June 29 I'm still at Hatteras

I've been here too long. Tommorrow will be day 10 and I need to get home. Since my last report, I've caught another Sheepshead on a Hermit Crab and I've wrapped up a few more Jumping Mullets. The Mullets are big ones for June, 2-3 pounders and great for the grill. I've had them 4 times in 9 nights and they are still great. My Sheepshead was a small one, less than a pound. Today I found a lump of 4 Sea Urchins. I thought about catching them and using them for bait. They might be the key to the future though. The last 3 years there was an endless supply. I could harvest 50 per day, 365 days a year, and never see a change. Now they are all gone, except the 4 I found today. Those 4 might re-populate the entire Basin. Then again, those 4 Urchins might quickly become a batch of Sheephead Citations. Capt Marty's Dilemma! Total Catch for the Period: 1 Sheepshead

June 22 and 23 First Sheepshead

The first Sheepshead of 2010 on the hook and 40 lbs of Jumping Mullet in my cast net on June 22nd. I'm taking a wild guess here, but I believe the great Sheepshead fishing of '08 and '09 will not carry over this summer. From the looks of it, the entire Sea Urchin population around Ocracoke and Hatteras has died off last winter. The Sea Urchin bonanza made catching all those 8-12 lb Sheepshead a piece of cake. The one I caught today was ate a Hermit Crab and that's alot of work. My Sheepshead was a 2 pounder and I released him unharmed. On June 23rd, I tossed the net one time and loaded it down with 70 lbs of Jumping Mullet. Total Catch for 2 days: 1 Sheepshead

June 19 Slow Red Drum Fishing

Lee and I fished a Red Drum Tournament and it was an adventure. We ran 80 miles. A great circle. We caught a nice 24" Red Drum and a less than nice 20" Red Drum. East winds and Low tides made it tough on us earky in the day. Whew, that's an understatement! I am not sure where we finished, but I know it wasn't in the top 3. Total Catch for the Day: 2 Red Drum, 1 Southern Flounder, and 1 Pinfish

June 18 My Boat is Back in Action

My Boat is ready. I am ready. The Spanish Mackerel, King Mackerel, Amberjack, Shark, and Dolphin are ready! But first, Capt Lee Willis and I are fishing a Red Drum Tournament tommorrow. We are fishing on a brand new 23 ft Parker Bay Boat. Lee is http://www.redfishaction.com/. We are fishing the HT3 Tournament Series. Looks like fun........

June 17 Dolphin Fishing

Great weather today did not mess us up! I caught a ride with Tuggy and Brock and we found a few Dolphin by trolling in 100 feet of water SE of Beaufort Inlet. Then somebody said, "Here they come!" So we bailed them on light spinning tackle. Nice. Lots of jumps and changes of direction. After we caught all we wanted we tried to catch an Amberjack on a jig. No luck, too much current. We had shots at 2 Cobia, but Tuggy and me (the Cobia Killers) screwed those up. Total Catch for the Day: 20 Dolphin up to 18 lbs

June 12 Hatteras Cobia Fishing Part 3

I got a chance to fish up at Hatteras today aboard Johnny Willis's private boat and it was great day on the water. Johnny, Gary, and Lee are all avid fishermen and they love to catch Cobia. Conditions were perfect but the fishing was a challenge. We tried sight casting and bait fishing. Southern Stingrays and Spiny Butterfly Rays made bait fishing very hard on our tackle boxes! The BIG ONES were on the Shoals today. 100-200+ pounders that are impossible to pull off the bottom. The Cobia were very shy today. Gary got a 55 lb. Cobia on a bucktail right off the bat and we had a couple of other chances. I got a double header of 36" Cobia off a Stingray and Lee nailed a 39" Cobia off the same Ray. We saw 2 other nice ones and thats about it. The weather was great, but the fishing was slack. Total Catch for the Day: 4 Cobia up to 55 pounds, 2 Spiny Butterfly Rays up to 50 pounds and 2 Southern Stingrays up to 60 pounds

June 10 Ferry Dock Fishing

It's a little too early for the good stuff but I was up late last night so I gave it a try. The highlight was a 15" Croaker on cut bait and a few Jumping Mullets in the cast net. The fishing was okay for the pests.... Small Black Sea Bass, Pinfish, Sand Perch, and small Bluefish. I saw a few Spadefish milling around in the dark, but they were too slick. The lowlight of the night was the first Oyster Toad of the season! It might would've been worth my time to try for a Flounder, but traditionally, I have caught more Flounder at the Hatteras side in June than on the Ocracoke side. At least I got a couple of fish for lunch tommorrow. Fried Croaker Sandwich. Total Catch for the Night: 1 Croaker, 10 Black Sea Bass, 10 Pinfish, 4 Bluefish, 1 Sand Perch, and 1 Oyster Toad

June 8 and 9 Hatteras Surf Fishing

Tuesday I went out looking for a 2 lb Pompano and all I found was a baby Puffer and a 8 lb Cownose Ray. Sand Fleas were hard to catch on the rising tide. There was some really, really nice scenery on the Beach. Better than nothing. The Cownose Ray was a great fight and conversation starter. On Wednesday, I went to the same spot and had nearly identical results. The only difference was that I caught a Sea Mullet instead of a Puffer. I did battle another Cownose Ray. Total Catch for the Day: 2 Cownose Ray, 1 Gulf Sea Mullet and 1 Northern Puffer

June 6 Bailing Dolphin

I got a chance to fish offshore at Hatteras today and the fishing had been great so I decided to go for it. As usual, the weather forecast was iffy. We woke up to a 20kt SW wind. Once we reached the fishing grounds, the wind was honking and the current was blazing. That combination actually helped hold the seas down, I think! Our biggest problem was that Saturday's Dolphin schools were 20 miles farther South on Sunday morning. So we chased them down. By lunchtime, we had 1 Skipjack Tuna and 4 Dolphins. After we found the spot, we sacked them up pretty good. Lots of bailers and 7 between 15-25 pounds. Ed got the largest, a 25lb Bull Dolphin on a spinning rod. Frank got his largest, a 17 pounder, on a trout rod. When it was all said and done, we had caught about 350 pounds of Fish. Total Catch for the Day: 62 Dolphin up to 25lbs and 1 Skipjack Tuna

Boat Disabled and Headed to Hatteras

Just when I think things can't any worse......I used to be happy about heading to Hatteras, but this time, the thought of it makes me sick. The bigger problem is with my Boat. Night Run out of Hatteras in June would be a wonderful thing, but this time I'm headed up there with NO BOAT and that sucks. Hopefully the Boat will be up and running when I get home on June 15th. In the meantime, I will be looking for some Flounder and Sheepshead around the Ferry Dock.

June 4 Sharks and Rays and Boat Problems

The top picture is of another Dead Whale. What's up with that? Anyway, the Whale's day was worse than mine, barely. This day did not go as planned. I left the dock with a phantom alarm. During the day I developed a real problem. All sorts of electrical problems. The Boat's troubles dictated our day. It was all Bad! By the end of the day, I would call it an interesting catch. No Cobia though and since that was the primary Target Species, it was not a successful day. Jerry caught lots of new things. Three varieties of Shark and two flavors of Ray. The best fish we caught was a 4 foot Bonnethead Shark. The largest thing we caught was a 60 lb Spiny Butterfly Ray. The Boat is officially "broken down" and I almost forgot, I broke a rod on a Stingray. Not a great day! Total Catch for the Day: 2 Blacknose Sharks up to 25lbs, 1 Bonnethead Shark, 3 Sharpnose Sharks, 2 Southern Stingrays, 2 Spiny Butterfly Rays up to 60lbs and 2 Bluefish

May 30 Hatteras Cobia Fishing Part 2

Today was my Birthday and nobody seemed to care. The best present that I got was finding a Manta Ray cruising in 30 feet of water off Ocracoke Island. The Ray was a huge one, probably 20+ feet from wingtip to wingtip. The best part was that he had 8-10 Cobia cruising with him and these were big Cobia at 40-50 pounds each. I hooked 2 of these Cobia from the Tower before I climbed down. Out of this doubleheader, I caught a 46 pound Cobia and lost the other one.I also released 2 borderline legal Cobia. I saw a 6 foot Cobia that I never really had a chance to catch. This was a giant Cobia, probably 90-100 pounds. After an action packed morning, I went 30 minutes without seeing anything and I was back at the dock before noon. The picture is of my 46lb Cobia banging around after I climbed back up in the Tower. Nice. Total Catch for the Day: 3 Cobia up to 46 pounds

May 27 Hatteras Cobia Fishing

Rob and I went out to kill the Cobia this morning. We started out by looking on the western edge of Diamond Shoals. The water was dirty and cold and full of bait. We had another Humpback Whale experience and got close enough to smell his breath! We saw 2 Cobia and a Hammerhead Shark, but we never hooked up. Then we ran down and looked 6-7 miles off Hatteras and found beautiful Blue Water. We also "ran over" 3 Cobia and established what would become the theme for the day. After wasting more time, we ended up off the eastern end of Ocracoke Island and we finally found plenty of fish. The problem was, we kept running over them. Conditions were less than perfect, but today we were just in a bad groove. We ended up catching 3 Cobia. Our largest was a 30 lber. Our other 2 fish were less than 20 pounds. We probably saw 40 Cobia. It was fun, but really disappointing. Is this a personal slump? Bad Karma? I'm ready for it to end! Total Catch for the Day: 3 Cobia up to 30 lbs

May 24 Wasted Day

Today was a total bummer. Mit came all the way from Canada to catch a Cobia. This morning we were greeted by strong winds, rain, and a gray sky. We ran to the east towards a hole in the sky and a ray of sunlight. On the western edge of the Shoals conditions were less than ideal, but they were fishable. After a 90 minute search, we had seen one Cobia and I had ran over him. Then we decided to check out the Bait Balls that have been everywhere for 3 weeks. This morning, they were gone. No bait. We then took off on a 20 mile run to catch bait on the inside. By now, the wind was blowing 20+ out of the NE. No bait, no where. We decided to call it a half of a half day. After the guys drove away, the bottom fell out for 10 minutes.Then the wind slacked up and the sun came out. It would've been a pretty good day for sight casting. It makes me sick. Now I'm headed to Hatteras for the week. Total Catch for the Day: NOTHING

May 23 Better Cobia Fishing

Joe and his boys joined me today for a half day adventure and I would have to say, it was a good time. it was probably the best day ever for viewing the Blue Planet. We saw Bottlenosed Dolphins killing a Bait ball. We saw Sharks hammering a Bait Ball. We has a very close encounter with a Humpback Whale. We saw around 10 Cobia. Web hooked 4 Cobia. We caught 2 Cobia. We caught a handful of Bluefish. We saw Turtles, Rays, Sharks, Spanish Mackerel, and we saw millions of Menhaden. We pulled off a 50+ pound Cobia. We couldn't get a bite off a 60 lb Cobia. We boxed a 38lb Cobia and a 34" Cobia. things were picking up when we quit. Total Catch for the Day: 2 Cobia up to 38lbs and 5 Bluefish

May 22 Bad Moves=Bad Fishing

I pretty much know that the Cobia Motherlode is north of us. Today, for some reason, I thought I would run after them. However, I knew I couldn't run to Ocracoke. So we ran to Drum Inlet and never found the tail end of the migration. When we quit running, we were still 20+ miles from the bite. I think I would've done better by hammering my Home Turf. Hell, I could not have done worse. When we got back to Cape Lookout the Fiberglass Armamda had scoured every nook and cranny of the Shoals and even had the Bluefish on the run. We managed a few Bluefish on metal, but the day was shot. my sincere apology to my anglers. We also snagged a few Shad. Total Catch for the Day: 5 Bluefish and 8 Menhaden

May 20 Casting to Turtles

Cobia Fishing was a little different today than when I left it. Sight casting opportunities were nearly non-existent. I saw 2 small Cobia swimming on top and ran over both of them. On a positive note, on a day when nearly everyone struck out, I did get lucky. I found a giant Leatherback Turtle swimming in 7 feet of dirty water. When I approached the Turtle, he dove to the bottom. The damn thing was so big though, I could still see a dark spot moving across the bottom. One cast with a bucktail and 7-8 Cobia magically appeared. After the first hook-up, I grabbed another rod and cast again. Bam, doubleheader. 15 minutes later I had a 38 lb Cobia in the boat and let a slightly smaller fish walk. That was early and that was it. I never saw another fish. Total Catch for the Day: 2 Cobia up to 38 lbs

May 19 Scouting Trip

We left the Dock at 2pm and we ran east 12 miles. This is what I found: 3 Sheeepsheads feeding a Bouy in the Bft Inlet Chain. No sunlight and stiff East Wind. Wasted afternoon. I learned nothing. Total Catch for the Day: ZERO

May 7 My New Career Best Cobia and New Boat Record---94 pounds

Believe it or not, today was even better than yesterday. Jeremy, Josh, Mike, and I smoked the Cobia again today. We fished longer and harder. We saw more fish than yesterday. We were shadowed by other boats all day. Its hard for me to understand why anyone would need to follow me around when there are thousands of Cobia around. We probably saw 2-300 Cobia, hooked 25 Cobia and caught 17 cobia. The good news for me was that I got to make a cast off the tower and 90 minutes later, I had a new career best and boat record Cobia at 94 pounds. Sweet! Josh had a Cobia around 70 pounds and we had 6 total over 50 pounds. Great Day of Fishing. Total Catch for the Day: 17 Cobia up to 94 lbs

May 6 Epic Cobia Casting

Tuggy and his crew had an epic Cobia trip today at Cape Lookout. First cast in the air at 9am, last cast in the air at 1pm. We saw 50+ Cobia, hooked 17 Cobia, and caught 15 Cobia. All these fish were caught on spinning tackle by sight casting. We had a 56 lb.er and a 58 lb.er. We had 4 Citations. We saw a many Sharks, Rays, Bluefish, and Spanish Mackerel. Total Catch for the Day: 15 Cobia up to 58 lbs and 2 Bluefish

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What a Great Tuna Picture

May 5 Big Suprize Blackfin Tuna Inshore

I made a solo run out to AR 315 this morning to spank the Atlantic Bonito. I was met at Beaufort Inlet by heavy fog and zero visibility. I said , WTH, what else can go wrong in my life, but I headed west anyway. Once I got to 315, it was pretty obvious, pretty quick that it wasn't going to be a big Atlantic Bonito day. Spanish Mackerel and Bluefish were over structure and fishing was okay for them. The first Spanish Mackerel of the year is always exciting. After an hour or so and 10 Bluefish and 5 Spanish Mackerel, an acre of Bonito crashed just inshore of the Reef. Me and one other boat made it to the melee in time. I got 2 Atlantic Bonitos in a hurry. I let one walk and iced one down the unfortunate one. Ceviche! After a few minutes of waiting around, I said this is too slow, so I started the trek down to AR 320. I didn't get far to the west before I came up on another school of Atlantic Bonito. This time I was too slow. No strikes. I did notice a couple of birds dipping over an area thich with Lion's Mane Jellyfish. As I watched, I saw a big boil, then another. Something unusal. Was I seeing things? Then a couple of Spanish Mackerel jumped. So I casted my tiny weighted Yo-Zuri on 8# test. Quick stike......An hour and a mile later, I had a 24 lb Blackfin Tuna in the Boat! Unreal. Total Catch for the Day: 1 Blackfin Tuna, 2 Atlantic Bonito, 5 Spanish Mackerel, and 10 Bluefish

April 25 Largemouth Bass in Beaufort

Last Spring I was doing quite a lot of Freshwater Fishing. This year, not so much. This afternoon, I went over to one of my favorite Urban Bass Hotspots and checked it out. The wind was blowing a little too hard for the Fly Rod, so I decided to use a Plastic Worm instead. It wan't great, but in an hour, I had 10 strikes, 8 hook ups, and released 6 Largemouth Bass. All these were spunky, but weighed less than a pound. Better than nothing. We also went to the Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores today and I assume this is a replica of the NC State Record Dolphin. I thought it was worthy of a photo! Total Catch for the Day: 6 Largemouth Bass

April 23 Good Sight Casting Action

Today was a good day of fishing. It was not a good day for the camera battery to die. There was 1 event that made today a day to remember. Our biggest Red Drum of the day (and the year so far) got mauled.......By a 9 foot Bull Shark. I assume it must have been a Bull Shark because I don't think the much more common Sandbar Sharks get anywhere near that size. Anyway, it all happened in 6 foot of water right under the bow. Hopefully some of the cell phone footage will turn out good. Maybe the images of the Shark that the guys captured will shed more light on the Sharks identity. I was more intent on getting my bucktail back that trying to figure out what kind of Shark it was! The day started with a bang. Our first 3 casts all connected with 30-40 pound Red Drum. We ran right up on a huge school. I figured it was going to be an epic numbers day, but it turned out differently. The final fish of this tripleheader turned out to be a 60 pounder on 12 lb spin. The big Red Drum nearly spooled us twice, then he found his way into the jaws of the big Shark. The carcass pulled the Bogagrip below the 50 pound mark. After that episode, we found the Red Drum schools 2 more times and released 3 more fish. We also "every casted" the Bluefish for 30 minutes. These Bluefish were 1-2 pounders. We didn't see any of the 3 pounders we expected. The Shoals weren't too lively today, but we did see an oddball out there today. A 4 foot Thresher Shark was headed east in the skinny water. He wasn't impressed with our bucktails. We also saw a Hammerhead Shark and lots of assorted Biters. Total Catch for the Day: 6 Red Drum (32-60+ pounds) and 35 Bluefish

Fishing Tommorrow

I'm pretty excited to be headed to the Shoals tommorrow to pick up the search for the Schools of Red Drum. It will be interesting to climb back up in the Tower after my last adventure. It is still really sore! In other fishing news, have you guys been checking out the Groupers thay the Hatteras Crowd has been whacking. Awesome. 40 and 50 pounders all over the place. Lots of Golden Tilefish. Well, hopefully I will post a great report tommorrow and as for this Blog, it is acting up and I don't know how to fix it. I'm getting a big empty space on my right hand column information. Are you guys seeing it too?

Back In The Day

Way back when.....The old 23' Maycraft was on the Sharks. Blacknoses and Blacktips. Even had a 400 lb Bull Shark bite a 35lb Blacknose in two right behind the boat in 6 feet of water! Will this be the summer that somebody gets eaten at Sand Dollar Island!

Right Whales

Here is the best I could get while respecting their space.

April 12 Awesome Red Drum Fishing and Right Whales

Today was a bad day for everything but fishing. A trip out of Ocracoke that I really wanted to do fell through. So I splashed the Boat at home and headed back to the Cape Lookout Shoals. Once there, the fishing was great, but I will always remember this day because.......Today was the day that I.......Finally fell out of the Tower!!! How hurt am I? I don't know yet. Let's just say my knee, my ribs, my wrist, and lots of things inside hurt. I think I'm okay though. Other than that, Puppy Drum were everywhere, Large Red Drum were scattered, and a mother and baby Right Whale were crossing the Shoals. That was pretty impressive in 6 feet of crystal clear water. The baby was 16-17 feet long. The mother was enormous. Awesome day except for the Girls at Ocracoke and my fall from the Tower. I did catch my 48 lb Red Drum on 10lb spin. Awesome. Total Catch for the Day: 12 Red Drum (5 Large up to 48 lb.s and 7 puppys up to 30")