarding later we came in and had a long discussion. The unanamous opinion- it was a Blue Marlin.... Total Catch for the Day: 12 Dolphin to 16 lbs, 2 Almaco Jacks to 18 lbs, 40 Black Sea Bass to 3 lbs

June 1 Big Bluefish, Amberjacks, Black Sea Bass

2011-06-02T10:22:00.002-04:00

Today we searched for an elusive 15 lb Bluefish. We failed. We found quite a few 8-11 lb Bluefish on poppers, bucktails, and live bait. We also found hundreds of Chopper Bluefish in groups of 5 to 20 that would show absolutely NO INTEREST in anything we threw at them, ahead of them, behind them.... Whatever..... Smart Bluefish. An unusual new for 2011 Bluefish characteristic that I don't like! We also found some large and hungry Black Sea Bass. We also found some educated Amberjacks that clearly hadn't learned the danger of a 3 lb Black Sea Bass swimming on top. Sorry Mr Amberjack. Chris also had a hook break after a 40 minute battle with a rather large Cobia that ate a 4 lb Black Sea Bass. We had him in plain view several times with about 10 Jacks as an escort. When the damn hook broke, that took alot of wind out of our sails. That was a nice one AND a new excuse! The water was so clear on the wreck we fished today, that we could plainly see every small detail of it 55-60 feet below. Our big mistake was not picking up some jellyballs on the way out because there were 1000s of Spadefish around from 3-10 lbs. We did not resort to special Spadefish tactics. On the way home, we found 3 Cobia. One large one was not interested, the medium sized one was interested but he was lucky, the smallest one wasn't worth the effort. Total Catch for the Day: 4 Bluefish up to 11 lbs, 2 Amberjacks up to 40 lbs, 15 Black Sea Bass up to 3 lbs, 1 At Sharpnose Shark

COBIA SEASON PART ONE

2011-05-24T01:47:00.013-04:00

Fishing has been good but....

Captures include..... a 84 lb Cobia on 12# mono and bucktail on a Penn Slammer 460 and a 10-12# Ugly Stick Rod, 81 lb Cobia on 50# mono and live bait, 72 lb Cobia on 20# mono and bucktail on a Penn Slammer 560 and a 10-12# Ugly Stick Rod, 66 lb Cobia on 80# braid and bucktail, 61 lb Cobia on 50# mono and live bait, 60 lb Cobia on 80# braid and bucktail, 55 lb Cobia on 80# braid and bucktail and 6 other 40+ lb Cobia......

Painful misses include an estimated 90 lb Cobia that refused to bite by the boat on May 8th, an estimated 90 lb Cobia that refused to bite by the boat on May 16th, and an estimated 80 lb Cobia that pulled the hook after a long fight on May 20th.......

Catching 3 out of 29 fish on April 25th in dirty, 63 degree water was epic failure! Getting shutout on May 14th was an epic failure! Fishng East instead of West on May 10th was a major mistake!

HOWEVER, the highlights and lowlights of the past month hardly match an early half day trip (May 7th) last year..... just saying..... The proof was in the NCDMF CITATION BOOK...

I saw more fish in ONE SCHOOL last year at ONE TIME than all the one's I've seen this year combined.....

May 22 Great Sightcasting Afternoon

2011-05-22T22:51:00.005-04:00

Well, I couldn't take it... So I launched the boat after lunch... Then came some mechanical difficulties.... So we were really late leaving, like 3pm, and as fate would have it, I ran into a friend by Duke Marine Lab that told me exactly where to go... So 30 seconds after climbing into the tower, my bucktail was in the air, and I was hooked up. Ten minutes later, we got a 40 lb Cobia laying on deck. After that I meandered back to the west and found another of those brutally large, powerful fish that destroys a Number Count. He was hanging out under a black trash bag! One cast and Bang! A mile to the northwest and 60 minutes later, I had "my big fish of the year." A 71 lb Cobia. As usual, the 10-12 lb Ugly Stick is a killer, but has no lifting ability. It turns the big fish into "hour eaters". After a quick photo session, I climbed back upstairs and ran back to an area where I hoped the fish might be, and pulled into a group of 3 Cobia milling on top over a deep bait ball. One cast, one hook-up. I passed the rod down to Connie and tried to get a doubleheader but couldn't pull it off.... She landed her 38 lb Cobia 25 minutes later and I was thinking, "this is going to be an epic". 3 casts and 3 Cobia. At this point, bait balls was poping up everywhere and there was a couple hours of light left. Unfortunately, from that point on, every brown shape that we saw was a Blacktip Shark. These Blacktip Sharks ran from 18 to 40 lbs each. I hooked some for the heck of it, and I made them chase the bucktail.. After I'd lost enough tackle, I said "no more casts unless its a Cobia". And we never casted again. Great day, great advice on where to go, and a heck of a way to end a 3 week run of fishing. Total Catch for the Day: 3 Cobia up to 71 lbs and 5 Blacktip Sharks up to 40 lbs

Back to Hatteras and the Cobia Chase takes a break

2011-05-22T12:41:00.002-04:00

Tommorrow I return to Hatteras for a week back on the Ferry. Its been a great 3 weeks. I've had some great days and some really fustrating ones. That's Cobia fishing in a nutshell. The amazing thing is... If BJ could've got his monster Cobia... That would've been 3 80+ pound Cobias in 8 days. Pretty good fishing. The huge Black Drum and Thresher Sharks were definitely different too! The Chopper Bluefish, I been in love with those things since May of 1976! This little vacation aint quite over, I'm still thinking about this afternoon or tommorrow morning, but I need to stay on land. yeah right. Any how, next week when I return, I expect hot/cold Cobia Fishing and lots of Blacktip Sharks, Spanish Mackerel, Amberjacks, and other things as well. Right now, I have June 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 open. Anybody looking for a day of fishing, call me. 252-241-8350

May 21 Beautiful Weather and Terrible Fishing

2011-05-21T15:29:00.003-04:00

Yesterday there was enough Menhaden on the Shackleford Banks Beachfront to keep Omega Protein up and running for 6 months..... And the Cobia were flat out chewing Menhaden.... So the plan for this morning's half day trip was simple.... Catch Bait and Bail Cobia.... One problem-- All the Menhaden disappeared overnight. No Bait to be found, so with limited time I headed into the wild blue yonder. By noon we were sightcasting off Shark Island and I got a call that there was a small school of Menhaden 15 miles away. It was little too late for such an abrupt change of location and plan! And really, conditions were great for sightcasting. We saw lots of life. We saw a Barracuda, a King Mackerel, thousands of Bluefish and Spanish Mackerel. We saw dozens of Turtles and Bottlenosed Dolphin. We just didn't see any Cobia. Maybe we ran out of time? Regardlesss, my apologies to my crew. We did manage to toss some top water plugs at some Chopper Bluefish, but that was difficult. Those fish are skittish and finicky right now. Beautiful day on the Atlantic Ocean and a 55 mile boat ride with poor fishing results. I hate that! Total Catch for the Day: 2 Bluefish at 8 lb each

May 20 10 Cobias and the 80 Pounder that Popped Off

2011-05-20T18:32:00.004-04:00

BJ and I decided after yesterday's success and today's 18 kt SW Honker to forget about sightcasting and soak bait. And we didn't soak it long. The Cobia were chewing under the Top Water Boat this morning..... Cobia Fishing, for me, has always been about streaks of luck, good and bad, and yesterday afternoon and this morning I've been on a HOT Streak. An hour after dropping anchor, we had 2 nice Cobia on the deck, a 41 lber and a 38 lber, and we had released a couple of legal fish too. Then BJ hooked up a trophy Cobia. He jumped twice and circled the boat. He was about to make us guess at the anchor. Under/Over. Then he popped up on top, clear of the anchor. Another Cobia banging 80 pounds, easy! Now he was swimming free and clear and no trouble in sight... A big, long Lemon colored Monster.... Then the hook popped and my winning streak was over. The next couple of hours produced finicky Bluefish on top water plugs and Dog Sharks. Then we finally caught three more Cobia, one at 35" and two that were way too small. At the end of the day, we popped the hook on another big mystery fish??? I say Southern Stingray, BJ was not so sure and he sunk into a depression. Tommorrow the circus starts again. Total Catch for the Day: 10 Cobia up to 41 lbs, 3 Bluefish up to 11 lbs, 15 Smooth Dogsharks up to 20 lbs

May 19 Big Cobias and Big Bluefish

2011-05-19T17:56:00.002-04:00

Jim and Phil had a great half day trip. It was an afternoon trip and I'm always skeptical about those.... Here in NC, we go fishing at 6am. This aint Mexico! So real quick, Phil releases a 32" Cobia on a swimbait. Then we hit the Chopper Bluefish on top water plugs. Jim got out the fly rod, but they were gone! Then we hit a dead spot, a couple hours of nothing. Then we tried something old school. Anchored up and baited up. Within minutes Phil was hooked up to a 61 lb Cobia. I screwed up the gaff job and the fish was fighting again. I was sweating bullets. Five minutes later, the fish finally hit the deck and a celebration followed. Then came an endless procession of big Dog Sharks. I said "I think there was one Cobia here and we caught it". Jim said, and I quote, "No Phil got his, now I'm gonna get my 80 pounder" And I'll be damned if 2 minutes later we were hooked up. I had to drop anchor and give chase. 45 minutes later, Jim was proudly standing over his 81 lb Cobia. End of story. Total Catch for the Day: 3 Cobia up to 81 lbs, 2 Bluefish up to 12 lbs, and 12 Smooth Dogfish up to 20 lbs

May 18 A Leatherback Turtle.... The Slump Buster

2011-05-18T22:10:00.002-04:00

I needed to stay home and work. Especially since all the work is mine now and with the next 4 days looking busy...... But I couldn't do it! Not with a 14 lb Bluefish released yesterday! I figured this might be my chance to knock off a Bluefish citation. So this afternoon, I headed off to Cape Lookout on a solo mission.... And guess what appeared in the Bight? A Leatherback Turtle... Basically public transportation for Cobias. And this one had enough Brown underneath it to keep several boats busy. So I flung my bucktail and instantly hooked up. Ten minutes later, I had a bloody mess and a nice fish. I rode around the corner just to see if a miracle could happen but the turtle and his entourage was nowhere in sight. I motored back into the Bight and looked for yesterday's Bluefish, but they were nowhere to be found. In 2 hours, I was back on the trailer and I was cutting a 55 lb Cobia. Amazing, all the hours and miles spent searching and today, when it didn't matter, there he was... begging to get caught. Crazy. Hope tommorrow is half as good. Total Catch for the Day: 1 Cobia at 55 lbs

May 17 Rough Riding and Awesome Top Water Bluefish

2011-05-18T17:54:00.003-04:00

Ron and Dave came a long ways to go fishing. The weather sucked. 20 kt SW wind and 4-6 ft seas. Worse was the incredible long shore current caused by the Full Moon which is creating super high tides and super low low tides. The effect on the Ocean near the Beach is incredible. There have been times the past couple of days when I was a little scared in the Tower. The worst part was, there was no possible way to climb down. When the Capt feels fear, that is a terrible thing. Honestly, what can "get us" is lose of power. I've been in some spots the past 2 days where a loss of propulsion would cast us into an instant calamity. I recognize it because of all the things I've encountered on the water. I hope my fellow guides and fishing captains think about these things too... Anyway, we ended up at Cape Lookout in perfect calm conditions and fished bait on the bottom with no real results. Dave released a 75 lb Butterfly Ray and Ron battled a giant Ray for a while. Then we casted poppers and bucktails to a school of Big Bluefish. It was great while it lasted, but it hurt me in the "tackle box". Ron released a stud of a spring Bluefish at 14lbs. I think the guys managed to release 2 Bluefish each and had several bite off. Total catch for the Day: 4 Bluefish up to 14 lbs and 1 Butterfly Ray at 75 lbs

May 16 Tough Fishing in Rough Conditions

2011-05-16T15:43:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I got cancelled and the report from the Far West was excellent. Few Boats and lots of Cobias... So this morning Joey and I braved the seas and the wind and ran down off the western beach, looking for baitballs. Unfortunately, either they were gone or we just didn't go far enough. The water quality had changed alot since Saturday afternoon. It is dirty and there was hardly any bait in the clear water. Where did it all go? SW wind doesn't usually kill the fishing, just makes it rougher. Anyway, on the way home we found a Cobia, and she was a big one. Unfortunately, we couldn't make her eat. Casts were followed and she really liked hanging around the boat. She got to carefully examine lots of baits... Too bad I took the Harpoon out of the boat. It takes up a alot of space and is a little dangerous on a rolling deck. Good way to turn or break an ankle.. Today was the day that it would've paid off... It would've been so easy. Oh well, since we were Cobia or bust, and we didn't bring the harpoon... Total Catch for the Day: ZERO

May 14 Failure of Gigantic Porportions

2011-05-14T20:51:00.003-04:00

Today we had a Grand Slam. It was a rare one too. An overslept Captain (first). A screaming TLD 25/custom rod dropped overboard with a fish on. And 2 Cobias pulled off bucktails after solid hook-ups. Can I buy flags for those? My apologies to Joey but our early start didn't materialize and I'm not sure it would've helped. I didn't see anything this morning than was "must see fishing". I am sorry he had to come to my house and beat on my door though. Ouch. We found the fish by mid-morning and could've, should've made our day, but 2 Cobias pulled the hooks and one strike that never got hooked. So we had our chances at 3 Cobia on a day when a few had 2, several had one, and most had ZERO. My biggest regret is, one of our fish had all the characteristics of a big fish. Nearly spooled us twice and made three major direction changes and ended up in the same baitball where it started 10 minutes earlier. Then finally when we where out of trouble and headed away from the fleet with 75% of the string on the spool..... The hook popped out... or something... By then, that one little baitball was covered with boats, 2-3 were hooked up, and that was over. And so were we. We should've been looking for our third Cobia, not our first, and 7 hours later, that's how it ended. Total Catch for the Day: 3 At Sharpnose Sharks

May 12 A Big Cobia on Light Tackle, By a Girl catching her first Cobia, oooops

2011-05-13T13:09:00.003-04:00

What happened to this post???? I'll fix it later. Sorry out of time, Connie's Cobia weighed 84 lbs. Marty's Cobia weighed 39 lbs. Connie's fish took 2 hours to land because the Captains Daily Blunder was to cast a Penn 460 Slammer on a 10-12 lb Ugly Stick with 12# mono into a school of 15 Cobias that looked to be 60-80 lbers..... Its a little more complicated than that, but it all worked out in the end.... The problem was that it ate our morning up when the fishing was at its best. Who gives a crap, who needs a limit! Two nice Cobia and one of them is a Fish of a Lifetime on light spinning tackle on her first Cobia. Way to go Connie, Im sorry if I screamed once or twice. After landing this fish and taking a 30 minute celebration break, the wind kicked up and conditions changed horribly. Total Catch for the Day: 2 Cobia up to 84 lbs