Oct 21 Awesome Red Drum Fishing and More

Today was nothing but flat out catching fish. We got a late start because of an Oil Change, but 20 minutes after the launch, Chris and I were sitting on a 1000 fish school of Red Drum. Three hours later we had released our 30th Red Drum and boxed a pair in the slot. The only thing that interupted our Red Drum mission was the 2 Albacore that I released. By the end of our Drum session we must've looked like the Pied Piper because we had 5-6 other boats that were following our every move down the Beach. It was pretty comical since I was really the only person that could see the fish. Not only was I instructing Chris where to cast, I was akso trying to coordinate the placement of all these other boats and direct 10-12 guys that were casting. Needless to say, the Drum were getting spanked pretty hard. After we couldn't take it anymore, Chris and I ran to the east and found all the Bluefish in the world, including a bunch of "legit" 4 pounders. All in all, it was a great day of fishing and hardly NO casts were wasted. Total Catch for the Day: 32 Red Drum, 30 Bluefish and 2 Albacore **1826 Total Fish in 2009**

Oct 17-19 More Poor Fishing and Bad Weather

Slow, slow fishing with the rod and reel, but there was pretty good cast-netting up a Hatteras. Conditions went from horrible to pretty damn nice by last night, but the fishing never recovered though. Fishing in a 40kt NW wind and rain was pretty messed up. I still caught a couple of fish in the bad weather and I hit 1 cast with the cast net for 65 pounds of Roe Mullet. The middle night was horrible, but the first Squid of the year showed up and wiped out a school with the cast net. Big Squid, up to 17" total length. Enough to feed 4 people. The angling highlight came when a small Red Drum attacked my finger mullet. Odd because for all the fishing I do at this spot, this only the second Red Drum I ever caught there. The last night, I managed to catch a 19" Southern Flounder and 9 really nice Squid on a squid jig. Some were bigger than I like to fry at 20" total length. Squid are a blast to catch on light tackle. I also caught the last Ladyfish of the year, a small one. In between all this, a few Black Sea Bass were biting. Total Catch for the Period: 1 Southern Flounder, 1 Red Drum, 1 Ladyfish, 7 Squid and 10 Black Sea Bass

Oct 14-16 Windy Night Fishing

Weather conditions have not been good for night fishing around structure with live bait. The ever present Black Sea Bass have thinned out. Their numbers are way down. Gray Trout have filled a little of that void. However, it's all about the Flounders where I'm fishing! Past Septembers have been great. 30 fish nights and fish up to 10 pounds. I missed all that this year. Now, it's mid-October and I'm fishing for ghosts. The wind and rain, dirty water and lack of bait are making it hard. There are a few Flounder around though. I'm averaging one Flounder bite per hour and trying to make the best of it. So far I've managed to catch 7 Flounders with a big fish at 21" and just under 4 pounds. All others were from 20" to 16". The Gray Trout are striking live baits and are 15" to 17" each and are a nice bonus. The Black Sea Bass have been 8" to 14" and there were enough keepers to fry up a batch! Cast Netting has been pretty good. I had a single cast that netted 30 pounds of Roe Mullet. So far this week, we've eaten Flounder Sushi Rolls, Fried Sea Bass and Gray Trout and Grilled Mullets. Total Catch for this Report: 4 Southern Flounders, 2 Summer Flounders, 10 Gray Trout, 1 Bluefish and 30 Black Sea Bass

Oct 12 Excellent Albacore and Bluefish Casting Action

Javier joined me today for a half day of fishing. We were looking for some action. After warming up on some Bluefish inside Beaufort Inlet, we went out in the Ocean looking for some bigger fish! It didn't take long! His first cast connected with an Albacore. Great start. Lots of Albacore and lots of opportunities to put lures in the "strike zone" today. The Albacore were much bigger than the one's we found a couple of weeks ago. Two of the fish we caught were in the 12 pound class. Plus, excellent Bluefish action inside and outside Beaufort Inlet. The wind made life difficult to the east and farther off the Beach, so we stuck with what was good. Today that meant Albacore and Bluefish. We searched briefly for some Red Drum and we casted briefly for Gray Trout. Fishing was pretty good today because we stuck with the easy things and that made my job pretty easy! Javier also caught the first Willet ever caught on Top Water Charters. I need to get a Bird List together some time in the future. Total Catch for the Day: 6 Albacore and 30 Bluefish

Oct 11 Great Fishing in Taylor's Creek

I stayed on shore today and it was a good thing. I caught a "Double Carolina Inshore Grand Slam",I caught a new career largest Croaker and I got a cooler full of fish. All this without the aggravation of boating! The double slam was made up of 2 small Southern Flounders, 5 fat Speckled Trout, and 6 slot and up-sized Red Drum. My big Croaker weighed 2 lb 10oz. That Croaker is only slightly larger than the other dozen that I caught. All these Croakers were over 2 pounds. The Red Drum ranged in size from 25" to 29". I also broke 2 off in structure and pulled the hooks on an app. 12 pounder that I hooked over an Oyster Rock in 2 feet of water! The suprizing Speckled Trout ranged from 18" to 22" each. I even got an odd-ball 2 pound Sheepshead. All these fish were caught on 5" white Gulp Jerk Shad. Now for the bad news. I caught 2 monster Lizardfish and in the chaos that followed a vicious Lizardfish strike that ran under the dock and I thought it was a nice Red Drum, I knocked my "Un-Replacable Landing Net" overboard. This happened in 10 feet of water and the tide was boiling. Dispite an hour of recovery efforts, I didn't get my net back. This was a 30" diameter aluminum hoop on a 15 foot telescopic handle. This net was responsible for all my Hatteras Sheepsheads and Flounders and all my Taylor's Creek Red Drum and Flounders. Total Catch for the Day: 6 Red Drum, 5 Speckled Trout, 2 Southern Flounder, 13 Croaker, 1 Bluefish, 1 Sheepshead and 2 Inshore Lizardfish

Oct 9 Amberjacks and More

Pretty weather today, finally. We spent our day trying different things and some worked and some didn't. First thing in the morning we stuffed the livewell with Finger Mullet and topped it off with quite a few nice Bluefish in the Inlet. The Blues were sitting in 2-3 feet of water and the casting action was great with metal and top water plugs. Then it was off to the Reefs for some Flounder fishing. That was a complete bust. After that we swam a few Mullets around and tried to catch some larger Spanish Mackerel. Dick had a 4 pounder to the boat and the hook popped out. Ouch! Then we had 2 bite-offs. Double Ouch! We gave it up on the Spanish Mackerel and moved out a little farther to see what we could find. Thankfully, we found Amberjacks and the fishing was spectacular! Watching packs of fired up Jacks chase down and devour 1-3 pound Bluefish. Every Bluefish in the live well was crushed. We won most of the fights, but we lost a few too. Garland released 4 and I released 2. Dick gave up Amberjack fishing a while back. He sat back and laughed! These Amberjacks were from 25 to 32 pounds each. We battled a 50 pound Jack on light tackle and lost him to structure. It was downhill after that. We casted to Albacore unsucessfully. We searched for Red Drum without success. Finally, we moved inside the Inlet and caught more Bluefish, a couple of Gray Trout, Lizardfish, Black Sea Bass, and small Gag Groupers. Fishing the past 2 days had it's ups and downs. Hopefully, some great days are ahead! Total catch for the Day: 6 Amberjack, 12 Bluefish, 2 Gray Trout, 2 Gag Grouper, 1 Black Sea Bass, and 5 Inshore Lizardfish *1629 Total Fish in 2009*

Oct 8 Casting to Spanish Mackerel and Bluefish

When the wind is already blowing at 7am; I never really know what the day will be like. It might be a tough one. Thankfully, my clients wanted to catch fish and they were very realistic. When we found some Bluefish west of Beaufort Inlet first thing this morning, they said "Let's Whack Em". Music to my ears. After catching all the Bluefish they needed and stuffing the livewell, we headed east to look for something different. A quick look at the Cape Lookout Shoals and all that nasty brown water and choppy whitecaps and I decided that it wasn't worth it. We looked around where the Spanish and Albacore were 2 weeks ago and that produced nothing. So we headed back to Barden's Inlet. Before we got there we saw about 6-8 of the smallest Spanish Mackerel you'll ever see jump. Worried about what we might be doing for the next 7 hours, I told the guys to start casting. I figured it was going to be a 2 minute stop and if we were lucky we might catch a 8" Spanish Mackerel. Little did I know that 90 minutes and 35 Spanish Mackerel later that we had "made our day". These Mackerel ranged from 11" throw backs to 2 pounders. Most were over 1 pound. Nice fish on the spinning rods. After that, the day was a struggle. We fished for King Mackerel with less than ideal baits and never got a bite. It was disappointing because there was a decent bite taking place! We searched in the very dirty surf for schools of Red Drum that we never found. We briefly chased schools of Albacore that were a little too erratic for our liking. We casted to 2 different Rock Jettys and came up empty. Total Catch for the Day: 50 Bluefish and 35 Spanish Mackerel.

ITS OFFICIAL: Top Water Charters has a State Record

The DMF has approved Chris Chadwick's 11 lb 3 oz Spadefish caught with Capt Marty and Top Water Charters back in June. Incredibly, the one Chris had officially weighed was probably one of 7 or 8 Spadefish that was caught aboard my boat during a couple of weeks of fishing on a shallow water Wreck up at Hatteras. BJ Swain, Tony Willis, and I all caught fish that crushed the previous State Record. We goofed up a cleaned several 10-11+ pounders before I realized the Record was pretty low. Chris and I set out to break it on June 14 and we accomplished our mission. Way to go Columbo. A no-fishing duck hunter just a couple of years ago, now he is in the Record Books!

Oct 6 Blackfin Tuna and Wahoo

Unfortunately, the title of this report could've been "Elusive Yellofin Tuna Completely Avoid Us" or "As Close as I ever got to a Bigeye Tuna". Oh well, here it is. Today, Steve Bittman and I went Tuna Fishing approximately 35 miles ESE of Oregon Inlet. Fishing had been pretty good so I decided to fish up that way before I headed back home. After the day was done, it was pretty disappointing, but very exciting. The Blackfin Tuna fishing was pretty good for us, but we never got a single bite from a Yellowfin Tuna. There were quite a few 40-60 pound Yellowfin Tuna caught. Our catch consisted of 2 sizes of Blackfins. Unfortunately, the majority of ours were in the 1/2 to 1 pound class and nearly all of these "Termite" Tuna were released. We did manage to catch 6 that were in the 7-10 pound range. We also caught 1 out of 2 Wahoo bites. The one we got was a 26 pounder and another bit off right at the boat. We had a White Marlin or a Sailfish attack a transom bait 3 times but didn't get hooked. The best (and worst) part of the day was when the Smoker hooked up 5 Bigeye Tuna right beside us. They caught caught 1 earlier and were working an area of bait over a ledge. They got covered up just as we arrived in the area and that was the end of that bite. Over an hour later, they put 3 fish in the boat (189, 180, and 150 pounders) We marked the school of Bigeyes three times, sitting a depth of 10 fathoms, but we couldn't get a bite. Neither did the other 25 Charterboats that were converging on this spot. Anyway... That was as close as I've been to a Bigeye Tuna and it sure did raise the awareness and the adrenaline level on the Boat. There were some tense minutes of absolute "readiness". We were stoked. Then we got a strike! And it was another 1 pound Blackfin Tuna. Back to reality. Total Catch for the Day: 25 Blackfin Tuna and 1 Wahoo

Sept 28 Tough Fishing in Rough Conditions

I knew there was a Front coming. I thought we could beat the weather and catch a couple of nice Kings. I've never been wronger. Is that a word? The day started out okay; even though when we first left Taylor's Creek and turned to the south at Lennoxville Point, I knew we were in trouble. By the time we got to Beaufort Inlet, we faced a stiff SW wind, whitecaps everywhere, and dirty brown water. First place we went was the Shackleford side of the Inlet, where right in the rip, we caught about 8 Bluefish on metal. I figured it was little too rough (Ha Ha) so we moved on. We ran towards Cape Lookout, with the wind at our backs and bait was everywhere. I stopped and made 1 throw with the cast net and Brent and I hauled 25 dozen menhaden into the Boat. Great. ....We should've quit right then. Four hours later, we had 2 strikes. Jay caught and released a 4 lb Bluefish and we lost a 50 lb Blacktip Shark after the third jump. It was a great flurry of action losing that Shark. Then we looked around and 7 foot swells were tossing us like a toy and the SW wind was howling 25+ kts. We ran back towards Beaufort Inlet and took 1000 waves that sent walls of water across the boat. Jay hid behind me. Brent and I got soaked. It was a disaster. Back in the Inlet to save the day on Bluefish. But, no Bluefish on their Shoal and 4 foot breakers there anyway. Finally, we headed back to Taylor's Creek where we caught and released a hand full of bottom fish. Amazingly, Jay had a blast , but Brent and I had......we expected a little more! Can't quite qualify for the worst day of the year! Total Catch for the Day: 9 Bluefish up to 4 pounds, 8 Spot, 3 Black Sea Bass, 3 Pinfish and 2 Hogfish

Sept 26 Good Mackerel Fishing

The weather forecast was horrible. The actual weather wasn't that bad. My party cancelled. So I went fishing. The past 3 years, that scenario has usually meant a good day for me, today was no exception. Here's how it all played out.....Since I was already in the boat this morning when my anglers bailed out, I rode out to Beaufort Inlet to look around. Things looked bleak and I almost headed back home. Over off Ft Macon a flash of silver caught my eye. A Spanish Mackerel jumping. I headed that way and found the best "Spanish Mackerel" casting of the year. Some of these Spanish Mackerel were well over 2 pounds. There were a few Bluefish mixed in. I caught a few Bluefish and dropped them in the live well, just in case. The Mackerel were busting in tiny fry west of the Inlet, but the best fishing was west of the Ft Macon rocks. Here the bigger class of Mackerel were terrorizing schools of finger mullet right off the surf. The casting action was excellent. After I boxed a dozen and turned about 10 loose, I was ready to go home. The wind was howling and I was all bloody and wet. But something told me to run east. Take my 7 live Bluefish and let them swim while the wind blows me back to Beaufort Inlet. So I ran nearly all the way to Cape Lookout, knocked the boat out of gear, and tossed 3 Bluefish out on King Rigs. The first strike didn't take long. A foul hooked 18 lb King Mackerel that put up a long battle. Ten minutes later a nice King Mackerel skied on another Bluefish. This one swam up right beside the boat. I couldn't understand how I was about to land this fish so quick if I saw that larger King jump. Then my fish ran off at a right angle away from me, changed directions, crossed the stern with my line ripping the water apart, and then he smoked 200 yards directly offshore. That's more like it. A short while later I gaff a 28 lb King Mackerel. All the Spanish Mackerel I wanted and 2 nice Kings and it aint even 10am yet. Hope my boys read this. I ended up running inshore and catching a few dozen Menhaden and kept fishing. Looking for a 40 pound King to fill out my limit. I had 5 more stikes and released 3 King Mackerel in the lower to mid twentys. I missed 2 strikes and never got my big one. That's alright, I gave away 24 Spanish Mackerel fillets and hopefully I'll cut a deal for some smoked King Mackerel. Plus, I got to go fishing on a crappy day when the fish were chewing! Total Catch for the Day: 5 King Mackerel up to 28 pounds, 22 Spanish Mackerel and 7 Bluefish ***1465 Total Fish in 2009***

Sept 24 Croakers and Spots

Looking for a Fish Fry? The Menu in Taylor's Creek is full of two pretty good choices for the main dinner guest. Standing on the Dock, in an hour, I caught 20 Croakers and 8 Spots. That's nearly 1 fish every 2 minutes. I'm fishing with Fishbites, so if any of you guys ever used them.....I spent half my time cutting cheese cloth off my hooks. The rest of my time was spent dueling Croakers on ultralight. In this fishery, a 1 pounder is a good one, so I broke out the 4# spinning rod. First drop produced a double header on the Croaker. Quite a tussle. Total catch for the Day: 20 Croakers and 8 Spots

Sept 23 Night Mission

Clifford and I tried to pull a late night Red Drum heist. In and out in 2 minutes....Things went bad. I broke off a slot Drum in the pilings while Clifford cast his mullet onto a dock and broke off his rig. We regrouped and returned to the scene. This time things went according to plan. We each got a 24" Red Drum, but we got caught. The BPD was on the scene. Hopefully we talked our way out of trouble, it was pretty legit and honest. We were wrong and we confessed. Fishing addicts are just like Dopeheads! We were powerless once we saw what was under that light. Our fate was sealed. What can I say? Night time fishing on the Beaufort Waterfront has changed in the last 2 years. ALL the FISH are in 1 place. Tonight we flirted with disaster to deliver our baits into 30-40 Red Drum that were swimming in a tight circle under 1 particular light. We got our 2 and escaped. Clifford also caught 2 big Croakers on live finger mullet. Total Catch for the Night: 2 Red Drum and 2 Croaker

Sept 23 Two Coolers Full of Fish, Plus Releases

Monty, Sean, and Tom fished hard today. We covered a lot of water and we caught lots of fish. Casting to Albacore and Spanish Mackerel in the morning was pretty good. Then we went East and found dirty water and confused seas. Back the other direction and we caught more Spanish Mackerel, plus a mixed bag on the bottom. Tom got a 16" Summer Flounder on a speck rig. Sean got a big Pinfish chomped in two and I hooked him up with a treble hook on a wire. Thirty minutes later he a released a 31 lb Barracuda on 8# spinning tackle. This was a Great Barracuda and it lived up to his name with 4 great jumps and about 10 changes of direction, and then slugged it out in the deep for 15 minutes. Not bad for an 10 year old, even one on his way to the NFL. Then we ran to Beaufort Inlet and caught all the Bluefish the guys wanted on metal and top water plugs. Then we made our only mistake. Back to the East 8 miles for nothing. We did see an amazing Bottlenose Dolphin gathering and aerial show. Finally, back in Taylor's Creek and we bailed the Croakers, Spots, Sea Bass, and more Pinfish. Monty freaked us out when he caught an oddball 22" Red Drum out of a school of Croakers. Total Catch for the Day: 1 Barracuda at 31 lbs, 7 Spanish Mackerel, 16 Bluefish, 6 Albacore, 1 Red Drum, 1 Summer Flounder, 5 Black Sea Bass, 1 Rock Sea Bass, 2 Hogfish, 30 Croaker, 3 Spot, 2 Scup, 3 Menhaden and 20 Pinfish

Sept 22 Croakers Chewing

How long has been since a day worthy of that title. How about 23 years. Last year I remember catching 4 Croakers one day and that was memorable. Honestly, I don't really bottom fish inshore much anymore, so maybe I'd catch more if I tried! This morning I had a few Jumping Mullets to fillet for the grill tonight. The tide was right so, you know me; I can't go near the water without tossing a hook. When I tossed it today the rod immediately doubled over. Felt like a small Red Drum but it turned out to be a large Croaker. Fifteen minutes later, I had 12 Croakers , a Black Sea Bass, and a 20" Flounder. My biggest Croaker was a 1+ pounder and the smallest was "plenty big enough to keep". Taylor's Creek is alive. Looks like a fishy forecast this week with some sketchy weather. I also caught a nice net full of finger mullet. Later in the afternoon, at dead low tide, I made a few more casts and caught another 20" Flounder and lost a nice mystery fish. Sure felt like a Flounder and ran like a 5+ pounder. Total Catch for the Day: 12 Croaker, 2 Southern Flounder and 1 Black Sea Bass

Sept 15-21 Not Much Action at Hatteras

I had a bad work schedule this week that didn't allow me to do what I wanted to do. This was a Flounder week! For the last 7 years, I always had a great week of fishing at night, in September, at Hatteras. Last shift things weren't quite right. This week, all the elements were there except me.....I could "feel" the Flounder under my feet during the day, but I couldn't make it back at night. So I settled for a little Sheephead fishing and Cast Net throwing instead. I caught a 7 pound Sheepshead and around 5 dozen Jumping Mullets. Some of these Mullets were grown ones, pushing 4 pounds. I also caught 4 Lookdowns. I could've had a blast fishing all night, but it wasn't my turn. Too Bad! I don't count netted fish here, therfore: My Total Catch for the Week: 1 Sheepshead

Sept 14 Red Drum, Spanish Mackerel, Bluefish, Albacore, and Jacks

Steve and Sandra had a great half day of Sight casting and casting metal into very fishy areas! First thing in the morning we went to where Chris and I had left about 500 Red Drum yesterday afternoon. Our three big schools were missing, but left behind was a scattering of fish on the Beach and we got our 3 fish bag limit of 22" to 24" Red Drum pretty quickly. We also released a couple more and Steve got a keeper Flounder. Then it was off to the East to see what we could find. We found alot. Casting metal in feeding frenzys would produce strike after strike from Spanish Mackerel, Bluefish, Albacores, and Crevalle Jacks. Spanish Mackerel were the preferred target, but the Bluefish were more numerous and larger. We caught all the Blues and Albacore that Sandra could stand along with a few Crevalle Jacks. Steve wanted more Spanish Mackerel but in the end we settled for the 6 that we had and headed back to the Beach for more Drum. Before leaving the Shoals, we saw a 500 pound Hammerhead Shark and many Blacktip Sharks. I also had a shot at a Barracuda. My lasting impression was the Bluefish. Acres of fish. 10's of 1000's of 2 pound Bluefish. Back on the Beach we found them again and this time it was the motherlode. Sandra released 2 Red Drum over 10 pounds and Steve released 3 that were in the slot. I even released one. This Beach ride resulted in 6 more Red Drum releases. Total Catch for the Day: 11 Red Drum up to 10 lb 8 oz, 20 Bluefish, 8 Albacore, 6 Spanish Mackerel, 1 Summer Flounder, and 2 Crevalle Jacks

Sept 13 Sight Casting to Red Drum and Crevalle Jacks

Since I'm fishing with clients tommorrow morning, I needed to go on a scouting mission today. I pretty much knew what I was looking for and I had a good idea where to look! So Chris and I went out to see what we could find. We found the motherlode! Unfortunately, with all the nets in the water, what we found this afternoon could be gone by the morning. Nothing we can do about that, but it sure was fun for us. Fishing on 3 different schools of Red Drum produced 13 Red Drum for Chris and I. These Drum ranged from 25" to 33". We caught them on plastic, metal, and top water plugs. We also caught and released 6 Crevalle Jacks that were rampaging up and down the beach in packs of 10-100 fish. Seeing them from the tower was awesome. I've seen more Crevalle Jacks this year than any year going back to around 1988. They are always a welcome catch on my boat. Hopefully, we will get a whack at some of the 25-30 pounders somewhere in the next month! We saw very few Spanish Mackerel and Bluefish. I did catch a 2 lb Bluefish that was under a bait ball. We also saw none of the Albacore that everybody has been raving about. However, we didn't leave the dock until 2pm and we were back at 5pm. All we did was "catch fish". Total Catch for the Day: 13 Red Drum, 6 Crevalle Jack, and 1 Bluefish

Sept 10 Cubera Snapper Fishing off Key Largo

Always looking for a new challenge, I decided to try something new on Sept 10. This plan carried me 900 miles from home. I went Cubera Snapper Fishing. Unfortunately, I didn't get my hands on a Cubera Snapper. However, I did get a hook in one and what an amazing show of brute strength! Too bad my luck gave out and my fish made it into structure and broke me off. I usually don't dwell on a lost fish, but I need to spend a minute on this one! This fish ate a live Lobster, 220 feet deep, on 100# braid, with 25 lbs of drag, a long ways from the wreck, and he flat out smoked a 50 wide and made it back to structure. I was praying for a 50 pounder and it sure seemed like I found an 80+ pounder instead. The guys fishing Cubera Snappers off Key Largo burned up the 20-50 pounders 2 weeks ago, but since then everybody has had slow fishing. But the few bites have resulted mostly in big tales of Giant Snappers that broke off! Add me to that list. After that we had 1 mystery bite ate a live Blue Runner and pulled the hooks. Cubera? Who knows. We also got a Barracuda and my first ever Horse-Eye Jack on the Cubera spot. So, in 5 hours of drifting live Lobsters and Blue Runners on the best Cubera Snapper location on the US East Coast during prime season, I got one sure bite and one mystery bite and lost them both! Before dark, we fished for Yellowtail Snapper with some success. It was a struggle because there was absolutely no current. There were a few other things around that made fishing interesting. Catching bait was a blast. We caught lots of Blue Runners off an old wreck inside Biscayne Bay and we also nabbed 15 Spiny Lobsters off the patch reefs in 20 feet of water. Total Catch for the Day: 20 Yellowtail Snapper, 1 Cero Mackerel, 1 Red Hind, 1 Horse-Eye Jack, 1 Barracuda, 15 Blue Runner, and 15 Spiny Lobsters ***Those 11 Lobster Tails in the picture were meant to be Snapper Bait but they sure will be good***

Lavender Sky at Hatteras

This was the sunset on Friday, Sept 4.

Sept 1-5 10lb Sheepsheads

Another shift at Hatteras and conditions were horrific. However, the Sheepheads that have made my summer were still there. Casting straight into a 15-25 kt NE wind made things tough. Feeling a bite with your bait being blown right back in your face was hard too. Regardless, I managed to catch 1 to 3 Sheepsheads per night. I also had a co-worker that caught his first 2 Sheepsheads including a 10 lb 4 oz trophy. Way to go Doug! Two other of my "trainees" caught at least 4 nice Sheepsheads, but I'm not sure of their size. My biggest Sheephead of the week actually escaped after a botched netting attempt when my fish got his dorsal spines hung in the net and never was "in the net". My little buddy, Stevie B, who is only 5 feet tall, couldn't see over the rail, but he felt the weight and started lifting my big Sheepshead. Screaming at him to lower the fish did no good. As the monster neared the rail, he exploded and fell out of the net and he was free. Once again, the biggest one escaped. For the week, I caught 7 Sheepheads, including a 10 pounder and a 9 pounder. The one that got away was probably a 12 pounder. Oh well. My 9 pound Sheepshead was an adventure. I had already put my net up and decided to make one final drop. I quickly hooked up and knew I was in trouble. With no other options, I handed the rod to a cool Asian Couple and told the guy "Good Luck, it's a nice one and I'll be back in a minute with the net!" By the time I got back to the scene there was a crowd of 30 people watching the action! It was a good show, apparantly this dude didn't know about the Reel. He and his wife were both lifting the rod over and over, but were not taking in any line! They were also screaming and very excited. The problem was the fish was still 80-100 feet out on the darkness. Once I showed him the reel and what to turn, everything went smooth and we decked the fish. I wish I had a camera with me to post a picture of them with that fish! They will never forget that battle and I gave them the fish to take home. Sheephead fishing has got to be over for me now. Bring on the Flounder. Total Catch for the Week: 9 Sheepheads up to 10 lb 4 oz