May 30 Hatteras Cobia Fishing Part 2

Today was my Birthday and nobody seemed to care. The best present that I got was finding a Manta Ray cruising in 30 feet of water off Ocracoke Island. The Ray was a huge one, probably 20+ feet from wingtip to wingtip. The best part was that he had 8-10 Cobia cruising with him and these were big Cobia at 40-50 pounds each. I hooked 2 of these Cobia from the Tower before I climbed down. Out of this doubleheader, I caught a 46 pound Cobia and lost the other one.I also released 2 borderline legal Cobia. I saw a 6 foot Cobia that I never really had a chance to catch. This was a giant Cobia, probably 90-100 pounds. After an action packed morning, I went 30 minutes without seeing anything and I was back at the dock before noon. The picture is of my 46lb Cobia banging around after I climbed back up in the Tower. Nice. Total Catch for the Day: 3 Cobia up to 46 pounds

May 27 Hatteras Cobia Fishing

Rob and I went out to kill the Cobia this morning. We started out by looking on the western edge of Diamond Shoals. The water was dirty and cold and full of bait. We had another Humpback Whale experience and got close enough to smell his breath! We saw 2 Cobia and a Hammerhead Shark, but we never hooked up. Then we ran down and looked 6-7 miles off Hatteras and found beautiful Blue Water. We also "ran over" 3 Cobia and established what would become the theme for the day. After wasting more time, we ended up off the eastern end of Ocracoke Island and we finally found plenty of fish. The problem was, we kept running over them. Conditions were less than perfect, but today we were just in a bad groove. We ended up catching 3 Cobia. Our largest was a 30 lber. Our other 2 fish were less than 20 pounds. We probably saw 40 Cobia. It was fun, but really disappointing. Is this a personal slump? Bad Karma? I'm ready for it to end! Total Catch for the Day: 3 Cobia up to 30 lbs

May 24 Wasted Day

Today was a total bummer. Mit came all the way from Canada to catch a Cobia. This morning we were greeted by strong winds, rain, and a gray sky. We ran to the east towards a hole in the sky and a ray of sunlight. On the western edge of the Shoals conditions were less than ideal, but they were fishable. After a 90 minute search, we had seen one Cobia and I had ran over him. Then we decided to check out the Bait Balls that have been everywhere for 3 weeks. This morning, they were gone. No bait. We then took off on a 20 mile run to catch bait on the inside. By now, the wind was blowing 20+ out of the NE. No bait, no where. We decided to call it a half of a half day. After the guys drove away, the bottom fell out for 10 minutes.Then the wind slacked up and the sun came out. It would've been a pretty good day for sight casting. It makes me sick. Now I'm headed to Hatteras for the week. Total Catch for the Day: NOTHING

May 23 Better Cobia Fishing

Joe and his boys joined me today for a half day adventure and I would have to say, it was a good time. it was probably the best day ever for viewing the Blue Planet. We saw Bottlenosed Dolphins killing a Bait ball. We saw Sharks hammering a Bait Ball. We has a very close encounter with a Humpback Whale. We saw around 10 Cobia. Web hooked 4 Cobia. We caught 2 Cobia. We caught a handful of Bluefish. We saw Turtles, Rays, Sharks, Spanish Mackerel, and we saw millions of Menhaden. We pulled off a 50+ pound Cobia. We couldn't get a bite off a 60 lb Cobia. We boxed a 38lb Cobia and a 34" Cobia. things were picking up when we quit. Total Catch for the Day: 2 Cobia up to 38lbs and 5 Bluefish

May 22 Bad Moves=Bad Fishing

I pretty much know that the Cobia Motherlode is north of us. Today, for some reason, I thought I would run after them. However, I knew I couldn't run to Ocracoke. So we ran to Drum Inlet and never found the tail end of the migration. When we quit running, we were still 20+ miles from the bite. I think I would've done better by hammering my Home Turf. Hell, I could not have done worse. When we got back to Cape Lookout the Fiberglass Armamda had scoured every nook and cranny of the Shoals and even had the Bluefish on the run. We managed a few Bluefish on metal, but the day was shot. my sincere apology to my anglers. We also snagged a few Shad. Total Catch for the Day: 5 Bluefish and 8 Menhaden

May 20 Casting to Turtles

Cobia Fishing was a little different today than when I left it. Sight casting opportunities were nearly non-existent. I saw 2 small Cobia swimming on top and ran over both of them. On a positive note, on a day when nearly everyone struck out, I did get lucky. I found a giant Leatherback Turtle swimming in 7 feet of dirty water. When I approached the Turtle, he dove to the bottom. The damn thing was so big though, I could still see a dark spot moving across the bottom. One cast with a bucktail and 7-8 Cobia magically appeared. After the first hook-up, I grabbed another rod and cast again. Bam, doubleheader. 15 minutes later I had a 38 lb Cobia in the boat and let a slightly smaller fish walk. That was early and that was it. I never saw another fish. Total Catch for the Day: 2 Cobia up to 38 lbs

May 19 Scouting Trip

We left the Dock at 2pm and we ran east 12 miles. This is what I found: 3 Sheeepsheads feeding a Bouy in the Bft Inlet Chain. No sunlight and stiff East Wind. Wasted afternoon. I learned nothing. Total Catch for the Day: ZERO

May 7 My New Career Best Cobia and New Boat Record---94 pounds

Believe it or not, today was even better than yesterday. Jeremy, Josh, Mike, and I smoked the Cobia again today. We fished longer and harder. We saw more fish than yesterday. We were shadowed by other boats all day. Its hard for me to understand why anyone would need to follow me around when there are thousands of Cobia around. We probably saw 2-300 Cobia, hooked 25 Cobia and caught 17 cobia. The good news for me was that I got to make a cast off the tower and 90 minutes later, I had a new career best and boat record Cobia at 94 pounds. Sweet! Josh had a Cobia around 70 pounds and we had 6 total over 50 pounds. Great Day of Fishing. Total Catch for the Day: 17 Cobia up to 94 lbs

May 6 Epic Cobia Casting

Tuggy and his crew had an epic Cobia trip today at Cape Lookout. First cast in the air at 9am, last cast in the air at 1pm. We saw 50+ Cobia, hooked 17 Cobia, and caught 15 Cobia. All these fish were caught on spinning tackle by sight casting. We had a 56 lb.er and a 58 lb.er. We had 4 Citations. We saw a many Sharks, Rays, Bluefish, and Spanish Mackerel. Total Catch for the Day: 15 Cobia up to 58 lbs and 2 Bluefish

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What a Great Tuna Picture

May 5 Big Suprize Blackfin Tuna Inshore

I made a solo run out to AR 315 this morning to spank the Atlantic Bonito. I was met at Beaufort Inlet by heavy fog and zero visibility. I said , WTH, what else can go wrong in my life, but I headed west anyway. Once I got to 315, it was pretty obvious, pretty quick that it wasn't going to be a big Atlantic Bonito day. Spanish Mackerel and Bluefish were over structure and fishing was okay for them. The first Spanish Mackerel of the year is always exciting. After an hour or so and 10 Bluefish and 5 Spanish Mackerel, an acre of Bonito crashed just inshore of the Reef. Me and one other boat made it to the melee in time. I got 2 Atlantic Bonitos in a hurry. I let one walk and iced one down the unfortunate one. Ceviche! After a few minutes of waiting around, I said this is too slow, so I started the trek down to AR 320. I didn't get far to the west before I came up on another school of Atlantic Bonito. This time I was too slow. No strikes. I did notice a couple of birds dipping over an area thich with Lion's Mane Jellyfish. As I watched, I saw a big boil, then another. Something unusal. Was I seeing things? Then a couple of Spanish Mackerel jumped. So I casted my tiny weighted Yo-Zuri on 8# test. Quick stike......An hour and a mile later, I had a 24 lb Blackfin Tuna in the Boat! Unreal. Total Catch for the Day: 1 Blackfin Tuna, 2 Atlantic Bonito, 5 Spanish Mackerel, and 10 Bluefish

April 25 Largemouth Bass in Beaufort

Last Spring I was doing quite a lot of Freshwater Fishing. This year, not so much. This afternoon, I went over to one of my favorite Urban Bass Hotspots and checked it out. The wind was blowing a little too hard for the Fly Rod, so I decided to use a Plastic Worm instead. It wan't great, but in an hour, I had 10 strikes, 8 hook ups, and released 6 Largemouth Bass. All these were spunky, but weighed less than a pound. Better than nothing. We also went to the Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores today and I assume this is a replica of the NC State Record Dolphin. I thought it was worthy of a photo! Total Catch for the Day: 6 Largemouth Bass

April 23 Good Sight Casting Action

Today was a good day of fishing. It was not a good day for the camera battery to die. There was 1 event that made today a day to remember. Our biggest Red Drum of the day (and the year so far) got mauled.......By a 9 foot Bull Shark. I assume it must have been a Bull Shark because I don't think the much more common Sandbar Sharks get anywhere near that size. Anyway, it all happened in 6 foot of water right under the bow. Hopefully some of the cell phone footage will turn out good. Maybe the images of the Shark that the guys captured will shed more light on the Sharks identity. I was more intent on getting my bucktail back that trying to figure out what kind of Shark it was! The day started with a bang. Our first 3 casts all connected with 30-40 pound Red Drum. We ran right up on a huge school. I figured it was going to be an epic numbers day, but it turned out differently. The final fish of this tripleheader turned out to be a 60 pounder on 12 lb spin. The big Red Drum nearly spooled us twice, then he found his way into the jaws of the big Shark. The carcass pulled the Bogagrip below the 50 pound mark. After that episode, we found the Red Drum schools 2 more times and released 3 more fish. We also "every casted" the Bluefish for 30 minutes. These Bluefish were 1-2 pounders. We didn't see any of the 3 pounders we expected. The Shoals weren't too lively today, but we did see an oddball out there today. A 4 foot Thresher Shark was headed east in the skinny water. He wasn't impressed with our bucktails. We also saw a Hammerhead Shark and lots of assorted Biters. Total Catch for the Day: 6 Red Drum (32-60+ pounds) and 35 Bluefish

Fishing Tommorrow

I'm pretty excited to be headed to the Shoals tommorrow to pick up the search for the Schools of Red Drum. It will be interesting to climb back up in the Tower after my last adventure. It is still really sore! In other fishing news, have you guys been checking out the Groupers thay the Hatteras Crowd has been whacking. Awesome. 40 and 50 pounders all over the place. Lots of Golden Tilefish. Well, hopefully I will post a great report tommorrow and as for this Blog, it is acting up and I don't know how to fix it. I'm getting a big empty space on my right hand column information. Are you guys seeing it too?

Back In The Day

Way back when.....The old 23' Maycraft was on the Sharks. Blacknoses and Blacktips. Even had a 400 lb Bull Shark bite a 35lb Blacknose in two right behind the boat in 6 feet of water! Will this be the summer that somebody gets eaten at Sand Dollar Island!

Right Whales

Here is the best I could get while respecting their space.

April 12 Awesome Red Drum Fishing and Right Whales

Today was a bad day for everything but fishing. A trip out of Ocracoke that I really wanted to do fell through. So I splashed the Boat at home and headed back to the Cape Lookout Shoals. Once there, the fishing was great, but I will always remember this day because.......Today was the day that I.......Finally fell out of the Tower!!! How hurt am I? I don't know yet. Let's just say my knee, my ribs, my wrist, and lots of things inside hurt. I think I'm okay though. Other than that, Puppy Drum were everywhere, Large Red Drum were scattered, and a mother and baby Right Whale were crossing the Shoals. That was pretty impressive in 6 feet of crystal clear water. The baby was 16-17 feet long. The mother was enormous. Awesome day except for the Girls at Ocracoke and my fall from the Tower. I did catch my 48 lb Red Drum on 10lb spin. Awesome. Total Catch for the Day: 12 Red Drum (5 Large up to 48 lb.s and 7 puppys up to 30")

April 11 More Sight Casting Photos!

These were pretty impressive or just pretty. What a Day!

April 11 25 Citation Red Drum by Sight Casting

What a difference a day makes. Kory, Chris, and I found a huge school of Red Drum within 20 minutes of starting our search. The first 3 casts resulted in 2 strikes. I was saying they were 18-25 pounders. I was wrong, the first 2 Red Drum of the day were 40+ pounders. After that, from 10am until 3pm, it was double and triple headers. All these Red Drum were over 33 pounds. We released several over 45 pounds. Kory and Chris definitely released 50+ pounders. Every Red Drum was caught by sight casting. Bucktails, Storm Swimbaits, and Gulps. We couldn't buy a strike on top water plugs. The coolest thing about these Red Drum was that many times we would chase them up into 1-2 feet of water and they were still hammering our baits. Honestly, they were thousands of Giant Red Drum on the Shoals today. Sorry to all the guys that never saw them and to the ones that ran over them. It was a good day to be on the "Top Water Charters" boat. Lots of big Sharks on the Shoals today as well. Total Catch for the Day: 25 Red Drum from 33 to 50+ pounds

April 10 Nothing But a Boat Ride

Mike and I headed east this morning to slay Red Drum, Bluefish, and release a few Albacore. But, when it was over, we had caught absolutely NOTHING..... I can blame it on the wind and the dirty water. The place where the Albacore had been was dead. The place where I wanted to go was a little too messy for sight-casting. So we looked around in a few other places and ended up at Ruddy Ducks on the MHC waterfront where we caught some Tuna, Amberjack, and Soft Crabs. Total Catch for the Day: NOTHING

April 8 BLOW WIND BLOW

I know that the wind is blowing and I just cancelled tommorrows trip, but the weather looks good for Saturday, Sunday, amd Monday. Give me a call and let's go fishing. I plan to fish Ocracoke Inlet on Monday and there has been a monster school of monster Red Drum hanging around up that way! 252-241-8350

April 7 Albacore Fishing

Albacore Fishing was great today at Cape Lookout. Unfortunately, the brutal SW wind made it our only option. We searched the Shoals inside Cape Lookout Bight and found nothing worth casting to in the clear green water. things are looking up though. The water temperature has risen nicely and it shouldn't be long before lots of fish invade our Inlets. Our plan was to search the Shoals for Red Drum but the weatherman did not cooperate. Thankfully, the Albacore saved the day. Huge schools of the green torpedos were ram feeding into huge masses of tiny bait. They weren't much interested in chasing a bait, but with a good cast and good timing, they were pretty easy to catch. Total Catch for the Day: 7 Albacore

March 27 25 Knot Winds and Dog Shark Frenzy

Greg and his Dad and his 3 sons joined me for a difficult day of fishing. Relentless North winds and very muddy water made finding fish today a big challenge. The great thing was, these boys just wanted to catch fish! That helped, but I was still worried about our chances. I knew that all my favorite "go to" spots were going to be impossible to fish. So I rolled the dice and ran East. When we got to the first spot, lines went into the water, and 3 rods bowed in a matter of seconds! It was a beautiful thing. Two hours and 30 Spiny Dogfish later the boys were happy! These Spiny Dogs weighed from 3 to 10 pounds each. After taking a break to eat lunch, which was interupted by a Smooth Dogfish and another Spiny Dogfish, we ran back down to MHC where we caught 12 Black Sea Bass. Total Catch for the Day: 31 Spiny Dogfish, 12 Black Sea Bass and 1 Smooth Dogfish

March 26 Lennoxville Largemouth Bass

Today I got a chance to go make a few casts in Beaufort's most legendary Bass Hotspots. Unfortunately, Korey and I couldn't find where the big ones were hiding out. I did manage to catch 2 small Largemouth Bass on a plastic worm. Total Catch for the Day: 2 Largemouth Bass

March 25 Citation Red Drum

I am sorry for the lack of updates. I have been slowed by all kinds of problems. My computer is in the shop, so I will not be posting any pictures until later. The fishing today was pretty good. Basically all the Albacore you wanted and they were extrememly easy to catch also. I took time to catch 2 Albacore, a 6 pounder and a 8 pounder. The target species was Red Drum and I found a couple of challenges. First, I could not find any schools of the slot-fish I was looking for. I did find a school of Big Fish on the west side of Shark Island. These fish were very spooky in shallow water, but I did manage to release a 51 lb Red Drum on 10 lb spin and a white jerk shad. After that I chased the school around but never got another bite. Over on the east side of Shark Island a different scenario was taking place and after a little trial and error, I figured out a method that worked. Casting my jerk shad under showers of diving Gannets, I caught and released 4 Red Drum in about 2 hours. These Red Drum ranged from 42" to 49" each. I didn't weigh any of those fish because I had a tough time reviving the first Drum that I released. Total Catch for th Day: 5 Red Drum and 2 Albacore

Feb 12 Cape Lookout Shoals

This wasn't anything but a freezing cold Boat Ride. I guess I was still high from my Oregon Inlet trip when I launched my Boat. What was I thinking! Floated the Boat at 9am. Ran all the way to Shark Island and back and was back in the Truck by 12:30. I really didn't see that much. A few diving Gannets. A few scratches on the Bottom. Lots of Comorrants. A few Bottlenose Dolphins. No Fish that mattered. I can say this: Of all the people on Planet Earth, I was the only Human Being to visit Shark Island today. The rest of y'all were too smart! Total Catch for the Day: Nothing

Feb 9 Striped Bass Fishing

I got a last second call to go Striped Bass fishing out of Oregon Inlet tuesday morning and with more terrible weather on the way, I said Why Not? So I made the trip up from Hatteras to Oregon Inlet to join Bryan and Brian. It was nice to fish on an old 23' Maycraft again. It brought back some great memories! The fishing was good and the fish were within 10 miles of Oregon Inlet. We caught a bunch of fish in the 30 pound class pretty quick. We kept 5 and then we hoped to catch a big one. No deal though. We caught 14 Striped Bass trolling in about 90 minutes and then jigged up 4 others. Back to the Boat Ramp by 11am. Sweet. Total catch for the Day: 18 Striped Bass up to 32 pounds