Jan 16 Dogfish Heaven

Today we scoured the Cape Lookout Shoals. Every nook and cranny. I dont know about last week, or tomorrow, or next week, but today there were NO STRIPED BASS AT CAPE LOOKOUT. They weren't there on Jan 15 or Jan 16. If anything changes, you can read about it here..... Back to the fishing. Chip and Shem fished with me years ago and today they came back and brought Antonio, an exchange student from Spain. Antonio had never been fishing. The great thing for me was, he was thrilled with catching Sharks, didn't matter that they were Spiny Dogfish., also called Dog Sharks or Horndogs. Chip and Shem have fished all over the North America and they said "No Problem" when I explained our dilemma! Our dilemma being, cold water, lack of fish and 10,000 Bottlenosed Dolphins on the Shoals. The sheer volume of Dolphin on and around the Shoals usually has disasterous results for the clear water sight casting that I like to do. The only guarrantee I could offer was the Dog Sharks. So for 2 hours we drifted in 60 feet of water and bailed Dog Sharks. Doubles and Triples. The water around the boat was teeming with Dog Sharks. We caught them on bait and jigs. Before and after, we rode the Shoals and pretty much watched the Dolphin. Blue Planet material to say the least. Great experience for Antonio. Then we fished the Rock Jetty, the Port Wall, and the MHC High Rise Bridge. Nothing. Total Catch for the Day: 60 Spiny Dogfish from 5-12 lbs

Jan 15 Spiny Dogs at Cape Lookout

I returned home and with a trip scheduled for tomorrow I figured I needed to go on a little scouting trip. I found ideal conditions, which make any trip much more enjoyable. I found hundreds of Bottlenose Dolphins playing on the Shoals and riding the swells. Now for the bad news..... All I found to catch was Spiny Dogfish. And I found them by the hundreds. In all honesty, they do put up a nice tussle and they are heavily regulated and support a massive commercial fishery. Therefore, somebody likes to eat them!! Hopefully, tomorrow we will catch a few Dogs and also find some more glamorous species. Total Catch for the Day: 8 Spiny Dogfish up to 10 pounds, 1 Clearnosed Skate and 1 Pinfish

Jan 14 15 Striped Bass up to 32 pounds

I had the pleasure of fishing with Tuggy and the Greenville crew today and we definitely got off go a slow start and I had a long day. I left Beaufort at 2am, we left the dock in Wanchese at 630am and were fishing by 830am...... And at 2pm we had 2 Striped Bass in the box and had released a 10 lb Striped Bass. Then we finally got hot. In the next hour we caught 13 Striped Bass. Most of these fish came on umbrella rigs and the rest on Mo-Jos. Finally, while trying to catch our last couple of fish for our limit, we got 6 fish on at once, includindg 2 doubleheaders. A 30 lb Striped Bass, a 20 lb Striped Bass, and an umbrella rig all at once reminds me of pulling the anchor back in the commercial Grouper fishing days. Way earlier in the morning we caught and released our first Striped Bass, a 10 pounder, which I caught on a jig on a light spinning rod. That was our only jigging bite, which was a bummer. At the end of the day, our 3 top Striped Bass were 32, 31, and 30 pounders. Our 10 fish limit weighed approximately 230 pounds. All in all, we went something long stretches between bites, but we finished with a hell of a flurry! Total Catch for the Day: 15 Striped Bass up to 32 pounds

Jan 10 The Mystery of MISERY

With my time at Hatteras winding down and the Striped Bass bite WFO, I couldn't stand it.... So in into the teeth of a brutal 15kt NE wind and temps in the low 30s and with a winter storm brewing to the south, I launched and headed out of Oregon Inlet all alone. I knew I messed up when the first spray of the first wave blasted my bare face. Water temp on my bottom scope was 35 degrees. Okay, the fish supposedly chewed all day on Sunday from the Inlet to Jeanettes Pier. All day and close to the Beach. So I rode up to Jeanettes in 3-4 foot seas. No Bait, No Birds. Commercial Drop Netters were everywhere and they weren't finding them either. By 11am I was headed home with nothing but frostbite and a gas bill. I guess the very few boats that caught them found them after lunch. I missed it. I had suffered enough and honestly it was a little dangerous to be out there by myself that day... Total Catch for the Day: ZERO

The Whale that smiled at me!

Thanks for not jumping on me Ms Whale.......And, Oh Ms Whale, what pretty baleen strips you have.

Jan 6 Striped Bass and Whales at Oregon Inlet

I'd say the Striped Bass fishing was decent. The Whale Watching was excellent. We saw probably 20 Whales. Humpback Whales, Fin Whales, and a Right Whale. And if Right Whales earned their name because they were the "right" whale for whalers to harpoon..... We found one today that wouldn't have lasted 2 minutes in the 1800's. We had the tamest and friendliest whale ever harass us and follow us around for 10 minutes, swimming with his nose out of the water the whole time. It was crazy...... But hey, this is a fishing blog, not a Whale Watching blog. Tuggy, Brock, and I first rode to Rodanthe chasing yesterday's State Record. Then we battled the wind back to the North for 20 miles. We finally made it back to Oregon Inlet where Tuggy's deadly spread of Mo-Jo's and Umbrellas caught our fish. We got hit twice. Tuggy got 2 on one rod. I caught three singles. Brock caught three singles. We missed a couple of bites. We got our limit of 6 Striped Bass and let a couple go. Our fish weighed up to 25 pounds. Nothing great, cold as hell, and more fun than I've had lately! Total Catch for the Day: 8 Striped Bass up to 25 lbs

Me and My Boat are ready to go Striped Bass Fishing

I am at Hatteras and I am working the Night Run. I've got my Boat with me and the Striped Bass are chewing 60 miles up the Beach. I am fishing on Thursday Jan 6. After that, weather allowing, I am availiable for Striped Bass Fishing out of Oregon Inlet on Jan 8, 9, 10, and 11. I would highly recommend fishing with a local guide or charter boat. However, I am availiable and would love to go Fishing! Call my cell phone at 252-241-8350.

Jan 1 Red Drum on the Rocks

On New Years Day, I made a mad dash from Raleigh to Beaufort to the Cape Lookout Rock Jetty to take advantage of a beautiful weather day. We arrived at the Rocks around 3pm and in 90 minutes of bumbling and figuring out all the tackle that "I forgot"...... Stella and I managed to release 10 Red Drum while my pal Noah caught 50 right beside me. Oh well, thats how it went! It was the first trip of 2011 and it sure was nice to catch a few Drum on a beautiful afternoon. Total Catch for the Day: 10 Red Drum up to 18" 

2010 Best Fishing Pictures of 2010

Here are a few of the best! At the top is Jeremy with a 94 lb Cobia and a 78 lb Cobia and a pile of 30-50 pounders. Stella with a 4 lb 13 oz Sp Trout and a 3 lb 8 oz Speckled Trout highlights the last picture. In between are Big Grouper, Big Barracuda, Amberjacks, Red Drums, and Capt Marty's inshore suprize Blackfin Tuna.

2010 Fishing Review

The highlight of the 2010 Fishing Year for Top Water Charters will definitely be the Spring/Early Summer part of the year. Vast schools of small Red Drum inhabited the Cape Lookout Shoals all winter and while searching for them in March of 2010, I began to encounter larger Red Drum. By April of 2010, I was pretty much running straight to schools of 30-50 lb Red Drum. I have never found these fish in Carteret County Ocean waters with this consistency. Then it got even better. Returning from Hatteras around the first of May and with early Cobia rumors swirling, I fished in the fog one day. Knowing that I couldn't sight cast Red Drum or search for a Cobia, I decided to take a last chance at a few Atlantic Bonito that I had pretty much ignored this Spring because of the big Red Drum. Casting over bait, in the fog, a mile off Atlantic Beach, I caught a 26 lb Blackfin Tuna on a stingsilver and a small spinning rod. That was a highlight. A great Spring of 2010 was shaping up. The following day, it reached epic porportions. With light winds and bright sunlight, I had a 15 Cobia day, with 2 fish at 57 and 58 pounds. All on bucktails and spinning tackle. These numbers are a pretty common occurence from Hatteras to the Va Line, but unheard of for Beaufort Inlet. The following morning, the first place I looked I found 100+ Cobia milling on top. All huge fish! Three casts equaled three fish hooked up. Two broke off on each other and Josh Faglie landed the other at 78 pounds. A fleet of boats had seen the activity and moved in on that school, so I left and headed off to the east. When the day was over, we had caught 19 Cobia, headlined by my personal best 94 pounder. Then the wind and the weather and the Marine Fisheries came.... Cobia fishing remained "bettter than average" but the year's highlights were over for me. The rest of the year can be easily summarized. Great Bluefishing, good Spanish Mackerel. Good Amberjack fishing. Good Shark fishing. Numbers were really good for the much-sportier Blacktip Sharks. We had an epic day on a school of those things in the fall. Big ones at 100+ pounds and lots of them on top water plugs!. I did not involve myself with Flounder or King Mackerel at all this summer/fall. Sight casting to Puppy Drum was good but inconsistent. A giant September rain event killed the Albacore bite and ended the Spanish Mackerel run prematurely. Finally, Speckled Trout numbers were unreal, but their size was a huge let down. Remember that my work schedule causes me to miss lots of good fishing as well. The best week of Giant Red Drum fishing in the Pamlico Sound and Neuse River occurred while I was not fishing. There was also a week of great live bait fishing for big King Mackerel and Wahoo that happened while I was working. I can't catch all the great fishing, but this year worked out pretty good for me. A decent number of charters and a career Cobia for me. 72 total NC Citations with 8 different species represented. Thats pretty typical of what I've produced the past 10 years. Fishing at Hatteras has produced lots of Citations for me personally. Flounders and Sheepsheads. This year I didn't fish up there much at all. This year, I anticipate returning to my "fishy ways".   ****2931 Total Fish in 2010***

Dec 27 After the Blow

It's the day after a BIG Wind, Ice, Snow, and Rain event out here on the Outer Banks. I will be headed back to Beaufort tomorrow morning and the weather for next week is looking much better. We might even be fishing in air temps in the 60s by next weekend. Sounds incredible after yesterday's mess. Out here at Cape Hatteras it snowed alot but it was being tossed around by 40 knot winds. It was brutal cold on the Ferry last night. Things are looking up. Call me (252-241-8350) and lets go see what's out there. Striped Bass, Speckled Trout, Red Drum. Albacore, Bluefin Tuna, or Black Sea Bass.

Dec 25 Christmas Day Red Drum Blitz

 I don't have a lot of Christmas Day Fishing Memorys. I do now.... Getting up early enough to take advantage of the incomimg tide, I fished a tiny "hole" in the Hatteras Inlet Surf and smoked the Red Drum this morning. The hole was full of Red Drum and Jumping Mullet. There were also a few Black Drum as well, but I didn't catch a Black Drum. Cast after cast would either result in a Red Drum strike or a snagged Red Drum or Jumping Mullet. The majority of these Drum were too short, but I did manage a 20" Red Drum and a 21" Red Drum. I also caught a 4 lb Jumping Mullet. Total Catch for the Day: 33 Red Drum up to 21" and 3 Jumping Mullet up to 4 lb

Dec 23 Unfishy Fishing

Dear Santa,
What I want for Christmas is a 30 lb Striped Bass to eat my gulp on my Trout Rod. That would be a fair fight. A 50/50 proposition........Today in poor conditions I made over 300 casts. I had 4 bites. I hooked 1 fish. It got away. I know there was a few Red Drum caught in the Hatteras Inlet vicinity. I didn't contribute to the total catch. Tomorrow if I decide to go fishing, I'm going to try a different area. Probably at Buxton. I'd love to catch a Striped Bass on Christmas Eve! Total Catch for the Day: Absolutely Nothing

Dec 22 Slower Red Drum Fishing

Right when I think I got something figured out...... A pretty day for fishing and it looked very fishy. However, in the same slough that produced 5-6 bites in 40 minutes yesterday, I got 5-6 bites in 3 hours today. To make matters worse, when I finally caught my first Red Drum of the day, my camera battery went dead. I got one on my cell phone and I got one from yesterday on the camera. I will try to load those pictures soon. Bad weather is headed for Hatteras , so this could be the end...... Well, then I got bored and went back out there and..... I caught 3 Red Drum and a 5 lb Jumping Mullet in 30 minutes. I guess I gave up too early on my first session. Total Catch for the Day: 5 Red Drum and 1 Jumping Mullet    ****2895 Total Fish in 2010****

Dec 21 Red Drum in the Hatteras Surf

I'm back at Hatteras for a week, including Christmas Day. However, there is one good thing. There are Red Drum in the surf. The difference between Cape Hatteras and Home is there is a chance that a Striped Bass might be mixed in with the more typical Speckled Trout/Red Drum mix. That is enough excitement to make me brave the cold. So this afternoon I rode the Beach before work and found some action. Here's what I found. In a narrow slough down by Hatteras Inlet there was a nice little Red Drum bite going on and only a couple of guys taking advantage of it! I caught the tail end of it. In 45 minutes of throwing a Gulp, I caught a couple of Red Drum and pulled the hooks on another one right at my feet. I saw a Drum in the 25" range, but the one's I released were in the 17"-20". Total Catch for the Day: 3 Red Drum  

Dec 15 No Fish Fishing Report

I went to Radio Island today and froze my butt off... I made about 40 casts and covered the "every cast area" from last week! I never felt the first tap. The water is much colder than it was 8 days ago and much colder than the Hatteras Surf... The Speckled Trout have moved away from the Radio Island/Bulkhead Channel area. It remains to be seen if I will brave the cold, the wind, and the rain and make it up to Cape Lookout this week. There should be some Jumbo Trout up there, but it is Christmas and all, and I am as busy as everybody else running around like an Idiot. If they have any sense, they will head South and I mean way South... Bogue Inlet ain't far enough, look for some dead fish to pop up down that way... Up on our end of the Carteret County, probably 95% of the larger Speckled  Trout died last winter.. Total Catch for the Day: 0 Fish

Hatteras Speckled Trout, Rain, and No Trout

I fished on December 10 and 11. On the 10th, fishing was repectable. Not up to Radio Island standards but I released 13 Speckled Trout in 30-40 minutes of fishing. What was cool about it (to me) was catching them in a tiny slough in the surf, Much different than what I'm used to. Standing ankle deep and casting to a sandbar 75 feet offshore and catching Speckled Trout on the backside of the drop-off. And I mean where the water dropped off from 2 feet to 4 feet. Pretty cool. All these Speckled Trout were from maybe 14" to 10". It beats workin! On the 11th, it was dreary, rainy, but slick. I couldn't resist trying it again. It keeps my mind off a darkening cloud of depressing thoughts that are moving in on me for some reason....Anyway, I never had a single bite. But, it was a great feeling and I considered the fishing to be great, standing in the rain on a desserted beach, tossing a grub into the surf. The Hatteras Charter Fleet had a great day yesterday catching Blackfin, Yellowfin, and Bluefin Tuna. Business is slow so today lots of boats went out commercial fishing today. Rolling the Christmas Dice looking for Bluefins. Not sure how they did, but watching them come in the Inlet as I stood in the rain casting for Speckled Trout damn sure made me feel better. Total Catch for 2 Days: 13 Speckled Trout

Sea Mullet is THE BEST FRIED FISH Period. End of Discussion.

There are 3 species of Sea Mullet. Northern, Southern, and Gulf. They are members of the Drum family, as are Croaker, Spot, and Speckled Trout. They are probably one of the "least respected" members of that family. I'm not sure why. They wage a great battle for their size and that flat ass rock on the plate! I hardly ever catch them anymore. When I was a kid, fishing off the Morehead Ocean Pier,we caught them all the time. Today I was reminded again, they are the best fried fish. Period.

Dec 9 Sea Mullets and Cold

It has been a cold time at Hatteras so far this week. Brutal wind was blowing earlier in the week. The past 24 hours gave me a break from the wind and I've made a couple of little fishing excursions. Yesterday, in perfect conditions except dirty water, I casted for Speckled Trout at the Frisco Pier. The water was too dirty though and that trip didn't last too long...... This afternoon, I grabbed some shrimp and went up to Buxton and managed to catch a nice little bag of Sea Mullets. I walked the Beach for quite a ways, casting as I went. Imagine my suprize when I actually got a bite! 30 minutes later, it was over and I had enough Sea Mullets to make a nice meal for 4 of us! Looks like warmer weather and some rain is headed this way, but I will probably be back up the Beach again tomorrow looking for another Sea Mullet bite. Total Catch for the Past 2 Days: 7 Southern Sea Mullet

Dec 5 Cold Wind and Speckled Trout from Shore

Our plans for a great day of fishing got blown away..... And froze..... Everybody chickened out. However Stella was still able to slide out on the Beach just under her "I don't fish at 40 degrees or less" threshold and catch quite few Speckled Trout. Too bad the wind was blowing 20-25 from the NNW at Radio Island. It surely didn't bother the Trout, but it sure was cold on us. Hopefully next time we get a chance to go fishing it will be 65 degrees and clear skies and bright sunshine. The Drum and the Trout will be chewing! Total Catch for the Day: 15 Speckled Trout up to 13"