May 31 World Class Spadefish

I hate it when a Fishing Guide says "World Class Fishing". World Class for who? I use that term very sparingly. That being said, I'm going to go ahead and say it today. Fishing a Wreck that sits on Diamond Shoals, BJ Swain and I caught 15 Spadefish. An astounding 5 of these Spadefish were over 10 pounds, and BJ landed 2 that weighed 11 pounds each. All these Giant Spades were caught in a little less than 2 hours. This was just a little diversion to sight casting for Cobia. Cobia Fishing was pretty good too. Our biggest problem was that the majority of the Cobias we found were swimming on the bottom. We could see them easy enough in 3-6 feet of crystal clear water, but we didn't see most of them until it was too late. Two that we saw in plenty of time were BJ's 57 pound Cobia and my 55 pound Cobia. There was another 60+ pounder that was cruising with a school of Bluefish and incredibly these pesky bastards jumped in front of our Cobia and hit the bucktails. The Cobia swam off into the wild blue yonder without 2 of his escorts. Then there was the 35 pound Cobia that flat out had a death wish, that ate my bucktail right under the boat. I somehow managed to lose that one. Oh well, we were 2 out of 9 on Cobias today in nearly perfect conditions. We also hammered a school of Bluefish. We saw a 25 pound King Mackerel and scattered Atlantic Bonito on the Shoals but failed to connect. Total Catch for the Day: 15 Spadefish (3-11 pounds), 2 Cobia (55 and 57 pounds) and 12 Bluefish (1-2 pounds)

May 28 Hatteras Gaffer Dolphin and Huge Spadefish

Tony and I went out fishing this morning with a 3 pronged plan of attack. Our targets were Dolphins, Amberjacks at Diamond ShoalsTower, and a Cobia on the Shoals on the way home. When it was over we were 2 out of 3 with a really nice bonus. First up was a couple of hours of trolling for Dolphin. We fished an area where the fishing had been great, so good that the only boats fishing near us were 4 long-liners. They were loaded up with Dolphins and the Hatteras Charter Fleet was fishing somewhere else. The fishing was still good for us and we didn't have to stray from our plan. In 3 hours of trolling just south of the Tower, we caught 11 Dolphin that weighed from 10 to 18 pounds each. Then it was off to Diamond Shoals Tower where Tony got a 25 pound Amberjack and I caught a 15 pound Amberjack. So it was off to look for a Cobia. Running NW toward the Shoals, I decided to check out a real shallow Wreck that sits on the offshore end of Diamond Shoals. What we found was a Spadefish Heaven and they were "grown ones". In an hour of hardcore effort, I had caught an 8 pound Spadefish and a 9 pound Spadefish. Tony struggled to keep these Giant Spadefish out of the Wreck as he broke off 4 or 5 monsters. Finally we ran inshore and gave a quick search for Cobia. Running out of time because I had to go to work, we did a 15 knot search of the Shoals and the Beach and didn't see any Cobia. Total Catch for the Day: 11 Dolphin (10-18 pounds), 2 Amberjack (15 and 25 pounds), and 2 Spadefish (8 and 9 pounds)

May 25 The End to a Horrible Fishing Week---Guess What

This has been one horrible week of Fishing. Monday it blew 50 and rained 2 inches. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday it blew East and that sucks. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday it blew Southeast which made the water clear so we could actually see there were NO FISH. Today was my last day off and I go back to work tommorrow at Hatteras. Wouldn't you figure that we can see the light at the end of the "fishless tunnel" now? Inshore Fishing has been so slow this week I actually talked my client for the day to re-schedule June. So today I carried my wife up to Cape Lookout. I personally am not one to sit on the Beach, so of course I went riding to look for a Cobia. Earlier this week, I had rode 178 miles and not seen nary a Cobia. So today, with a half-hearted effort, wouldn't you know that I saw 19 Cobias in 2 hours. Sheesh. Granted, an estimated 15 of these were "Bouy Fish" in a mixed school of app 30 baby Amberjacks. Unfortunately, all these fish were undersized or borderline. Regardless, for me to find a school of 30" to 33" Cobias and 8-10 pound Amberjacks on an "inshore Bouy" after a week of horrible fishing was a treat for me! I couldn't get the Amberjacks to hit a top water plug, but they sure did gather underneath it and eyeball it! It almost seemed like another boat had already hammered this school. The little Cobias were less wary. I caught a 31" Cobia on a bucktail and then caught a 33" Cobia and a 30" Cobia on whole squids that were cast to the Bouy. The other 4 Cobia I saw today were single fish, all in the 25-35 pound class. I made casts to 2 fish that wouldn't eat a bucktail and the other 2 Cobias were ran over by other Boats before I could get off a cast. That, my friends, is Holiday Fishing Inshore off Beaufort Inlet and a horrible conclusion to a terrible week of Fishing. Total Catch for the Day: 3 Cobias (all released, 1 borderline legal, but I couldn't kill the poor critter)

Sand Tiger Shark Info

Yesterday for the 4th time in the past couple of years I used Sand Tiger Sharks to salvage an otherwise poor day of Fishing. These Sharks have ranged from 75 to 150+ pounds. I have caught them every time that I have tried this one particular spot. On good fishing days I wouldn't do this kind of thing, but I'm not sure why. In aquariums across the country Sand Tigers are always the number 1 attraction. Huge Bodies with sharp teeth sticking out everywhere. On the hook they are pretty tame for their size. You can catch a 100+ pounder in short order on relatively light tackle. My personal career best Shark is a 242 pound Sand Tiger caught in March of 1993. An amazing fact for such a docile creature is that this Shark actually eats all of it's brothers and sisters while still in the womb! Sand Tigers also rise to the surface and gulp air. This air is stored in a primitive swim bladder and allows them to hover motionless off the bottom. Small fish are lured into a false sense of security by the motionless Shark and actually try to use them for cover. This adaptation and behavior helps the lumbering Sand Tiger effectively feed on small fish and makes them unique in the Shark world. Anybody wanna go catch one? I know the perfect place. I'm 4 out of 4 so far.

May 23 Big Brown Fish?

Jim and CJ set sail today and priority #1 was to catch a Cobia. So we rode 68 miles and went west and east. Then we went east some more. To the secret spot. Finally CJ caught 2 Big Brown Fish. Both were over 100 pounds. Unfortunately, we had given up the dream and CJ caught and released 2 Sand Tiger Sharks. We also caught a Black Sea Bass. We chased 3 Chopper Bluefish, a Barracuda, Spadefish, and a Sandbar Shark unsuccessfully. You know the story, unrelenting SE wind and 4 foot Ground Swell continue to kill the Inshore Fishing. Total Catch for the Day: 2 Sand Tiger Sharks (100 and 115 pounds) and 1 Black Sea Bass

May 22 Bluefish and More Bad Fishing

My first problem was my cast of characters for today's fishing adventure backed out! Then, of course, the Wind kept blowing from the East. Everybody is sick of hearing about the East Wind. So, today's excuse will be called "Ground Swell". What a beautiful day. SE Winds that were lighter than yesterday brought in some cleaner water. We also had a beautiful 4-6 foot Ground Swell that was 8 seconds apart. Hawaii 5-0 stuff. Unfortunately, big Ground Swell never seems to help Inshore Fishing. Today was No Different. Throw that beautiful swell on top of 4 straight days of East Wind and....Why did I even bother to go again. After riding 60 miles yesterday and 50 miles today and I ain't seen a Cobia yet. Combine the 2 days and I could've fished to Hatteras and back. That probably would've been the wise thing to do. Oh well, today was better than yesterday. At least today I caught 3 Bluefish from 5-7 pounds, 3 Black Sea Bass from 10" to 14", and a Pinfish. All the fish were caught on stingsilvers in 50 feet of water. I also played with a nice swarm of big Spadefish, but didn't land any. They were itching to get caught, but Monday's blowout also blew away all the Jellyballs. The big Spades weren't quite hungry enough to eat Squid, but they gave it some long, hard looks. Total Catch for the Day: 3 Bluefish, 3 Black Sea Bass, and 1 Pinfish.

May 21 Nothing But The Wind and a Boat Ride

I went on a little "scouting trip" today. Cobias were eating up the entire Coast from Beaufort Inlet to Diamond Shoals until the big Monday Blowout. Then came Tuesday and Wednesday's East Wind Extravagandas. Today was supposed to be the day we turned the corner on the weather. Lighter East Winds and Mostly Sunny. So I went for a ride to see what I could find. Here is what I found: 15+ knot East Winds, Filthy water along the Beach and out a mile from the Cape Lookout Shoals, a Beautiful, but fishless, Tide Line off Beaufort Inlet, Chocolate Milk in Lookout Bight, and one lone Houndfish out in the Blue Water off AR-315. That's a 60 mile Boat Ride and I never saw anything to cast a bucktail to! The Bait fishermen were catching Sharks and Rays at the Cape and Rough Point, maybe I saw 1 Cobia caught, but I'm not sure about that. Total Catch for the Day: NOTHING

May 19 Weather Forecast Blues

Can you believe this weather? What am I saying? Of course you can believe it! I've been snake-bit by the weather ever since I took a week off work in October of 2006! Since you guys probably don't recall, when I take a week off work, I get 3 straight weeks off (week-on, week-off schedule) In Oct '06 I took a shift off for 3 straight weeks of Hardcore Fishing and 19 of the 21 days were Small Craft Warnings or Gale Warnings. I never recovered and I'm still waiting for "my stretch" of good weather. And it ain't gonna be this week! Regardless, I'll still be Cobia Fishing in less than ideal conditions and maybe we can manage a fish or two plus recover from this Front by the weekend! I do have some great places to fish in peace and quiet on NE and SE winds but the catch rate sometimes suffers. Just telling it like it is!

May 11 Chopper Bluefish and Spanish Mackerel

With 4 anglers on my Boat today and after yesterday's sight casting success; I figured that by Cobia Fishing with bait, it would be hard to make everybody happy. So we went and casted to Chopper Bluefish with Top Water Plugs on 10# spinning tackle in 3-5 ft of water instead. That made everyone happy. Just like yesterday we found huge numbers of 6-10 pound Bluefish tailing in the shallows. After everybody on the Boat had caught a couple for the box and released several more, we went looking for a Cobia and we didn't find one. Too bad, that would've made for a perfect day! However, conditions were less than perfect, with rain and 20 kt NW wind. We did find a good number of Spanish Mackerel up to 2 lbs west of the Shoals at Cape Lookout. Mike and crew whacked the Spanish pretty good too, catching 14 casting metal in 20 minutes. Total Catch for the Day: 30 Bluefish (6-10 lb) and 14 Spanish Mackerel

May 10 Cobias on Bucktails and Choppers on Top Water Plugs

I'd have to say today was my best day ever for Bluefish, and I started fishing for Bluefish back around 1970. That was not yesterday! We caught 7-13 pound Bluefish from 10am until 2pm on nearly every single cast. All of these Bluefish came from 1-6 feet of water and all came on Top Water Plugs. On 4 different occasions we caught 2 on 1 plug at the same time. For 2 hours, after every Bluefish foray, I would say, " We need to go look for Cobias!" We were piling up crazy numbers and couldn't quit. Finally after catching and releasing Bluefish for 4 hours, we went looking for Cobia. It didn't matter if we went earlier or not! In the first 5 minutes we saw 8 Cobias! Cobias number 2 and 3 were 90 and 100 pounders that were swimming with a seemingly small 70 pounder. Unfortunately these were 3 of the "smart ones" that weren't interested in our offerings. We cast to them, on them, over them, etc etc for 10 minutes. They wouldn't eat and they wouldn't spook. Chris was getting ready to "free gaff" the 100 pounder when a 35 lb Cobia showed up and swam up to the Boat. This one ate the bucktail and it was game on. An hour later we had caught 4 Cobia that went from 31 to 38 pounds. We kept 2 Cobias and released 2 to fight another day. Both released fish measured 38" and weighed 31 pounds on a bouncy Boga Grip. In the 60 minutes that we looked around, we saw at least 12 Cobias swimming on the surface. I'd call that a great day of fishing. Finally. Total Catch for the Day: 45 Bluefish (7-13 lb each) and 4 Cobia (31, 31, 35, 38 lb) That's about 600 pounds of Fish caught today!

May 9 Back Home--The WIND is Blowing and the Cobia Fishing is ON

Imagine that the wind would be blowing! I can't believe it. Every year I try to schedule my Florida trip so that I don't miss any good Cobia Fishing. Basically, I sacrifice the Bonito to save the Cobia. This year I think I messed up. It sounds like there has been an excellent "early" run of Cobias at Cape Lookout and Hatteras. Up to 8 fish per boat at Hatteras and lots of 60 pounders at both Beaufort Inlet and Hatteras. In the meantime, I've been chasing fish 900 miles away. Now I'm home and the wind is blowing 30+. Hopefully Tommorrow and Monday will be different. I'm ready to get back in the Game! The Fish in these pictures are some of the "fishy things" I Caught with my Camera while in Florida. Top Photo is a Gray Anglefish that was working the Northside of the Government Cut Jetty. Middle Photo is a male Queen Parrotfish that lives right by Monty's Raw Bar at Miami Beach Marina. Bottom Photo is one of the thousands of 1-2 pound Blue Tilapia that are actively building and/or guarding their nests at Sea World in Orlando

May 7 Miami Fishing

Whenever I go fishing in my Home Waters, I always try to have at least 3 different plans of attack. Hopefully, at least one plan will work and make for a successful day. Sometimes all three are successful and those are the great days. What has this got to do with fishing in Miami? Well, I have been going on yearly fishing trips to South Florida and The Florida Keys for nearly 10 years now. I finally have enough experience to be able to put together a 3 pronged plan of attack and have a reasonable odds of being successful on all three. (So I thought!) This years game plan was for Sight Casting to Schooling Permit on Nearshore Wrecks, Deep-dropping for Daytime Swordfish, and Livebaiting Sailfish in the morning. By the end of the day, one plan had worked to perfection and two had busted! I was highly successful in the morning catching 2 Sailfish on 2 Sailfish bites on live Sardines a mile off the Fowey Rocks Light Tower. These Sailfish weighed app 30 to 35 pounds each. I also caught 2 Little Tunny (Fla's Bonita, Our False Albacore or just Albacore), including a 15 pounder, and was bit off by a King Mackerel on live Spanish Sardines. Unfortunately, Swordfishing was a bust. I made 3 drops in 1500 to 1700 feet of water and had ZERO action. I used a fresh Albacore filet for bait. Let me tell ya, Catching a Big Swordfish couldn't have been much harder than simply checking your bait. That fishing is a work out, Bite or NO Bite. No bites for me! That hurt because this was my top priority. Oh well. Permit fishing was also a bust. There might have been some Permit around, I'm not sure because the water was a little too dirty. There was definitely no sight casting opportunites. I tried blind casting over a couple of wrecks but ultra aggressive Gray Triggerfish devoured every crab as soon as it hit the water. The Permit never had a chance! Other than the 2 Sailfish and 2 Albacore, I had a blast catching bait and other crap with a sabiki rig. Meredith and I also spent a day at Sea World and a day at Disney World. The waters in and around Sea World were full of spawning Blue Tilapia. If I ever make it back, I will smuggle in a hook and a string. One of my Fishing Books says that Tilapia are difficult to catch, but these 2 pounders sure seemed to like French Fries. Total Catch for the Day: 2 Sailfish, 2 Albacore, 20 Spanish Sardines, 10 Round Scads, 2 Ballyhoos, 2 Thread Herring, 3 Sailor's Choices, 3 Tomtates, 3 Blue Runners, and 3 Crevalle Jacks

FLORIDA BOUND

Good luck to the Bonito Fishermen, the Drum Fishermen, and the guys who will be looking for an early Cobia. I will not get in your way until May 10th. I'll be down south looking for a Broadbill Swordfish about 10 miles off South Beach! That ain't Cedar Island Beach. Whooosh! See you then and Good Luck! Hopefully I will be posting a picture similar to this one.

May 2 Queen of Wal-Mart on the Fly Rod

Now might be a good time to book a fishing trip with Top Water Charters. I seem to have started a nice little winning streak! Here is what happened today. First, I came home early from Hatteras because I am headed to Florida tommorrow morning. This morning I went to MHC to pick up a new cell phone. While in the area, and still confident with my Fly Rod from Monday's Red Drum adventure, I decided to check out Wal-Mart with the little 3wt combo for Largemouth Bass and Bream. Once I got there I found a nice bed that was occupied by a couple of small Bass and the surrounding area was alive with small Bream. After a few casts with a rubber-legged spider I noticed a much bigger Largemouth Bass that was lazily eyeballing my fly but would not eat it. I made about 10 casts right on her head and all around her, but she wouldn't eat and she wouldn't spook either. I finally made one more cast and a small Bluegill rushed out of an algae bank and hit the fly. As I was about to land the little Bream, the big Bass came to life and took a rush at my Bluegill just as I lifted it out of the water. That was pretty cool! Right at my feet the previously clear water was all muddied up. I hestitated to unhook the little Bluegill as I stared into the water. As the water cleared, I saw the Bass was still right there and her gills were feriously pumping and her pectoral fins were fanning like crazy. That Bass was pumped! What the hell, I dropped the Bluegill back in the water and the Water Exploded. Within seconds line was racing off my reel into the middle of the Pond. No way she's hooked I figured and on the first jump she'll throw the Bream and it will be over. Either way, it had already been awesome. Then my line started rising and the Big Bass raised her head clear of the surface. One mighty flip of her tail and she turned a backwards somesalt. The swallowed Bluegill was disgorged and flew 5 feet across the surface. Once she splashed down, my reel spun again as the Largemouth Bass swam away. Amazingly, I was still hooked up! A minute later I landed her and found my Popping Bug in the corner of her mouth. She was a 25" Beauty that weighed 7 pounds on the Boga Grip. I'm starting to really like this freaking Fly Fishing. Sorry for the poor quality picture! Total Catch for the Day: 3 Largemouth Bass and 3 Bluegill

April 27 Citation Red Drums on Light Spin and Fly

All morning I told myself that I shouldn't go fishing. I need to get catch the Ferry to Hatteras to go to work tommorrow. But yesterday was so pretty and I wanted to take a few shots at the Chopper Bluefish with my fly rod. So I grabbed Chris and we went fishing. I guess I'll be driving to Hatteras instead! What we found was a suprize. I must say, I ain't no Fly Fisherman. I have never casted a fly to a Red Drum, until today. This might be difficult for some to hear, but my first cast was a bungled toss of about 20 feet. Fortunately for me, it landed among 50 or 75 Red Drum that weighed between 35-50 pounds each. Five Drum rose to my fly and the fastest one ate it. 20 minutes later I released my first Red Drum on fly and it was a 45" that weighed 39 pounds on the Boga Grip. Sorry guys. The rest of my Red Drum came on Bucktails and Top Water Plugs. We used light spinning tackle from 10# to 12#. The first Drum of the day was a 52" that bottomed out my Boga Grip and I caught it on a Storm Chug Bug and it was not a subtle surface strike! We were ready for Bluefish and hit the Red Drum motherlode instead! We found at least 4 different schools and they were all big ones. I think I caught 8 Red Drum that ranged from 42" to 52". Chris released 5 Red Drum that were over 40". We found some small Bluefish, but NO Choppers. We also saw 2 Sand Tigers and a Hammerhead Shark. Total catch for the Day: 13 Red Drum and 5 Bluefish

April 26 Bluefish and Chopper Bluefish

Jason and crew went for a long boat ride today. From 15 miles Southwest of Beaufort Inlet to 15 miles Southeast of Beaufort Inlet, 100 places in-between and 100 miles total! We got off to a slow start looking for Atlantic Bonito, but the last several hours of our day were full of drama and suspense. Throwing Flys and Top Water Plugs, we had multiple chances at Bluefish from 2 to 10 pounds, Red Drum from 8 to 40 pounds, 3-4 pound Pompanos, and Sharks up to 50 pounds. It surely beat practicing fly casting in the back yard. Unfortunately, this afternoon we were plagued by rising SW Winds and Low Tides. To make matters worse, nearly all the fish that we saw were in 1-2 feet of water and were impossible to get to! But we tried. Jason even got out of the Boat and walked in to cast to Chopper Bluefish 2 different times. We pretty much ran over the few Red Drum that we saw and struck out on 3 straight huge Pompano. We didn't really try that hard on the Sharks. The Bluefish got our best shots. Between 4 of us, I guess that we caught around 15 Bluefish up to 8 pounds. We also caught a few bottom fish early while while looking for the absent Bonito. Finally, Jason caught a 25 pound Cownose Ray on 10# spinning on the way home. We also had close encounters with 2 Ocean Sunfish, including a nice 400 pounder. Total Catch for the Day: 15 Bluefish, 1 Cownose Ray, 5 Black Sea Bass, 1 Oyster Toadfish, and 1 Hogfish

April 24 Striped Apes, Bluefish, and Spanish Mackerel

Great Weather today. Finally. In a normal Spring, with such good weather, I'd be complaining about how poor the fishing was today. But so far, 2009 has been different. It's been pitiful. So today's pretty slow fishing actually seemed pretty good. The time for Atlantic Bonito is here. The only problem today was that there seemed to be a serious lack of bait on and near the high vertical structures that our Bonito seem to like. The good news is, that could all change by sunrise tommorrow. Better news is that there actually a few Bonito around. This morning fishing from 5 miles west of Beaufort Inlet to 5 miles east of Bogue Inlet, we hooked 3 Bonito, released one, and put one in the box that weighed 6 pounds and measured 22". The 3 Bonito hook-ups probably came from 200 casts! So it wasn't great fishing in my book. Bluefish numbers were excellent at one spot we fished. Doubleheaders on speck rigs, but no Choppers yet. All of our Bluefish were from 8-14". We kept 12 that were over 1 pound. We also caught our first Spanish Mackerel of the year and a handful of Black Sea Bass, including 3 keepers in the 13-14" range. We also saw 2 Ocean Sunfish today. Always a welcome sight. Total Catch for the Day: 2 Atlantic Bonito, 40 Bluefish, 3 Spanish Mackerel, 5 Black Sea Bass, and 1 Pinfish

April 23 Great Fighting Cownose Rays

Another day of High Winds, Dirty Water, and Extremely Low Tides. Today I fished in winds the NWS Weather Station at Cape Lookout called steady 14 mph winds with gusts to 19. Evidently, this weather station is in the Pine Forest. All day we were battered by 20-25 kt SW winds, filthy water, and the lowest tides that I've seen at Cape Lookout in years. The water was so dirty that I couldn't see the bottom in 4 feet of water from the Tower. All my favorite flats at Cape Lookout were completely dry from mid morning to early afternoon. On a positive note, we did see many Loggerhead Turtles. There were so many feeding in the Black Mud inside Cape Lookout Bight that we counted 6 on the surface at one time and there were at least 6 others making mud roils. As far as the fishing goes, today would've been a complete bust, but we did find a huge school of Cownose Rays milling on the edge of a Bar off the east end of Shackleford Banks. There were probably 200-300 Rays in this group. Since the only thing we were looking for today was a Good Fight, we keyed on this school of Cownose Rays and Chris and I released 3 each that weighed from 20 to 30 pounds. We used light spinning tackle and enjoyed fights that lasted from 5 to 15 minutes per fish. Hopefully it was good practice for the future. If the WIND ever quits blowing. Total Catch for the Day: 6 Cownose Rays

Pictures from Hatteras

These pictures are from another wonderfully windy day (aint they all) at Hatteras Inlet. The top picture is the north side of Hatteras Inlet. Great fishing spot, but the NPS has declared it a Bird Sanctuary. The Black-Headed Gull is a Laughing Gull. A sure sign of Spring. The first one showed up at Cedar Island back in March. The very next afternoon there were at least 20 dozen of them flying around! In case you've never heard them, they sound like they really enjoy making their eggs fertile. Laughing the entire time, that's where their name came from! Yep! The last picture pretty much sums up my 2009 season so far! Wind driven salt spray, dirty water, cold, and miserable.

April 22 BLOW BABY BLOW

Another blown out trip today. How about I sell my Boat and move to Kansas? Maybe then the WIND would quit blowing. You gotta hate that color-filled wind chart. Too much purple (gale force) and lavender (small craft advisory). However, the Weather Guessers still are saying it's supposed to be a pretty weekend. We shall see..... I'm looking for some great Bonito fishing and I'm running out of time! From the sea water temp chart: I like that little orange swirl east of Lookout. Hopefully it will slide to the west a few more miles and deliver the motherlode to the Summerlin Reef by the weekend. To the folks that follow my Blog and expect to see a few nice fish, I am genuinely sorry and apologize for a horrible Spring so far. I cannot get a break from the Wind. Most of the pretty days so far this Spring have happened when I've been at work on my other job. But, there really hasn't been that many pretty days period.