April 24 No Bonito---Bonito Fishing

Still looking for my first Atlantic Bonito amid a flood of rumors..... I hate to say it, but with the way dudes are hyping "their fishing business" and "general bragging", I dont believe anything that I don't see.... I know I judge some people wrong but I also catch quite a few liars, and a fishing lie is really just a fishing tale, no big deal... Let's just say, the elusive and much-coveted Bonito were not there on Thursday in their normal place.... They weren't there today either.... In the meantime the water temp has dropped from 69 to 63 at AR 315 and AR 320. Have the Bonito made it north of New River Inlet???? Believe what you want.... So anyway, fishing was great today for 1-2 lb Bluefish. All you want, one at a time on metal or two at a time on speck rigs. Also big, adult, pregnant Smooth Dogfish were at Cape Lookout in good numbers. The biggest I caught was a 24 lb monster. Medium sized Spiny Dogfish were mixed in as well. The always interesting Cownose Rays in out in huge schools. I always like to catch a few Cownose Rays every April. Good practice for patience with a long fight for the upcoming Cobia migration. Big Fish on Light Tackle, I like to say. Today's Cownose Rays that were released were in the 40 lb class. Brown Mambas. The bottom bag also included the first Pinfish and Hogfish of the year. Several Black Sea Bass and a Sea Robin. The Top Water Boat didn't perform flawlessly, by any means. Hopefully the kinks are worked out though. Lots of fish around, lots of big fish. Lots of Trophy Fish will soon be here. I can't wait. Total Catch for the Day: 100 Bluefish, 8 Smooth Dogfish, 1 Spiny Dogfish, 3 Cownose Rays, 4 Black Sea Bass, 1 Pinfish, 1 Hogfish, and 1 Striped Sea Robin

Cobia are Coming and the Top Water Boat is Ready

The Boat is out of the shop and is ready to go..... I'm tired of fishing for Largemouth Bass. Lets go catch some Giant Red Drum, Atlantic Bonito, Bluefish, and Gray Trout. Ready to roll April 23, 24, and 25... Next time I'm Home its COBIA TIME.... COME ON The Picture is Jeremy with a half day catch.... 94 lbs, 78 lbs, 4 more over 50 lbs..... You should've seen the other half day's catch! More of the same.... Last year was an EPIC COBIA YEAR from Lookout to Hatteras Starts May 4th for me!!!

April 22 Capt Marty's Darkest Day

Today could've been my best ever in Fresh Water. The way it turned out, Chris will never forget it...... I lost 2 Potentially CAREER LARGEST LARGEMOUTH BASS and FELL IN A POND. Korey laughed and Chris snickered. The Bass were chewing plastic worms like crazy. Fished 4 ponds. Two Ponds were redhot. I lost 2 freaking "Freshwater Gag Groupers". One of them I had hooked twice. Legit 10-12 pound Largemouth Bass. Other was a just a run of the mill 8-10 pounder. Too much wind created a bow in my line, too small of a rod and only using 8 lb mono, those are my pitiful excuses. All 3 bites were solid and on all 3 bites I DID NOT SET THE HOOK PROPERLY. All 3 times I got a peeled back plastic worm flying back in my face. What a nightmare. I knew I was in Carteret County's best Big Bass Water and I screwed it up. Royally......Korey won the battle with 3 lb 8 oz Largemouth Bass. We all caught plenty of 1-2 lb. Bass. Could've been epic. Total Catch for the Day: 35 Largemouth Bass and 5 Bluegill. 

April 21 Mung Hole Grand Slam

Chris got a Mung Hole Slam. A Largemouth Bass, Bluegill, and Pumpkinseed. Chris also got a 2 lb Largemouth Bass. I caught a Bass and crushed the Bluegills. All fish caught on ultralight spin and live caterpillars. The Bass were nice ones for a rainwater catch basin in Beaufort. Lot more life than last week. Fishing was brisk with automatic bites and lots of Bass cruising the shoreline. Total Catch in 20 Minutes: 5 Largemouth Bass, 15 Bluegill, and 1 Pumpkinseed

April 20 Great Fishing

Chris and I went looking for Atlantic Bonito on the SS Tugwell because the Top Water boat is crippled. Unfortunately the Bonito were a no-show this morning, but everywhere we went, we found epic numbers of fish. We found one fish in particular, a 7 ft Thresher Shark,  that would've made this "a day to remember". But it wasn't to be..... First up was AR-315 at daylight for the Bonito, but they were not here. However the bottom was paved with 1-2 lb Gray Trout. Catch all you wanted, two at a time on a speck rig, or one at a time on a stingsilver. Whatever. Then the 150 lb Thresher Shark showed up, more than show up, he twice leaped clear of the water! And, incredibly, even the Gray Trout a half mile away disappeared. Schools the size of a football field vanished. All at once. It was amazing....... In an effort to catch the Thresher Shark, I pinned a live Trout on a big bucktail on my Cobia rod and swam him over the Reef to with NO RESULTS. A nice Thresher Shark on spin would've been nice... Moving on, we ran down to AR-320 and stayed 5 minutes and I caught 3 really nice Black Sea Bass... Moving back to Beaufort Inlet and a 2 hour melee on 2-4 lb Bluefish. Every cast on metal. In the breakers and on every shoal. The Bluefish were gorging on 4" Menhaden. We caught them until we couldn't stand it. The last 25 I caught were on a barbless single hook. Every cast, awesome action. Total Catch for the Day: 30 Gray Trout, 85 Bluefish, 2 Croaker, and 3 Black Sea Bass

Aug 14-15 Hatteras Bass, Carp, and Squid Fishing

I got to be at work at 12:30 and it looks like a good week to fish. As far as the Hatteras Beach goes, low tides are occurring in the morning so I'm on a bad cycle. The past 2 mornings I've rode the Beach and nothing has been happening. Where are all the Bluefish and Sea Mullets I been hearing about? They are probably biting better about the time I have to go to work when the tide is up. So today I went up to Avon and tried to catch a Carp. Unfortunately I still haven't had any luck with those 30 lb Carp, but I did catch 3 Largemouth Bass on a plastic worm and a Turtle on a bloodworm. The Bass were 1-2 pounders. At least that's something. Last night, I was playing around with some nice sized Squid but I didn't have my Squid jigs. I used a mirrorlure and had 15 strikes, but none of them got hooked. Thats the crazy thing about Squid. You CAN NOT hook them, they must grab a point of a hook in order to get caught.. Even crazier, I did manage to catch a 9" Bloodworm last night that was hooked on 2 treble hooks of my mirrorlure. Did it bite the lure? I'm not sure, but this is Hatteras! ***Update*** On the nights of the 14th and 15th, I did mange to a catch a couple of nice Loligo Squid. This variety makes great calamari. I managed to get my hands on a couple of squid jigs, but the Squid are full of eggs and they aren't real aggressive. Squid fishing is always fun and I love to watch them explode in clouds of ink. Also I managed to make $20 by swallowing a squid eyeball. A fool and his money......Total Catch for the Day/Night: 3 Largemouth Bass, 4 Squid and 1 Bloodworm

April 11 Back to Hatteras

I'm headed back to Hatteras for a week. When I get home on the 19th, it will be time to get serious about some Salt Water Fishing. I am availiable on April 20th thru April 25th. I will be looking for Atlantic Bonito, Albacore, Bluefish, and schools of Giant Red Drum. Give me a call if interested in fishing. 252-241-8350

April 10 Pumpkinseed Action

Cloudy day so I didn't go look for the massive school of Red Drum that we found a year ago.... I went freshwater fishing instead and I didn't fish for Largemouth Bass. Seems like lately the best way for me to catch a trophy Largemouth Bass is to fish for something else.... Didn't work today, but my favorite sunfish variety, the Pumpkinseed, were active and all colored up for spawning. It was a good day for action and numbers and I really didn't fish very long. Total Catch for the Day: 20 Bluegill, 5 Pumpkinseed, and 1 Green Sunfish

April 9 Lunker Largemouth Bass

I got the rare opportunity to fish the lengendary Lennoxville Ponds today with Korey B and on a whim I bagged up a bunch of caterpillars..... Tossing artificials wasn't paying off much, so Korey tossed out a caterpillar and quickly caught a small Bluegill that he started using for live bait. In the meantime, I had gotten tired of fighting algae. I figured I'd amuse myself with the caterpillars and catch small Bream. Wouldn't you know after about 10 Bluegills, I get a bite that is "much different" than the others. A drag puller, but not a jumper.. After a long battle and a hike down the shoreline, I landed a 8 lb Largemouth Bass. On a caterpillar! Afterwards I caught 2 really nice Bluegills (Beaufort standards). Korey caught a small Bass and many Bluegill. Fun Fishing excursion. Total Catch for the Day: 2 Largemouth Bass and 25 Bluegill

April 8 Bluefish Slaughter

Really pretty day, my only complaint was the water on the Cape Lookout Shoals was a little dirty. From the Tower, we could see bottom good in 3-4 foot of water. And there was nothing to see. So, Mark, Scott, Justine and I had passed up a slow bite at the Rock Jetty to go scour the Shoals, and there was nothing to scour! So I took a chance and ran to a wreck about 6 miles farther to the east. Its a small wreck and it took a couple of minutes to find, but when we found it, we found Bluefish stacked up 50 feet. It was every drop, every rod. Killer fishing. I caught 1 Black Sea Bass and that was it for variety. Justine reported a Shark followed up one of her Bluefish. Other than that, nothing but 1-2 lb Bluefish. Damn, I forgot. On the way home we found many, many schools of Albacore lined up and plowing into schools of redbait. My first cast, I caught a 10 pounder. Fifty casts later, for Mark and I, we gave up without getting another strike!! Total Catch for the Day: 100 Bluefish, 1 Albacore and 1 Black Sea Bass  

Apr 7 TOMMORROW

Look for a real Salt Water Fishing Report on April 8th!!!! The Top Water Boat has returned from it's Hatteras Hidaway and is ready to scour the Cape Lookout Shoals....

April 6 Bass and Bream

I've had a lot to do today. A major water leak inside my house and I'm certainly no plumber or sheetrock guy. I got problems, thats for sure. I got the leak stopped and the tide out of my bathroom. Now I got holes in the wall and a bunch of soggy sheetrock. Oh well, everybodys got problems.... Except Butch.... Anyway, an Insurance Adjuster came after lunch and looked at my mess, we'll see how that goes. After my meeting, I headed over to a local Mung Hole and made a few casts with a Roostertail Spinner. Nothing spectacular but I did catch a few Largemouth Bass and a couple of Bluegills. One of my Bass was a 1 pounder that made 3 nice jumps and made a nice battle on 6# spin... I actually saw a Largemouth Bass that will be an "eye opener" if I manage to catch him in the future. This one definitely "rules the Mung Hole".  Total Catch for the Day: 4 Largemouth Bass and 2 Bluegill

April 1 Was This Largemouth Bass Joking?

April Fool's Day and I was fooled pretty good. I finally went on my Carp Fishing Expedition and I promise everybody that I saw some incredible Carp. A couple of them looked like Cobia swimming down the shoreline. I saw a smaller one too. The small one was 8-10 pounds. The larger Carp I saw were easily 30+ pounders, and I'm holding back! Unfortunately, either they weren't biting today or I haven't figured out how to catch them yet. I did see a Carp landed today that was 18-20 pounds that was snagged. Pretty work and those boys said there was a big school of them. Of course, the school was gone as soon as the treble hook struck..... So after much effort, I did have one bite. On a ball of Wonderbread Classic White Bread. This bread ball was sitting on the bottom and I hadn't moved it for 10 minutes, when suddenly my line started moving. I set the hook and a 7 lb Largemouth Bass hurled itself skyward!!!! Do What? To really make the story even harder to believe, as I was reeling in my bread-eating Bass, a much larger one followed her in. This one was a legit 10+ pound Largemouth Bass, a real trophy fish! Do What Again? I did my best to lob another breadball in the direction of the Giant Bass. Bread was all I had! Anyway, the big Bass disappeared into the crystal clear, gulf stream blue-dyed water and I was left with an April Fools Tale to tell. Only this one comes with a picture. Total Catch for the Day: 7 lb Largemouth Bass 

High Winds and Squid Explosion

Here I sit at Hatteras, with the Night Shift, with my Boat, with nothing to do all day, and Bluefin Tunas and Killer Whales just over the horizon to the East....... And here is the latest NOAA Marine Weather Forecast: Friday W 15-20, Saturday W 20-25, Sunday NW 15-20, Monday S 15-20, Tuesday SW 25-30...... In other words, I aint going fishing. Not in the Boat anyway. So Tuesday, me and my Boat are headed back to Beaufort Inlet. Hopefully the weather will improve. Its got to...... Last night at Hatteras Inlet something strange happened. On both sides of the Inlet, millions and millions of Squid showed up out of nowhere. Don't get too excited, these are tiny Squid. I just hope its a good sign that next December I will be catching 12" to 18" Squid on squid jigs by the bucketfull like I did in 2008 and 2009. Regardless of their size, it was an amazing sight. They turned the water into a red soup under any light, but even out of the lights if you looked hard enough, you could see them. They were literally everywhere........ Also yesterday, I found a long dead 50 lb Black Drum on the South Beach. I could've used him for my Citation Quest.

Cold Wet Rain and Wind

Another week has come and gone and this one sucked. Windy and wet, and to make matters worse, its cold outside too. Hopefully there will be some nice weather ahead. I've got the Night Shift and my Boat is still at Hatteras so maybe a Fishing Trip will be possible...... This past week, I haven't caught anything. I rode around in the Croatan National Forest one day and I did find an Alligator, but no fish. The "fishing highlight" of my week was: this was the week that happens every spring, where my mailbox was stuffed with NC Fishing Citations. Two standouts were my career best 94 lb Cobia and my 23 lb 3 oz Blackfin Tuna that was caught in the fog, a mile off the beach, on a stingsilver! Photos above are of my "Fishing Wall of Fame". (31 NC Citations for 31 different Species), my Blackfin Tuna Citation, and the Alligator in the Croatan Forest.

March 18 Bluefin Tuna Chewing

After watching my boat sit on it's trailer up here for a month and not fishing for various reasons. Weather, cancellations, bad timing, etc. Yesterday I pretty much made my mind up to go Bluefin Tuna Fishing. The night before fishing, the bad news started coming in.... First the weather forecast that was 10-15 SW added in "becoming 15-20 SW in the afternoon.... Then I got the fishing reports from Thursday. More bad news, the 25 mile run from Hatteras had become a 60 mile run from Hatteras. Oh Jeez. Then I recruited Tuggy, who is pretty damn fearless and a Rescue Swimmer, and we made the decision to pull the boat to Oregon Inlet. We carved about 20 miles off the run that way, but we put the SW on the side of the boat, all the way out there and all the way back. That was brutal. On the way home we made 14 knots and we literally took TEN THOUSAND solid walls of 45 degree Ocean spray straight across the boat from left to right. Right in our faces, for nearly 3 hours. It was was a nightmare of EPIC PORPORTIONS that can be easily fixed with a $1000 set of curtains. Oh well, too late now.... On to the Fishing and it was great! Here's the story as best I can remember it.... Soon after setting out 4 lines, we lost our first Bluefin Tuna after a vicious surface strike and smoking 600 yards of line and the 130# dacron buried in the spool as Tuggy tried to move to the bow of the boat (in 4-6 foot swells). I was trying to clear 3 other lines and drive the boat in horrible conditions. The line popped like a 22 rifle shot and Tuggy was sent sprawling 10 feet backwards and laid out with  a seperated shoulder. One rod was permanantly crippled and out of the action. As we evaluated the injury and what had transpired, another Bluefin Tuna rolled up and swallowed the only bait that I hadn't cleared. After dumping a 50 wide, I felt the ping as something broke. After recovering 500 yards of line we discovered a broken crimp. The score at this point was Bluefin Tuna 2 and Top Water Charters 0. From that point on, we never put out more than 2 lines. We never went more than 10 minutes without a strike. Next came a 10+ foot long, 500+ pound Hammerhead Shark that Tuggy released after a hour long slugfest with 40 lbs of drag on the reel. Following that, Tuggy announced "he was done". Setting out 2 lines, the wait for a strike was very short. I took the next strike and everything ran smooth this time and an hour later I had this fish close and it battle was nearly over when another catastrophe struck. The engine shut down with an overheat alarm. I quickly passed Tuggy the rod (okay I lied, I was done too!) while I reset and refired the engine. Minutes later I had the leader and we each struck with a gaff and we had a 190 lb Bluefin Tuna on the deck. With the pressure off and 2 lines back quickly in the water, we didn't troll too far before we had another savage strike. Unfortunately, I popped the leader on another big BluefinTuna. With so much action, we failed to notice the rising wind that would make our lives so miserable very shortly! With Tuggy recovered from battle and big slicks appearing everywhere and pods of Pilot Whales and Common Dolphins all around the boat, Tuggy decided he was game for another fight. We had another quick strike and for the next 68 minutes he battled a Bluefin Tuna that we released (ouch) at 75+ inches and around 280 pounds. Finally, with one line left in the water and another big slick behind us, we had a strike that Tuggy and I double teamed and released another Bluefin Tuna in the 280 pound class. All the great times were soon forgotten as we started all long, cold, wet ride home. Eventually we made it to the Inlet and all ended well and it was the longest day of my life. We really had no business out there 45 miles offshore, in 6 foot seas and blowing spray, fighting immensely powerful fish in 6000 foot of water, with a harness on attaching you to a life and death struggle with a fish (and the man). I say this because every fish ran into the wind and the seas, so as an angler we ended up on the bow, recovering line, as the bow rose and dropped 4-6 feet, and we both stumbled and fell and held on and reeled. It would have made a great reality show. Trust me, you had to be there. I'm sure Tuggy will comment soon!  But we survived. Total Catch for the Day: 3 Bluefin Tuna up to 280 pounds and a 500+ pound Hammerhead Shark

March 15 The Ides of March are upon us.....

I'm back at Hatteras, working the Night Run and itching to go Bluefin Tuna Fishing. We'll see how the weather responds to my wishes.... Today I drove to up to Hatteras, and casted shad darts all along the way. In the Neuse River, Swift Creek, the Roanoke River, the Scuppernog River, and a ditch near the Alligator River. I caught nothing. I hope my pals Chris, Shane, Capt Steve, and Josh did better. I know Josh did...... Hopefully, better days are ahead. The above picture is a Fried Herring plate from the Cypress Grill in Jamesville. Kick ass. Total Fish for the Day: Nothing

March 12 Day-Night Doubleheader

Early in the day, I went to two local Mung Holes here in Beaufort. One is right by the road and everybody sees it and drives by it twice a day. What most people don't know that it is a steady producer of Bass and Bream. I realize that 99% of the people don't care, but..... So I went there and in 30 minutes I caught 11 Largemoth Bass and 1 Bluegill. Then I went to my "secret spot". Two years ago, this little puddle could produce 50 Bass and 100 Bream in 200 casts. No joke. Unfortunately, on this day, my little spot was choked with algae and I didn't catch a single thing...........JUST WHEN THINGS CAN'T GET ANY WORSE........ Then around 6pm I got a "wild hair" and I made the incredibly bad move by texting Chris the following words: "Let's go Catfishing". Ten long, cold hours later, at 4am, I made it home and collapsed on the couch. Nothing. One nibble and one drag pulled for 3 seconds. We dunked fresh cut Hickory Shad in deep holes, on flats, into downed timber. Everywhere that we thought logically would hold a Catfish. One thing is certain.....We suck at Catfishing. Right now, I'm looking to trade a Cobia sightcasting all day charter for somebody to take me and Chris out to catch a Catfish.... Total Catch for the Day: 11 Largemouth Bass and 1 Bluegill

American Line Burner

The American Shad is a great fighter. Smoking runs and direction changes. Multiple jumps. A true trophy among the hundreds of Hickorys that we have to plow through to get an American Shad bite. They are also a Tasty Fish, if you don't mind a few bones in every bite. Great Flavor.

March 11 Hickory Shad

Back in the Neuse River this morning and the wind was cold and the water was muddy. Two hours in and we'd seen a few Hickory Shad caught, but we were skunked. Finally we abandoned the Neuse and motored up Pitch Kettle Creek. Good move. Our first 2 casts produced double-headers. After a short flurry, we became interested in the many Longnose Gars that were rolling in the Creek. Now, I don't understand this, but we started fishing for Gar. People catch Gar by accident and they are a major head ache for fishermen. However, Chris and I couldn't catch one to save our lives. I hooked 3 and they all escaped while Chris pulled off a major mystery fish! As time wound off the clock, before we knew it we had wasted 3 hours and we had a piss poor catch of Hickory Shad. Nobody around us was catching anything. As a matter of fact, Pitch Kettle was nearly boat-less. On a whim, we ventured into the swamp where a boat like Chris's had no business.....and we found the motherlode. Unfortunately, they were in such a small pool, we could only annihilate them for a few minutes, but it was "every cast". Big, swollen Roe Shad and double hook-ups. It was a great 10 minutes and we jacked up some numbers. We ended our day in the River again looking for a mythical Catfish. Never found one. Again. Total Catch for the Day: 25 Hickory Shad

March 8 Shad Fishing

Chris and I broke me out of my slump with a day of Shad fishing on the Neuse River. The Fishing wasn't great, but it should be improving every day. Between the two of us, we caught 30 Hickory Shad in about 3 hours of fishing. We fishing in the vicinity of Pitch Kettle Creek, the scene of many great memories for Chris and I. Every stretch of shoreline brought about stories and laughter! We needed the Rouser with us bad!! The 5 lb Shad he lost off the rocks at Pitch Kettle Outpost is a Fish of LEGEND now! The day Linwood removed Chris and I off his property will also NEVER BE FORGOTTEN. As the years have passed, we can't recall if he was reaching for a pen and notepad to write down our license plate number OR if he was reaching for a PISTOL to make a statement to all trespassing, no good for nothing, freeloading Shad Fishermen...... Anyway, the highlight of our day was the 2 lb 4 oz American Shad that I caught. American Shad are more commonly known as White Shad are very good to eat. The Sanitary Restaurant in MHC sells a ton of them every Spring. Everyone should try it...........We also spent a couple of hours soaking cut bait on the bottom. We only had one bite and I pulled the hook on a 10 lb Bowfin right at the boat. No Catfish. Our Catfish program needs some work, for sure. For our efforts, I got about 10 roe Shad and one nice "eating" Shad. I'm out the door with a fillet knive right now.... Total Catch for the Day: 30 Hickory Shad and 1 American Shad

March 6 The Forecast Looks Windy

Another week at Hatteras is winding down... Crappy weather has been the norm... I will bw leaving my boat up here and I am still trying to get a day off on a pretty day so I can go Bluefin Tuna fishing. We'll see how it works out this week. From the forecast, it looks more likely that I'll be chasing Hickory Shad in the Neuse River. Really, I could care less as long as there is a chance to chase something....Please. Its been a strange year. Send me some fish. Please.