May 17 Rough Riding and Awesome Top Water Bluefish

Ron and Dave came a long ways to go fishing. The weather sucked. 20 kt SW wind and 4-6 ft seas. Worse was the incredible long shore current caused by the Full Moon which is creating super high tides and super low low tides. The effect on the Ocean near the Beach is incredible. There have been times the past couple of days when I was a little scared in the Tower. The worst part was, there was no possible way to climb down. When the Capt feels fear, that is a terrible thing. Honestly, what can "get us" is lose of power. I've been in some spots the past 2 days where a loss of propulsion would cast us into an instant calamity. I recognize it because of all the things I've encountered on the water. I hope my fellow guides and fishing captains think about these things too... Anyway, we ended up at Cape Lookout in perfect calm conditions and fished bait on the bottom with no real results. Dave released a 75 lb Butterfly Ray and Ron battled a giant Ray for a while. Then we casted poppers and bucktails to a school of Big Bluefish. It was great while it lasted, but it hurt me in the "tackle box". Ron released a stud of a spring Bluefish at 14lbs. I think the guys managed to release 2 Bluefish each and had several bite off. Total catch for the Day: 4 Bluefish up to 14 lbs and 1 Butterfly Ray at 75 lbs

May 16 Tough Fishing in Rough Conditions

Yesterday I got cancelled and the report from the Far West was excellent. Few Boats and lots of Cobias... So this morning Joey and I braved the seas and the wind and ran down off the western beach, looking for baitballs. Unfortunately, either they were gone or we just didn't go far enough. The water quality had changed alot since Saturday afternoon. It is dirty and there was hardly any bait in the clear water. Where did it all go? SW wind doesn't usually kill the fishing, just makes it rougher. Anyway, on the way home we found a Cobia, and she was a big one. Unfortunately, we couldn't make her eat. Casts were followed and she really liked hanging around the boat. She got to carefully examine lots of baits... Too bad I took the Harpoon out of the boat. It takes up a alot of space and is a little dangerous on a rolling deck. Good way to turn or break an ankle.. Today was the day that it would've paid off... It would've been so easy. Oh well, since we were Cobia or bust, and we didn't bring the harpoon... Total Catch for the Day: ZERO

May 14 Failure of Gigantic Porportions

Today we had a Grand Slam. It was a rare one too. An overslept Captain (first). A screaming TLD 25/custom rod dropped overboard with a fish on. And 2 Cobias pulled off bucktails after solid hook-ups. Can I buy flags for those? My apologies to Joey but our early start didn't materialize and I'm not sure it would've helped. I didn't see anything this morning than was "must see fishing". I am sorry he had to come to my house and beat on my door though. Ouch. We found the fish by mid-morning and could've, should've  made our day, but 2 Cobias pulled the hooks and one strike that never got hooked. So we had our chances at 3 Cobia on a day when a few had 2, several had one, and most had ZERO. My biggest regret is, one of our fish had all the characteristics of a big fish. Nearly spooled us twice and made three major direction changes and ended up in the same baitball where it started 10 minutes earlier. Then finally when we where out of trouble and headed away from the fleet with 75% of the string on the spool..... The hook popped out... or something... By then, that one little baitball was covered with boats, 2-3 were hooked up, and that was over. And so were we. We should've been looking for our third Cobia, not our first, and 7 hours later, that's how it ended. Total Catch for the Day: 3 At Sharpnose Sharks

May 12 A Big Cobia on Light Tackle, By a Girl catching her first Cobia, oooops

What happened to this post???? I'll fix it later. Sorry out of time, Connie's Cobia weighed 84 lbs. Marty's Cobia weighed 39 lbs. Connie's fish took 2 hours to land because the Captains Daily Blunder was to cast a Penn 460 Slammer on a 10-12 lb Ugly Stick with 12# mono into a school of 15 Cobias that looked to be 60-80 lbers..... Its a little more complicated than that, but it all worked out in the end.... The problem was that it ate our morning up when the fishing was at its best. Who gives a crap, who needs a limit! Two nice Cobia and one of them is a Fish of a Lifetime on light spinning tackle on her first Cobia. Way to go Connie, Im sorry if I screamed once or twice. After landing this fish and taking a 30 minute celebration break, the wind kicked up and conditions changed horribly. Total Catch for the Day: 2 Cobia up to 84 lbs

May 10 60 lb Cobia and Every Cast Spanish Mackerel

Could've been better.... Like if I turned right instead of left this morning... Too late now, but here's our story. We caught bait and cruised the Bait Balls off Shackleford Banks. We headed east and looked at beautiful water and beautiful scenery. We got a little bored with the "nothingness" and casted some metal lures. At one point it was pretty much a Spanish Mackerel on every cast. I caught an Albacore that I was hoping was a Bonito. We caught a couple of bottom fish. Finally, we found a Cobia, and after a short delay, he inhaled a bucktail. Bob played him expertly. I gaffed him amatuerishly. When he hit the deck, the bucktail fell out of his mouth. The Fishing Gods smiled, for a second....... We saw a Humpback Whale, a few Sand Tigers, a Barracuda, a Chopper Bluefish, and a bunch of Rays.... The whole time we did this, there was a massacre to the west.. Why do I go east every day? Total Catch for the Day: 60 lb Cobia, 25 Spanish Mackerel up to 3 lbs, 6 lb Albacore, a 19" Gulf Flounder, 1 Black Sea Bass, and 1 Hogfish  

May 8 The Cobias are Laughing at me!

This is getting old... Looking back over the last couple years, since the sightcasting craze, every season has periods of horrible results.. I don't like it. Today was going to be different. For starters, with wind and rain this morning, my intentions were to cast poppers to big Bluefish. Of course, yesterday's Chopper Bluefish were gone this morning... Now what, well the clouds blew away, the sun came out, and the wind dropped out. Chasing Hammerhead Sharks drew me east from the Rock Jetty and before I knew it, I was 2 miles south of Shark Island in the best sight casting conditions of the year, with very little pressure. Cobia, Red Drum, Black Drum, Shark, Bluefish.... Nothing had anywhere to hide. But, there was nothing there. Finally, I found an acre of 3 lb Bluefish and caught 20. Stuffed the livewell and filled a small cooler. With clouds building again and the wind picking up I started running the eastern shoal and guess what found me. 2 big Cobias out of the wild blue yonder and I saw them in plenty of time. They were headed right at me and they got bigger and bigger and bigger. I fired a bucktail and the big one accelerated right up behind the bucktail... and stopped, just followed... Nearing the boat, I let it sink. The Cobia, joined by her partner both did headstands on the bottom over the bucktail but refused to react to my twitching. Last year, the twitch under a headstanding Cobia was MONEY.... Meanwhile the whole time the wind was setting my boat over them... When they disappeared under the boat I cranked the bucktail up and miraculously they followed. Now right beside the boat and showing NO FEAR, I hurried down the ladder and fished a 3 lb Bluefish out of the livewell. Nose hooked and tossed at the now obviously 90 pound Cobia. The Cobia turned on a dime and charged the Bluefish. The MFing Bluefish juked left to right, just off the transom and hesitated for a second... The big Cobia lined him up and lunged... And, take a guess........ The freaking Bluefish jumped back into the damn boat. First time I've seen that.... The big Cobia blasted off upwind to join the other fish, a merely solid 60 pounder, on the edge of my vision. I scrambled back up the tower and searched for them. In shallow, gin clear water... But now the clouds came. Light. Dark. Light. Dark. Frantically I circled. I never found them. When this started it was sunny and 10kt west wind... When I gave up, it was raining and blowing 20kt North. I need not even go into the 60-70 pounder I found off Cape Point. Needless to say, she's still swimming too. 0 for 3 on the Cobia. 1 Giant fish and 2 Big Fish.... Today hurt the most.... Total Catch for the Day: 20 Bluefish

May 6 70 Miles of Nothing

Mike and Mark cast off today, pretty much the plan was to catch Mike a Cobia. After yesterday's fustrations, it seemed I might have learned my lesson to the East. Time to roll the dice towards the West? Nope,  not today. The Hardheaded Captain pretty much went 8 miles east, then turned 12 miles north, then back 12 miles south..... Only this time it was into the teeth of an 18kt SW chop maker... There went 2 hours... Round and round Shark Island, just like yesterday... Just like yesterday, No Cobia.. Finally off Cape Lookout and into the Bight... No Cobia.. In 70 miles, here is what we saw: Turtles, gulls, terns, a myriad of Rays, a 150 lb Ocean Sunfish, 1 Tripletail, 2 small Crevalle Jacks, 2 small Sheepshead, and 1 8 lb Bluefish... Mike chose not to cast a popper at the Bluefish or snag the Sunfish. It was his Cobia Quest and I failed. What would've happened to the West? We'll never know... Total Catch for the Day: Zero

May 5 Cool Sharks and Cold Cobia

I can't find a damn Cobia. This morning was windy and cold and the damndest thing was happening off Atlantic Beach.... Thresher Sharks were crushing Butterfish and the action was certainly easy enough to find and fishing was simple. Landing them was a little tougher. Josh had one escape off the gaff, a nice 100 lb Thresher Shark. Korey and I each got our hands on a Thresher Shark. Mine was around 35 lbs and Koreys was close to 42 lbs. Sweet double on the fish that turned Hoopers inboard into an outboard.... Love those JAWS references!!!!!. Much later we found a nice Hammerhead Shark that Korey sightcasted a bucktail with a Mackerel strip in the direction of... He went for it and a few minutes later we were releasing a beautiful 40 lb Hammerhead Shark. Another great thing was the Spanish Mackerel showed up big time. Easy casting with metal, the boys caught 25 in 40 minutes with about 25 Bluefish as well. The Spanish were nice ones, mostly between 1-2 lbs. The Bluefish were from 8" to 2 lbs. We also caught some other things.... Absent once again were the Cobia. I'm hearing some reports, but hte Top Water Boat is striking out. This must end... Tomorrow... Total Catch for the Day: 3 Thresher Sharks, 1 Hammerhead Shark, 1 At Sharpnose Shark, 25 Spanish Mackerel, 25 Bluefish, 10 Black Sea Bass, and 3 Spottail Pinfish

Capt Marty's NC CITATION QUEST

Lots of you know this, but here is a re-cap and pretty much my life story. Probably doomed my marriage to a great woman and has been chasing off recent girlfriends as well....... On June 24, 1988 I caught a 66 lb Amberjack on a clarkspoon in Beaufort Inlet. The next spring I got my citation in the mail... I decided that I wanted to collect them all... In the next 23 years, I have personally landed 520 NC Citation Fish for 33 different species. There are only 4 more to go... This year has been pretty good so far with 2 new species knocked off. However, the remaining NC Citations are getting harder to click off.... Here is my present status: I need Bluefish and Tarpon. I need Croaker and Bigeye Tuna...... Bluefish was at 17lbs for years and I've caught a dozen 15 pounders. Now the min weight has dropped to 15 lbs and I'm looking... Tarpon is certainly attainable. I've caught 20 or so in Florida, but I've never fished for them in NC and remarkably, I've never stumbled on to one in the thousands of days that I've fished. I've seen my share, but never on my line. Now the problem fish........ A 3 lb Croaker in NC waters is like the Loch Ness Monster. However, in the cold dark waters off Hatteras in the winter, the drop netters catch them. But damn, what a way to roll the dice. Jigging speck rigs, among the commercial fleet on top of every Croaker in the Atlantic Ocean, is worse than looking for the needle in the haystack. The 3 pound Croaker is there 100 feet below running a gauntlet of nets, but he is surrounded by 100 million of his smaller brethren. Talk about bad odds and we aint even factored in the Hatteras in Winter part, Jeeez..... The Bigeye Tuna is simple, but expensive. Go Charter Fishing out of Oregon Inlet and hope your lottery number comes up. Lots of Bigeyes up there, but just a couple of boats a day hit them on random days throughout the year... Pretty expensive way to close out a Quest... So that's it, the Quest that has destroyed my marriage and defined my very existence. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I can't tell which way its moving... The Bigeye Tuna could be waving a Croaker on a string in front of me, luring me deeper into the Tunnel... Farther and farther away from reality... But, hey, I got my Black Drum!

May 3 Black Drum Day of a Lifetime

Josh sailed with Tuggy and I in a Cobia voyage today, but I wasn't exactly feeling good about it for some reason... Might have been last nights craziness spilling over into today! Anyway, we ran East, then North and we found the fleet but the fishing was slow. Maybe we were too late? In our only flurry of action up North, Josh lost a huge Cobia jigging in a good bottom mark. A smoker, nearly spooled a Penn 650SS before the 80# braid buried in the spool and the line popped like a rifle shot! Meanwhile, Tuggy released a 50 lb Sandbar Shark and that was our first and only doubleheader. Fail. Then 3 Cobia swam up to us and I hooked up and passed the rod down to Tuggy. An hour later, we had a 40 lb Cobia that was foul-hooked. Little did we know then, but our "Cobia Fishing" was over. Hours later, we ran back towards the Lighthouse and Tuggy released a magic Albacore that changed the entire fate of our day. As bad fishing hung over us like a dark cloud.... the short Albacore pursuit had us pointed towards my home sweet home at Shark Island... I said, "Lets go see if we can find a school of them big foot soldiers, I hear there's been a few hanging around". Do what, Foot Soldiers Tuggy scowled? After a quick scan, there they were, for the first time in my 25 years of serious fishing.... 2000 Giant Black Drum in a tight ball, marching steadily North at two knots, just like Foot Soldiers on the Battlefield in WWI. It was a simple cast and ka-boom situation. First Josh, then Tuggy..... As Josh pulled the hooks on a 100 pounder beside the boat and Tuggy was waging battle with his 57 lb Drum,  I was blowing serious steam because I couldn't get hooked up.... My steam was turning to rage, and I attacked Josh seriously jeopardizing my life over a stingsilver. (The safety of the Tower!) Finally I hooked up.... Finally, when we all had our Citation Drum on deck we started releasing fish. I got another Monster Drum, then Tuggy again, then Josh, then Josh again. The Citation Train was rolling. My first was the biggest Black Drum we weighed at 67 lbs. We also had a 57 and 62 pound Black Drum. We each released at least one Citation Black Drum. We probably released a couple of Drum larger than we killed, because my 60# Boga-Grip was bottomed out a couple of times. My NC Citation Quest took a giant leap forward with today's captures.. It was incredible Black Drum fishing and the Cobia fishing was a huge letdown. Total Catch for the Day: 7 Black Drum up to 67 lbs, 1 Cobia at 40 lbs, 1 Sandbar Shark at 50 lbs, and 1 Albacore 

Crossing Hatteras Inlet 12 Times a Day

It is nice to know the 5 to 7 lb Striped Apes (At Bonito) are chewing off Atlantic Beach. It is nice to know the first wave of Cobia are here. It sucks to be sitting on the MV Hatteras. The pilgrims are migrating to Ocracoke Island........... We are having Atlantic Bonito for lunch today. Ceviche, Grilled, and Sushi. It's all delicious. ******Next week I have May 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 OPEN and COBIA will be biting******

April 25 Citation Cobias, Citation Bonitos, all you want Bluefish

This morning I got pushed off AR 315. I mean, come on, there's 5 boats jigging and casting metal over one small spot and here comes a shiny, new, wrapped 60,000 dollar Bay Boat no doubt with a freshly minted "we give the test" Captain at the helm. pulling 4 planers and spoons. Right through the fleet. Thankfully I left those the Reef and all those 1 lb Bluefish......What I found---The Day of the Year! And everywhere I went, I had it all to myself... In I had 9 Atlantic Bonito strikes on metal, put 4 in the box from 5-6 lbs, released 3 at 25" to 26", lost a giant one at the net, and broke one off. Then we ran to Cape Lookout and caught Bluefish on every cast with top water plugs. Nice Blues from 2-3 lb each. Then we went east and looked for Red Drum. We found Cobia. Lots of them. We botched several. I ran over plenty. Chris caught a 66 lb Cobia. Chris released a 45" Cobia. I caught a 25 lb Cobia. Total Catch for the Day: 9 Atlantic Bonito up to 26", 3 Cobia up to 66 lbs, 50 Bluefish, and 2 Black Sea Bass  

April 24 Part Two---Double Mung Hole Grand Slam

Words can't describe the joy of a Pumpkinseed in spawning colors after a day on the Ocean chasing something that isn't there..... Total Catch in 10 Minutes: 2 Pumpkinseed, 2 Largemouth Bass and 2 Bluegill

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