Sept 2 Great Spanish Mackerel Fishing

Brant and I found great casting action on Spanish Mackerel today. It was "every cast" fishing and when we were finally tired of catching these Mackerel, we had 30 on ice and had released 40 more. These Mackerel ranged from 11" to 16". We moved on to Shark Fishing and found the Sharks to be just as ready! In less than 1 hour, we released 4 Blacknose Sharks from 25 to 40 pounds and a stud 85 pound Blacktip Shark. The Blacktip put on a great aerial show and one of our Blacknoses was sporting a tag from NMFS Apex Predator Program. Cool. No camera on the Boat this morning, all pictures from the "Cleaning Table"

Sept 1 Flounders

In a quick strike to the Beaufort Waterfront I caught 6 Southern Flounders from 16" to 18" and lost 2 more and caught 2 Inshore Lizardfish. I only fished for 30 minutes and caught all my fish in the first 15 minutes. Not bad!

Aug 30 Red Drums

NOT GOOD! With a persistent NE wind blowing, I thought I was doing the right thing by calling off a Charter group that was going to drive in from Raleigh to fish for Drum out of Cedar Island. 8 hours of driving. Wouldn't you know that the wind fell out 3 hours later! With my boat all ready down there and 30 lb.s of bait on ice, I regretfully called up 2 friends and we went fishing. The fishing was okay. We had 7 bites and released 6 fish from 25 to 40 pounds. Marc did catch one on a bottom rig on the spinning rod while trying to catch a Bluefish.

Aug 29 Dock Flounders

Clifford and I were supposed to go to Cedar Island and catch Red Drum, but too much NE wind blew us back to Beaufort where we hit the Docks and caught 5 Flounders and a Speckled Trout.

Hatteras Citation Flounder and Sheepshead

Fishing a little bit everyday from Aug 21 until 27 I managed to catch 14 Flounders, including a 25" that weighed 6 lb. 8 oz, and 2 Sheepsheads that weighed 11 lb 8 oz and 7 lb. I also caught a number of Black Sea Bass.

Aug 20 Bft Waterfront Drums and Flounders

I spent a couple of hours on the docks this morning cleaning fish and Red Drums up to 25" and Flounders up to 18" kept interfering. When it was over I had caught 5 Flounders and 4 Red Drum on live Finger Mullet. I lost a Citation Flounder (5-6 pounder) and pulled off 2 more Drums. Back to Hatteras tonight for me!

Aug 19 Flounders and Drum

I had the boat to myself today and I was very disappointed in the catch. With a live well full of perfect bait, I really expected a "monster" Flounder day! What I got was 8 Flounder, with 5 legal sized, and I kept 3 at 18" and 2 at 16". The Red Drum saved the day though. I caught 6 from 27" to 32" and released 5 that were out of the slot. I kept a 7 pounder that measured out at 27". I also caught 2 Spanish Mackerel throwing metal and turned them into Blacktip Sharks inside the Inlet. I went 4 out of 6 on very light tackle. The 4 I released were 50 to 60 pounders.

Aug 16 46 Pound Red Drum

Slow night of Fishing but I made my bite count and released a 46 pound Red Drum. The Rouser had 1, maybe 2, bites and failed to connect. There will be better nights at Cedar Island.

Aug 15 Sharks, Kings, and Cudas

Today was a great day for small Kings and giant Sharks. Barracuda fishing was good too. My clients were from Ohio and 2 of them were 8 year old boys. What do 8 year old boys want? Sharks and Barracudas! First off we had a decent King Mackerel bite and caught 8 and released several. We also caught 3 nice Spanish Mackerel. Then we caught 3 Barracuda. Then we went King Fishing again and caught 3 in 10 minutes. King Fishing was smoking all day, most of the fish were 22" to 25", but we did have a couple that were larger. Finally we ended up Shark Fishing and it was "Game On". In 90 minutes we caught 5 Blacktip Sharks and 1 Dusky Shark. The Dusky was a beautiful 60 pounder. The Blacktips were huge. We had 4 over 80 pounds and the big one was 170. The biggest Blacktip ever landed on Top Water Charters. There was so much action, I don't even remember who caught it!!

10 Pound Sheepshead

I got my second Citation Sheepshead of the summer on Aug 7. This one weighed 10 pounds 4 ounces.

Aug 4 Every Cast Bluefishing

Landon, Fulton, Brant, and I slayed the Bluefish on the Shoals today. My first cast was met immediately by a 2 pounder and when I reeled him in, in came 200 of his friends! For the next hour, every cast was intercepted by a 1-3 pound Bluefish. We ended up boxing 20 and released just as many. We definitely "left them biting" and headed back to Cape Lookout for an afternoon swim.

August 3 Slow Dolphins, Cudas, and Kings

Howard, Tom, and I were met by a Black Wall of Rain Squalls this morning that kept us several miles from where we wanted to be, but I'm not sure that our catch would've been much better.

At the end of the day, both guys had their first Dolphins, and they each caught a Barracuda and a King Mackerel. Tom's King was intercepted beside the boat by a 35 lb. Barracuda that took a nice bite and was gone in a flash.

Aug1 Red Drum and Spanish Mackerel

Brant Ballou fished with me today and we did well early this morning on Spanish Mackerel. We caught over 20 in an hour of casting metal lures. These Mackerel were 1-2 pounds each. Next stop was on a school of 6-12 pound Red Drum. Brant and I caught 3 each, with Brant getting the biggest at 31". We kept 2 in the slot at 27" and 25". These 2 fish weighed 6 and 8 pounds each. We also caught Flounder and Black Sea Bass. Finally, we ended up Shark Fishing and we each caught 20 pound Blacknose Sharks and Brant pulled the hook on a sweet Hammerhead Shark. Brant also caught 2 So. Stingrays.

Hatteras Fishing

This week fishing was slow and I was basically unlucky. I was fishing for 1 fish, a 10 pound Sheepshead, and he managed to evade me all week. For the week, I caught 2 Sheepsheads and 3 Striped Bass.

July 22 and 23 Red Hot Red Drum

I fished without charters the last 2 days and smashed the Red Drum. In 2 days, Me and a buddy probably released 40 Red Drum, with the majority over 30". We kept 3 in the slot, all at the upper extreme at 26" to 27". These fish are stacked up in 1 spot and nobody knows about them but me! I have fished them 3 days in a row, in plain sight of dozens of other boats and nobody has noticed!

July 21 Great Drum Fishing

Edward and Shawn caught all the Red Drum they could stand early, keeping 3 "small ones" at 27", 27", and 25". All the rest were over the slot at 30" to 34". Then they moved on to the Blacktip Sharks. Shawn got 2 over 100 pounds and Edward got a 40 and a 70 pounder. Finally, we moved on to Mackerel fishing and Edward got the only strike and caught a nice 3 pound Spanish Mackerel. It was a great day despite way too much NE Wind!

July 19 Flounder, Mackerel, and Shark

Relentless SW wind is still dogging us, but we made through another tough day. We actually made it out to where the fishing was excellent, but conditions were too much for us to safely fish in my 23 foot boat. We did catch 3 Spanish Mackerel in 5 minutes before the boys yelled, "ENOUGH!!" We went back inside and caught 4 keeper Summer Flounders and finished up witrh 3 Smoking Blacktips, including Jonathon's 70 pounder on the Flounder Rod!

July 18 Tough Luck

Steve and Sandra were looking for a big catch of Flounder today and it started out real, real good. First drop by Sandra resulted in a nice 18" Summer Flounder! Six hours later, that's what they had, 1 keeper Flounder. They also caught Bluefish, Black Sea Bass, and a small Flounder. We battled bait that was too small, too much wind, too much rain, and scattered Thunderstorms all day long.

July 12 GIANT SHEEPSHEAD

A couple of years of direct effort for a 10 lb. Citation Sheepshead came to conclusion today when a 12 pound 8 ounce Sheepshead decided to eat the Sea Urchin that I had dropped down to him!

July 8 Dolphins, Amberjacks, Grouper, and a King

Jim, Joe, Wes, and Garrett fished with me yesterday for action. Today they wanted meat. We were beseiged by small Dolphin early. Caught 10-12 and kept 8 with the largest around 7 pounds. We also caught 2 Amberjacks and a King Mackerel. We also tried the bottom and caught Gag Grouper and Black Sea Bass. Then we searched for a Barracuda for the boys and came up empty. We finished up inside Beaufort Inlet and Garrett caught a 40 pound Shark.

July 7 Amberjacks and Sharks

Today we went out looking for a good fight and when the smoke had cleared I think we had released 8 Sharks from 25 to 50 pounds, released 8 Amberjacks from 10 to 28 pounds, and kept a 42 and a 15 pound Amberjack for the table. Jim also caught 1 Amberjack on his fly rod and was fighting a second one when the rod failed! Nice day with lots of action!

July 5 Kids and Sharks

Beau and EJ came all the way from Pittsburgh to challenge Sharks on light tackle and along with family friend, Jonathon, everybody released 2 Sharks a piece. Unfortunately no Blacktips were feeding on the shoal today and the Ocean was too rough to carry our search offshore. The boys caught all Blacknose Sharks and had 2 in the 40 pound range. The boys also did a little bottomfishing and caught Pinfish, Black Sea Bass, Lizardfish, Sand Perch and finally Beau stumped me when he pulled up a Belted Sandfish! I had to get out the Peterson's Field Guide when I got home!

July 4 Brant and his 135 pound Blacktip Shark

On July 4, Brant finally ended his Shark Quest when he punched out a 35 pound Blacknose. A few minutes later, he got his young career best when he nailed a 135 pounder. This one was awesome because he hit in 3 feet of water and chased it nearly a mile before we turned it loose. Earlier in the morning, I got 2 Blacknose Sharks and a 60 pound Blacktip Shark.

Hatteras Flounder Fishing

Last week in app. 8 hours of late night dock fishing I caught 38 Southern Flounders up to 19". My best night was Saturday night when I caught 17 in an hour and ten minutes. I also caught a Ribbonfish, Bluefish, Black Sea Bass, and Croaker.