Feb 12 Cape Lookout Shoals

This wasn't anything but a freezing cold Boat Ride. I guess I was still high from my Oregon Inlet trip when I launched my Boat. What was I thinking! Floated the Boat at 9am. Ran all the way to Shark Island and back and was back in the Truck by 12:30. I really didn't see that much. A few diving Gannets. A few scratches on the Bottom. Lots of Comorrants. A few Bottlenose Dolphins. No Fish that mattered. I can say this: Of all the people on Planet Earth, I was the only Human Being to visit Shark Island today. The rest of y'all were too smart! Total Catch for the Day: Nothing

Feb 9 Striped Bass Fishing

I got a last second call to go Striped Bass fishing out of Oregon Inlet tuesday morning and with more terrible weather on the way, I said Why Not? So I made the trip up from Hatteras to Oregon Inlet to join Bryan and Brian. It was nice to fish on an old 23' Maycraft again. It brought back some great memories! The fishing was good and the fish were within 10 miles of Oregon Inlet. We caught a bunch of fish in the 30 pound class pretty quick. We kept 5 and then we hoped to catch a big one. No deal though. We caught 14 Striped Bass trolling in about 90 minutes and then jigged up 4 others. Back to the Boat Ramp by 11am. Sweet. Total catch for the Day: 18 Striped Bass up to 32 pounds

What I've Been Doing......

All winter long I've been watching the wind blow at Beaufort and feeling it blow at Hatteras! Right this moment I'm headed across Hatteras Inlet and it's blowing 40kts. I've also been watching it rain in Beaufort and getting soaked at Hatteras. Last night a 10 second sprint across the Ferry Deck was enough to saturate 3 layers of clothes. What I haven't done is GO FISHING. Hopefully, that is about to change. Be positive. Also on a positive note is the fact that I've been on an exercising mission. Doing 60 minutes a day on an Eliptical Machine at both Hatteras and Beaufort. Can't wait to see how long that kick lasts. So far, 41 out of the last 45 days. I'm getting ready for the Bonitos and the Cobias and the Big Drum. Up and Down. Up and Down. The Tower is going to pay off big-time this year!

Feb 1 Hatteras Time Again and Daydreaming

Time is flying by...Its already time for me to go back to Hatteras and seems like I just got home. Sorry about the Lack of Fishing Reports. I was thinking about pulling my boat up there, but the weather forecast through next weekend really doesn't sound so great. So, I'll leave it at home and that will surely cause the weather to be a little nicer! This week at Hatteras my goal is to catch a few Bay Scallops. The NCDMF was kind enough to open the Scallop Season in Pamlico Sound. I'm not sure what the hold-up was. The Seagulls have been dropping Scallops by the bushel baskets on Hwy 12 since September. The Lighthouse in the picture is at the south end of Key Biscayne and is called the Cape Florida Lighthouse. This would be a nice place to visit in February or March, anybody game for a Road Trip?

Jan 27 The Weather Ahead

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

Jan 20 Red Drum in the Surf

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

Jan 18 Headed Back to Hatteras and thinking about Last Saturday

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

2009 Fishing Season Highlights part 1

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

2009 Fishing Season Highlights part 2

2009 Fishing Season Highlights part 3

Jan 16 Red Drum in a Fish Bowl

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

Jan 6-12 Hatteras Red Drum and Speckled Trout

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

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

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

Dec 30 Black Sea Bass and Spiny Dogfish

Chris and his Dad joined me today and the battle plan was for the Cape Lookout Rocks, the Shoals, the Eastside, and to be bailed out by the AB ARs if all else failed. The Rock Jetty was dead. The Shoals were a little too hostile and the water was dirty and the sun wasn't shining. The Eastside wasn't cool for a "responsible Captain" on a center console in freezing weather and high seas. So that left the At Beach ARs, so we made the frigid run back to the west. Our first stop wasn't good at all. Just a few real small Black Sea Bass. Then we made the run down to 320 and I guess we made a day down there. I wish it could've been better, but at least it was fishy! Black Sea Bass and Spiny Dogfish made our day. A few Pelicans added to the fun. Chris managed a first on Top Water Charters. He actually caught 2 Pelicans on a bottom rig, and I mean he hooked, fought, and landed 2 Pelicans at the same time. Wow! When it was over, Chris had an ice bag full on keeper Black Sea Bass and he and I both kept a Dog Shark to try. Total Catch for the Day: 35 Black Sea Bass up to 13", 10 Spiny Dogfish, 1 Gag Grouper, 3 Spottail Pinfish, and 2 Scup ***3015 Total Fish in 2009***

Dec 29 Tony is Gone

Today we buried the person that I was closest to out of everybody in the entire world from about 1974 until about 1988. My friend and cousin, Tony Englehardt. Tony will never, ever be forgotten by his friends in Beaufort and he will be a constant reminder of how a perfect life can fall apart due to excesses. Nobody could help Tony or even slow him down. Everybody tried. Hopefully lots of people learned a valuable lesson from Tony's experience. Too Much. Too Fast. Too Young. Tony was my fishing partner in my early days. We learned alot together. Nobody showed us anything. But, he grew away from fishing and he and I grew apart. Now he's gone and there is another hole in my life. My best friend from High School did the same thing and he was bigger and stronger than Tony. Ty was 42. Tony was 46. I am 44, what more do I need to see.

Dec 12 Manns Harbor Casting

Perfect conditions. Overcast. Lots of Current. Lots of Bait. Chris and I cast to the Old Manns Harbor Bridge pilings for 5 hours with jigs and eels and never got a bite. Of all the boats we talked to, nobody else did any better. Zeros for the Fleet. Unbelievable. I should've went to the Hatteras Christmas Parade, but I went fishing instead. Total Catch for the Day: ZERO

Dec 9 and 12 Incredible Squid Fishing

Its the same old story and if you read about once, there's nothing else to learn or hear, but the numbers were unreal. On the 9th, I had 2 Squid frenzys that lasted 20 minutes each. On one drop, I caught 3 Squid on one Jig. The morning of the 10th, I cleaned 80 Squid and bagged 83 Squid to give away. That's 163 Squid. These Squid were small ones, from 2" to 10" each. On the 12th the big boys showed up and I torched them. I'm pretty much over cleaning them so I gave them all away. I never counted these Squid, but 7 people got more than they wanted. It was way up a 5 gallon bucket. I guess 75 Squid. These were 12" to 20" Squid. Nice ones. Total Catch for the 2 Nights: 238 Squid

Dec 7 Small Trout, Sea Bass, and Blow Toads

Nice weather today. Nice high tide cycle. Nice baitwell full of shrimp and mud minnows. All we needed was some nice Speckled Trout, but once again, we were thwarted in our efforts. Small Trout after small Trout at the Cape Lookout Rock Jetty. Numbers were good, but the fish box stayed empty. When we left the Jetty, we had probably released 50 Speckled and Gray Trout and we had 4 in the cooler. Next, we went searching for Gray Trout and Sea Mullet among the sink netters and found lots of small Grays and Croakers. Then we headed to the west a little farther and made our day with the craziest collection of fish that I've seen in a quite a while. I reckon I'd call in Blowtoad fishing since Northern Puffers made up the majority of the catch. Black Sea Bass up to 15", Pinfish up to 14", Smooth Dogfish up to 20 lbs and a 17" Gray Trout were the headliners. All these fish were caught jigging speck rigs in 40-50 feet of water. When it was all said and done, we had a nice cooler full of fish, and we had caught 18 different species and released over 130 fish. We never did find the elusive 20" Speckled Trout. Back to Hatteras for me tommorrow so I'm sure the fishing will improve! Total Catch for the Day: 45 Speckled Trout, 25 Gray Trout, 30 Bluefish, 17 Northern Puffers, 15 Black Sea Bass, 3 Summer Flounder, 6 Croaker, 2 Pinfish, 3 Spottail Pinfish, 4 Smooth Dogfish, 1 At Sharpnose Shark, 6 Rock Sea Bass, 1 Bank Sea Bass, 3 Hogfish, 2 Scup, 1 Oyster Toadfish, 2 Leopard Sea Robin and 1 Clearnosed Skate

Dec 4 Speckled Trout and Gray Trout

This morning the tide was right, the water was dirty, the wind was okay, and there was a huge ground swell. Two of the 4 helped the fishing and 2 of the 4 hurt the fishing. How was the Fishing? I guess my expectations are too high. This time of the year we should be smoking the 2-3 pound Trout. This time of the year should produce great days with 7 pounders occasionally. This year is different though and I was pretty disappointed with today's catch. I did get a 24" 5 pound Speckled Trout. That was a freak that ate a live shrimp at dead high tide on the Radio Island Rocks. I also got 4 more keeper Speckled Trout between 15" and 18". I killed a 10 fish limit of Gray Trout that ranged from 13" to 17". All the Gray Trout came from the Cape Lookout Rock Jetty. I also released 2 Gray Trout and 30 Speckled Trout that were too small. Every fish I caught today was caught on live shrimp or mud minnows. The Shoals were too unfriendly to cross this morning to search for larger game. This afternoon I was too disgusted to even attempt it. Total Catch for the Day: 35 Speckled Trout and 12 Gray Trout

Dec 3 Speckled Trout Bite

The Wind has been blowing and the Rain has been falling. What else is new? This afternoon things started to look a little better, so C-bo and I decided to take a little walk out to the Radio Island Rock Jetty. Fishing was pretty good even though the Speckled Trout were mostly too small. During the last 30 minutes of the falling tide, we were averaging a strike on every other cast. That will keep your attention. Between the two of us, we caught 25 Speckled Trout and I had a 15" Trout and a 16" Trout. All the other Speckled Trout were released and measured between 11" and 13". All things considered, I called that a pretty good little fishing rally. Total Catch for the Day: 25 Speckled Trout **2532 Total Fish in 2009**

Nov 28-30 Squid Blitz

On the 28th I got into the biggest school of Squid that I've seen in a couple of years. For a 20 minute stretch, I flat out bailed Squid. As fast as I could. I had to run and get a bucket and that took some time. Afterwards, I had 53 Squid in the bucket and I really don't remember not catching one on any drop. All I had to do was drop the jig, twitch the jig, and flip up a Squid. I couldn't miss. When it was over, I was covered with black ink. The following 2 nights were completely different. No schools. Just flipping the Squid Jig around the lights and I managed to catch 11 Squid one night and 8 Squid the next. Not too bad, but nothing like the blitz on the 28th. Total Catch for the Nights: 72 Squid and 3 Rainwater Killifish

Nov 25 Manns Harbor Striped Bass

I caught a ride with Chris today and we planned on giving some Striped Bass a hard time around Oregon Inlet. Unfortunately, it wasn't a great weather day, so we scrapped our Inlet plans and headed back to the Mann's Harbor Bridge. We were thinking numbers, not size. Too bad for us because we really didn't find either. We did manage to scrap up a few bites on plastic jigs. Unfortunately, Chris and I each lost our biggest Stripers of the day. The ones we caught were 16" to 20" and we released them all looking for a 10 pounder. I really was fun though, I hadn't fished the Bridge since 1999. We also carried some eels with us but we couldn't buy a bite on the live bait. I also caught a Blue Catfish. I guess that shows how much rain we've had. The last fish of the day was drop dead crazy! We were chasing "the only birds of the day" and had ran way inshore on the Manteo side when I picked up a pretty nice Sturgeon. I say "pretty nice" because I have no reference for comparison. I have seen a few jump off the Cape Lookout Shoals in winter and that's about it. For a big fish, I'd guess 15 pounds, he didn't have much fight. I guess he had already made a nice migration just to get where he was and he was pretty worn out. Still an impressive fish and it was nice to get my hands on one. Total Catch for the Day: 6 Striped Bass, 1 Blue Catfish and 1 Atlantic Sturgeon

Nov 24-26 Hatteras Squid Fishing

Night Run at Hatteras in late November gives me 2 different options. Look for Squid all night or rest at night and fish the Beach during the day. I chose the Squid fishing. The first 3 nights produced decent Squid Fishing for short periods of time. The good thing was that the Squid were consistently large ones. Most were in the 12" to 18" range. The biggest Squid was 22". Those are good eating size. I caught 13 Squid on the 24th and 20 Squid on the 26th. I also caught a few Black Sea Bass, but they were hard to land on the barbless Squid Jigs. I also caught a crazy new species for me! A 14" Southern Stargazer. I saw this weird fish that kept swimming around on top under the lights and I bounced my jig off him about 5 times, but he wasn't interested. However, when I dropped a strip of squid in front of him, it was a different story. He slurped it off the surface and a minute later I was trying to figure out how to unhook him. What an impressive fish! Total Catch for the Nights: 33 Squid, 4 Black Sea Bass and 1 Southern Stargazer