Feb 29 Hickory Shad Fishing

I couldn't stand it any longer, I had to go fishing. So I drove to the Neuse and spent 90 minutes casting. It wasn't great, but I had 7 strikes and captured 6 Hickory Shad, including one that measured out at 16" (total length), plenty big enough for a NC Freshwater Fishing Citation. That's a decent Hickory Shad. Grugs on 1/16 oz leadheads outfished the spoons today. Hopefully, Shad fishing will be as good as it was in 2006 when I had several 100+ fish days during mid-March. Today was a nice start!

Progress Reports

The Boat is coming along slowly. Hopefully, she will meet her deadline for a mid-April meeting with a 12 pound Bluefish and a 40 pound Red Drum! My new T-Top and Tower will be built by Modlin's Aluminum in Farmville, NC. I can't wait to spot that first Cobia, but I think a school of Giant Red Drum will be coming my way first!

My website is getting some attention also. New pictures and updated text. My NC Citation count is getting brought up to date. Right now my count is around 345, not including the NC Freshwater Angler Recognition Program Citations or the one's my clients have accumulated in the past 5 years.

Unfortunately, when the changes are made to the website, my new Rates will go into affect. As of today, my website still shows Rates for 2005, so I'm simply doing what everybody else has already done a couple of times. All I can say is that I believe that I'm still a bargain. Just like my first summer doing this, most of my Half Day clients still have to ask me to carry them to shore!

There is a possibility that I'll get a Shad Fishing trip in this weekend. Hopefully I'll post a real fishing report soon!

Let the Hard Work Begin....

On Valentine's Day, we glassed my new center console. Lots of sanding and painting still ahead. Today I started taking my boat apart. What a chore. Much harder than I anticipated. Once I get the old console and t-top out, I will put in the new console and get ready for my new t-top and tower. Unfortunately, no more fishing for awhile! Hopefully in a month or so, everybody will be very impressed. If everything goes as planned, she'll be ready to roll by early April!

Feb 3 Finally a Fish Story

We started out looking for Trout and Drum this morning and despite the great weather, we didn't find any fish. So we started riding! Around the Shoals at Cape Lookout and up the beach towards Drum Inlet we went. After about 5 miles, and since we hadn't seen any sign of life, I turned to the east and decided to go check out a wreck in 85 feet of water. So what if all we had was the Trout rods! We arrived at 12 noon and by 1:30 we had 34 Black Sea Bass between 2-3 pounds, 18 Bluefish from 1-2 pounds, 3 Summer Flounder around 2 pounds each, and app. 10 Spiny Dog Sharks, plus quite a few Sea Bass and Bluefish releases. Every fish was caught by jigging metal on 8 and 10 lb. test on the trout tackle. Nice way to save the day!

Lack of Fishing

Sorry for the lack of fishing Reports recently. I have had some Major Medical Issues in my family recently that has drawn my attention away from the water. Add to that the typical winter weather we've been experiencing and my Job relocations from Cape Hatteras to Knott's Island to Ocracoke and I've been 6 weeks without fishing! That is by far my longest stretch with NO fishing since 1985! Hopefully, I will be able to get out and give it a try this weekend (Feb 2nd or 3rd). Next week, I will begin the process of taking my boat apart and hopefully making some huge improvements. I expect to be up and running again by April 1st.

In the near future I will be posting my open dates for my Spring of 2008 Bonito, Albacore, and Bluefish fishing. I also anticipate fishing out of Ocracoke this Spring for Giant Red Drum. This can be a great sight casting fishery. In the meantime, I will be fishing for Hickory Shad in the Neuse River.

On final thing, I will be posting Rate increases on my website in the near future. I have not increased my rates in quite some time and the higher fuel costs and larger boat finally caught up with me. After looking at some other guys rates, I still consider myself quite a bargain and anyone who has fished with me in the past knows that my "half days" are extremely long. Most of my clients actually have to tell me to take them in!

Hopefully I will get a real fishing report up very soon!

More 2007 Pictures

More 2007 Pictures

2007 Review

I had a great time fishing in 2007. The weather was my biggest challenge. How can I forget the 14 straight days of Small Craft Advisories in Oct-Nov! I had a nice year for Big Fish. I finished up with 62 NC Citation Fish landed by either me or my clients. There were 12 different species represented. There was also 63 fish landed on my boat that weighed over 50 pounds. The great Shark Fishing during July and August really helped that number swell. My personal highlights included my first Citation Sheepshead and a 15 Citation Trout Day.

My clients landed some impressive fish as well. Marc Rouse's 92 pound Cobia, Brent Davis had a 85 pound Amberjack, and Chuck Laughridge released a monster Gray Trout on Fly. On the negative side, I pulled off a big Mako Shark in March and missed 2 opportunities at Tarpon in June and October.

Dec 19 Good Numbers of Small Trout

Bob and Herbert wanted big Trout today and they figured I was on a hot streak. Unfortunately, it all came to an end today. We were constantly out of position and we ran through our live bait very quickly. After a couple of hours, we had nothing but a pile of 12" to 14" released Trout. We finally hit a little stretch where we caught a few 15" Speckled Trout and 4 nice Gray Trout, so we did get to kill a few. For the day, I guess the guys caught around 60 Speckled Trout, 4 Gray Trout, 20 Bluefish, and a couple of Sheepsheads. I know my anglers were disappointed with the size of the Trout that we caught today, but I started in the same exact spot that has produced 19 Citations in my last 3 trips and they just weren't there today. what can I say?

Dec 18 Another Citation Speckled Trout

Chris got his first NC Citation Speckled Trout today when he pulled up a 4 lb. 12 oz. trophy. Between the 2 of us, we caught around 25 Speckled Trout, 3 Gray Trout, and 10 Bluefish. We kept 12 Speckled Trout from 18" to 23". Our Gray Trout were keepers from 18" to 20". We also rode the Shoals looking for Stripers and Drum and came up empty. Conditions on the Shoals today were not ideal, but I believe that if it's going to happen this year, that it's going to be this week. Stay tuned!

Dec 9 Monster Shark and 80 Speckled Trout

Great Trout bite on the smaller class of fish. We kept 20 out of 80 today and had a few Gray and Speckled Trout in the 2-3 pound class. A bunch of other in the 17" to 18" range. We also caught Sheepheads, Bluefish, and Hogfish. On the way in the Trouser snagged a 12 foot long, 1000+ pound Basking Shark on 12 lb. test line. I ran the boat up to him and we recorded an "official release". I'm not sure if the Shark ever knew that he was part of our "fun". He just kept on swimming to the southern without a care in the world!

Dec 8 Big Trout Bite

I was in the right place this morning! In less than 3 hours, we had 20 Speckled Trout. We had a pair of 6 lb. 4 oz twins. We had 6 over 6 pounds. We had 10 over 5 pounds. We had 15 over 4 pounds that were big enough for a NC Fishing Citation. Our small ones were 20"! Our 20 fish limit totaled out at 97 pounds! We also caught 2 Red Drums, 10 Sheepsheads, and 3 Bluefish.

Dec 5 Hot Speckled Trout Bite

Columbo and I went head to head today on Speckled Trout. He had a slight advantage and he used it to defeat me 47 to 44. That's good fishing though. From 11am until 3:30pm, we caught 91 Speckled Trout. I'll take that kind of fishing anyday!

Nov 27-30 Squid Fishing

What? Trust me, it was amazing. In 4 nights of Fishing, Squid was the main attraction. All together I probably caught 80 to 100 Squid, up to 25". These were the Calamari Quality, Loligo Squid and I caught them on mirrorlures, gulps, and top water plugs. I also caught quite a few Striped Bass and a 19" Flounder.

Nov 26 Speckled Trout and Rain

I fished an hour in pouring rain and dead low tide, but it was worth it today. I got a good tip from a fishing buddy and quickly landed some very nice Trout and released a few small ones. The keepers were from 18" to 22". A 22" Trout weighs between 3 and 4 pounds. It was a nice way to end the week.

Nov 24 More Speckled Trout

Today was another Speckled Trout Day. I fished from the Sheraton at At Beach to Radio Island and found them in pretty much the same place as yesterday. Today I probably caught 30 Trout, 27 of them were 9" to 12". The other 3 were nice ones between 2-3 pounds. So far since I've been home I've caught over 160 Gray and Speckled Trout!

Nov 23 Trout Fishing on Foot

This afternoon I walked out to the end of Radio Island and caught lots of Gray Trout. In less than an hour, I caught around 30 Grays that ranged from 12" to 20". On my way back to the truck, I also caught 8 Speckled Trout and a few Jumbo Spots. My Speckled Trout were in the 11" to 13" range. I ended up keeping 4 Gray Trout and 3 Spots. From what I saw, there were lots of small Speckled Trout caught up and down the Radio Island Beach this afternoon.

Nov 22 Speckled Trout Fishing

This morning it was more about numbers than size as Mark and I caught 45 Speckled Trout in around 3 hours of fishing time. Lots of our fish were from 12" to 14", but we did catch a few big ones. We caught most of our fish in the Newport River and off Radio Island. We only kept 2 and released the rest. I caught many of my fish on mirrorlures, which is my favorite way to catch Speckled Trout!

Nov 20 Speckled Trout and FOG

Stacy and I made a mad dash up to Cape Lookout today at lunchtime and when we got there the weather changed in 5 minutes from a nice sunny, warm day to a total "gray out", zero visibility fog, and a cold, damp SW wind at 10-15 knots. Where did that come from? We caught over 50 Speckled Trout, however most of them were babies in the 11"-13" range and we released them. We did kill around 12 and we had a few that were slightly over 2 pounds. We also caught a pile of Bluefish, a Flounder, a Skate, and quite a few big Shrimp.

Nov 18-19 Surf Fishing for Speckled Trout

Speckled Trout invaded the Hatteras Island surf and fishing was great with mirrorlures and soft plastics. Lots of these Trout were up to 4 pounds, but I wasn't so lucky. Most of mine were between 1 and 2 pounds. I did very well on Puppy Drum though. On the 19th, I caught 7 Drum up to 30" and couldn't hardly catch a Trout because the Drum were so aggressive.

Nov 12 Giant Amberjacks and Light Tackle Albacore

Brent caught a 80+ pound Amberjack, Hunter got a 75+ pound Amberjack, and Preston was right behind them with a 65+ pound Amberjack. The problem was that Brent got his on the King Mackerel Rod and took nearly an hour to land. A fish like that zaps your strength and eats up fishing time! After those Jacks the guys released 2 Albacores each and called it a great day of fishing! We kept Brent's Amberjack and it weighed 79 pounds 28 hours after it's death. Unbelievably, we never got a picture of Brent's fish, however it looked a lot like the one that Hunter caught, only slightly larger. I think!

New Tournament Series Next Year

Capt. Lee Willis is launching a new series of Red Drum Tournaments in the Cape Lookout area next year. It will be modeled after the Oberto Redfish Series and it will be very interesting to see where all this leads. Lee has a great idea for our area and hopefully this Tournament Series will be a great success. His website is http://www.redfishaction.com/. Check it out.

Nov 9 Citation Sea Mullet and Speckled Trout

This morning I hit the surf over at Shackleford Banks for the first time this fall and the fishing was pretty good. I cast out a bottom rig and left it in a sand spike on then worked the area over with a mirrorlure. In 2 hours, the bottom rig had accounted for 3 nice Sea Mullets and the mirrorlure had caught 3 nice Speckled Trout. The highlight of the morning was my 16.5", 1 lb. 8 oz Sea Mullet that was big enough for a NC Fishing Citation!

Nov 8 Citation Pompano and Much More

I took a ride on "Rouse's Luck" today with the Trouser and the fishing was very interesting. The weatherman missed his forecast by about 15 knots and that made it tough, but we still made a good haul of 20 Speckled Trout in the 2-3 pound range and a couple of nice suprizes as well. First was my 2 lb. 4 oz. Pompano that ate a live shrimp and put up a great fight on 6 lb. test. After that came my 4 lb. 8 oz. Flounder and Trouser's nice Black Drum. We also caught Sheepsheads, Bluefish, Hogfish, Groupers, and several more small Flounders.

Nov 7 Red Drums and Finger Mullets

The Drum were biting on the back side of Shackleford Banks this afternoon from east of the Rock Jetty to the beach past the NPS Dock. These Drum were hitting live mullet as well as plastic artificials. These Drums ranged up to 25".

Also, Taylor's Creek was swarming with Finger Mullet today. One throw with the cast net and I'm set for several days of fishing.