The last week has had some FANTASTIC fishing with even better weather – if any of you would like to get one some great fish, anything from nearshore mahi and kings to big flounder – give me a call. I still have good dates available –
7/7 – Will hired me to take him out on his own boat, a gorgeous 27′ proline with twin E-Techs, to teach him a bit about dolphin fishing. We steamed towards the 14, put in some lines, had some short strikes and pulled them in to go off and find some grass. Towards the 90 foot drop, we found a gorgeous rip and coresponding weedline and put the baits in the water. Within minutes – 8lb cow dolphin. After a bried tangle, we headed down the weedline and within minutes were into bailers – we played with them for over an hour with 10lb test, bailing them into the boat. They are a blast on 10lb tackle, let me tell you. After breaking one off, we caught him again about an hour later with 2 hooks in his mouth! After they left us we went back to trolling, picking away at the bailers and some tossers. Amongst pulling grass off the baits, we came across a beautiful patch of grass – it was just then that a beautiful 20-30lb bull came racing out from under the grass to pounce on one of my naked ‘hoo dinks. The reel screamed and the fight was on – it was a slick calm day on the water with very boats. It doesn’t get much better than that.
7/8 – Cancelled due to an ugly South Blow.
7/9 – Today I had on two of the coolest people I have met all year – Brian and Stacy from Raleigh. Brian and Stacy are both seasoned offshore fishermen with a third on the way! At first I was a bit anxious about taking out an expecting lady, but they quickly showed how experienced they are – they were just as, if not more, comfortable on my boat than I am! Not having been fishing for a while, Stacy was so excited to get out and get into some fish – Brian is one lucky man.
We started off with some kings and sharks – one of the blacktips jumped over 8 feet out of the water. When you get one that decides to be acrobatic, you don’t often forget it! After the bite slowed, we headed on to one of my flounder holes. It didn’t take long – amongst a ton of shorts Brian pulled this 6.34lb DOORMAT Citation off of the bottom! Highlight of the day was my engine vapor locking up in the inlet – in this heat it can happen easily so be ready to pump that bulb! Great job guys – with this type of training, your future son is going to love fishing just as much as you guys. He’s a lucky boy!
7/10 – This morning I fished with Worth, Karl and Philip in search of fish. The ocean was dead slick calm and the air was hot and sticky – we started off trying to jig up some rather picky bait and once we had a few, we switched our efforts to the kings. After picking away at some sharks, we finally had a few kings pick up the baits – all of which were bitten off by the cudas. At least they got 2/3 of one in for some steaks…
So we switched over to the flounder – and again, it didn’t take long. Among a ridiculous amount of shorts, we started picking away at the keepers. After we found a few, the boys finally got the hang of it (flounder fishing is 100% technique!) and carl yanked this beautiful 4lb 14oz near-citation out of the sand. The hilight of the day, again, were the fish that pulled the hooks – we lost 3 or 4 serious flounder (no breakoffs- just pulled hooks and early hooksets) that would have been easy citations.
7/11 – Today was easily one of the calmest days of the year – the ocean was as slick as glass and absolutely devoid of boats (my favorite feature). I took out Edwin in search of some kings and dolphin since the weather was so nice – the only problem was the grass. It was 100% scattered and we could not find any decent weedlines within my range. While we still managed a couple dolphin, we switched tacits to slow-trolling come mid morning. Pretty soon we had our first of many visitors – the first of several 30-50lb cobia that decided it wanted to kiss my trim tabs and not eat my bait. We saw over 5 or 6 of these guys – only one of which mouthed a bait but quickly spit it out.
While king fishing, we had some great hits, brought in some sharks, several snakes and this pretty 17lb king. So then I decided I should jig up some more live cigars – it was very difficult as predators kept eating my sabiki rigs. Fionally, after putting a few beauties in the live-well, on the way up something slammed my rig but didn’t break it off…it decided to swim to the surface to check us out – low and behold, Mr. Cobia. He had the sabiki rig wrapped around his head and the sinked hanging out the corner of his mouth – I fought him for probably 5 minutes on my patented Bait-Pro Sabiki rod as he swam, only inches under the surface, around my boat 5 or 6 times. So, I grabbed the gaff.
It was than that “lessons of Lost Sailor” danced through my head as I slid the gaff into the water, under the fish – thankfully, he ran and snapped the rig otherwise we would have been in for a world of heart. Thanks again Lost!
Some of the fish Edwin kept for dinner…
7/12 – The full day with Brasil and son Nathan. Veteren fly anglers and rock fisherman in the bay, Brasil had not had much luck with NC Charter captains and really wanted some to show his son a good day and hopefully catch some kings and dolphin – niether of which they had ever caught.
The light and variable winds the weathermen called for were wrong so and with a few thunderheads looming, I decided we should probably stay close to the beach to avoid being caught in a pop-up storm. Less than five miles from the inlet, we were into fish within minutes. Unfortunately they were sharks – big blacktips and sharpnose that both Nathan and Brasil enjoyed pulling in. It didn’t take long, however, before we were into the kings. Once we found them, we put 3 nice fish in the box within minutes and threw back several shorts.
It was then that we hooked something fantastic – one of the rods bobbed four times and Brasil snatched it up. The reel sang for a few minutes and a huge fish leeped 8 feet out of the water, shaking its head. Long and narrow, with a pointed head and forked tail – what I can only say was a sailfish!!! While the fight lasted for probably less than 1 minute before the beast through the hooks, how amazing is it to be able to go less than five miles from the inlet and hook up with a sail! To further my claim – another boat, less than 300 yds from us, hooked up and caught a sail less than 20 minutes later!
For the rest of the afternoon, we picked away at the kings and sharks – breaking off several large fish and pulling the hooks from a few more. Remember- when fighting kings using slow trolling tactics – fight them with as little drag as possible! Having seen a few mahi swim by the boat, I knew that if we put in our time, we’d get our shot sooner or later. Come early afternoon, one of the reels screamed and nathan brought in one of the smallest dolphin I have ever seen. Still – his first dolphin! LEss than 30 minutes later and about to call it a day, we finally got what we came for. One of the reels, again, screamed and a 10lb cow mahi started leaping out of the water. Nathan was beside himself and he battled the beautiful fish to the boat, praying that it wouldnt break off. His prayers were answered and I gaffed the fish. Nathan was so proud of this fish – he carried it up and down the dock, showing it to everyone he could find. What a great day – good fish in the cooler and lots of action with over 70 total knockdowns!!
Honestly, if I have a son – I hope he’s like Nathan. This guy never lost interest the entire day – often he would be on the rod before I even knew a fish hit and would bring them to the boat like a pro. Since I started chartering, I’ve come across too many kids that could not keep their interest even while fighting a good fish on light tackle…they would try to pass the rod off to me or a parent. It’s great to see a kid who loves to fish – Brasil is raising him right.
