WaterDog Guide Service

Ive gotten several concerned emails regarding the lack of update on my site – and I just wanted to let everyone know that things are as well as always. I had a software problem in the fall and rolling from my busy fall schedule to busy winter hunting schedule just didn’t leave me much time or motivation to fix the gliche. But now everything is taken care of and Im getting ready for spring.

Winter fishing has actually been great – lots of trout, lots of red drum. This year is going to be one of the best red drum (and trout!) fishing years in the last decade!

I’ll post some reports soon!

Everyone who knows me knows how much I rely on my iPhone – email, pictures and how I even update this blog. Even though my waterproof life proof case is fantastic – it doesn’t float on its own. So even though, in 10 years of full time guiding, I have never lost a phone overboard – I managed to knock it off a patio table at a MHC restaurant while eating dinner. It disappeared into 12′ of murky water. Lost were two weeks of great photos and a lot of frustration. But now I have a new iPhone and everything is back up and running.

The fishing? Pretty great.

Expect an epic albacore season – oct dates are in short supply I still have plenty of great November days!

Inshore – the red fishing is holding its own with lots of little rats and I’m tracking several good schools of overslot fish. The trout fishing is outstanding – lots of keepers and even some big fish on topwaters early on the morning

Nearshore – absolutely fantastic. We have had a week of acres and acres of big 2-6lb spanish that are jumping all over flies and lures. The albacore fishing has also been outstanding – bait is everywhere and we’re looking at an outstanding fall!!

Offshore – the grouper bite is great along with some kings and amberjack. The big boats are destroying the wahoo – I don’t really do that with clients but got out with my wife on a slick day lady week.

Some pics:

Some big stuff first – we wife and I chased some wahoos last week on a slick calm day. It was wide open – 3hrs in after a botched triple header we had 2 hoos in the box (1 too many for us) and several releases we called it a day. As wahoo is best fresh we doled out out and those 2 fish fed close to 40 people for multiple meals.

Me with a 20lb Gag caught the same afternoon in 90′ of water.

My pops with one of several large specs he caught on topwater (along with a big crevalle jack).

The Rollie’s had a great trout bite catching and releasing a bunch of keeper specs! The red bite wasn’t great but we caught a half-dozen rats on topwater and had several blowups from big boys.

Paul wacked them pretty good yesterday – the shrimp were moving in force and it had to be DOAs under a cork to get them.

Chris and Nikki had a great afternoon – while the trout didn’t chew today, it was slick calm and we chased busting Albies around in my flats boat. We ended the day poling around after a very large school of over-slot reds. Fantastic!

The Oake crew had a tremendous day with the big spanish and albacore – we cast to Albies first thing and then spent the rest of the morning casting to giant schools of 3-6lb busting Spanish! Fantastic!

With all the thunderstorms around this morning, it’s a good time to update the blog.

Matt and son had a great morning a couple days ago – lots of Spanish and guess who showed up? Albacore – nice pods eating big baits – perfect for spin and fly. We caught and released about 5 – tons of fun!

Will had an entertaining morning – we worked a school of reds first thing landing several overslot fish on top waters. We even had a large bull shark try to eat one in 2′ of water – total chaos and whitewater. The red avoided his jaws and we landed him but it sure was exciting!

We ended the day hooking several overslot reds around the docks and lost a 4lb+ trout at the gunnel.

Marsh trout fishing remains excellent.

It was a slick cam morning – we started off with a few blues, Spanish and jacks near the beach before we hit the wrecks. The big Spanish bite was as good as it gets, period. While the old dudes watched, brad and john landed a bunch, lost a big king and had 4 citation fish between 6 and 7.5lbs!

We finished the day with a few nice flounder – good job guys!

In between the rains this last week we’ve enjoyed some very good trout fishing – lots of keepers from a very good class of fish.

Even having a great trout topwater bite in the early hours. Corks and jigs the rest of the day.

Still plenty of flounder and reds around the docks.

The red bite is improving with some food schools of fish around but it’s all or nothing fishin – either you’re on a large school or are looking for them. Tons the 10-14″ rat reds.

I got out with my wife for a few hours catching about 20 keepers to 22″ until a bull shark ate Katie’s cork and killed the bite.

It’s been way too long since I’ve done an update but the weather has been great (despite some rain) and I’ve been very, very busy.

A synopsis report:

Inside – the red fishing is picking up with the August moon tides (as it always does) and we’ve been finding respectable numbers of fish. Schools of overslots on calm days and a good. Bet of fish around the deep docks – slots, over-slots and tons and tons of sub 14″ fish. Baring a cold winter, 2013 will be excellent. We’re still finding some trout, flounder on livebait, sheepshead in the likely places. Lots of spanish and blues and jacks around the inlets.

Nearshore – excellent schooling
Blues, Spanish and jacks nearshore. Lots of big Spanish on the wrecks and the usually respectable flounder bite – its not as wide open as last summer but were picking At them and getting 6-12 keepers most days. Good black seabass and grouper farther offshore.

Bonnethead and giant shark fishing is excellent.

Some reports:

Had a fantastic day with Dave and Jesse – despite rain we boated a good number of keeper flounder and a surprise 30lb cobia!

John and Neal did good picking away at flounder and getting a citation spanaird!

William and family with some doormats – look at what a cuda did to the big one!

Some lovely young ladies with some nice Spanish! They even filleted them!

Mike and son with some nice flounder – we also had an epic cuda battle, a bunch of grouper and lost a 30-40lb cobia boat-side.

Tommy kicked grandpas butt landing 3 doormAts to his 1 – fun day boys!

The spotts boys with an outstanding nearshore mahi and cuda.

The pulleys wore out the Spanish and blues!

The bonnetheads have been thick this year – spinning and fly….so much fun to catch and release.

Fishing with Karen and her wonderful kids is always a treat – this year was very special even if it was too rough for us to fish the ocean we still had a great mixed bag and hot hand Sarah crushed the bonnies on bucktails

Some more happy bonnetheads fishermen…

Some inside reports -

Nice reds and flatties..

This little guys (will be slot fish next teR( are THICK.

My solo evening off – no wind prior to a thunderstorm, i took of solo and found 3 big schools of overslot reds and schools of breaking jack crevalle. Also caught a bunch of small rat reds on the same top waters – my best solo day all year.

Ive been very busy lately and have not had much time for updates. Decent nearshore fishing……and plenty of wind to go with it.

The Spanish mackerel were plenty thick this week (other than Wednesday when they mostly went AWOL). Decent inshore flounder and plenty of sharks.

Wagner is a fishing machine – he outfished his dad and granddad catching the most Spanish, 3 giant stingrays (shark fishing bycatch) and did very well hooking several bonnet heads.

David with a nice bonnet head!

This past week was cooler in temps and very busy for me – I’ve been running a lot of half-days so all the reports are similar. My iPhone did eat a few pics so if anyone knows how to find them (or clients want to submit their own) ill be happy to post them.

I did lose great photos of 9yr old Michael’s Spanish and nice spinner shark – sorry bud! But if your dad sends me a couple I’ll put you up.

Report:

Inshore – the inside flounder bite is getting better and I had a good trip this past week, including a few red drum mixed in!

Spanish mackerel bite has ranged from excellent to mostly bluefish with several great mornings/afternoons to several slow ones.

The shark bite is varying greatly on the tide – we’ve had some slow bites to wide open bites. The bonnethead bite has been outstanding on the higher tides.

Flounder and big spanish are steady
on the wrecks.

Offshore:

I have not been much despite the great weather of the last week. The mahi bite has been very steady within 25 miles and the grouper/bass bite is still excellent.

My wife and I took a day to scout a few ledges I haven’t fished since last summer/fall. We started off with several mahi and a nice king mackerel before going over to grouper – we were covered up with big amberjack. Back-breakers. While they have not been all that hot on the nearshore wrecks this summer, they are thick a bit farther offshore.

Katie ended up boating a dozen triggers to my 3 before I got on a good grouper (keepers from
26-30″) and big knot head seabass bite.

Two days later, my back still hurts from all the jacks.

Sorry for the lax reports – the week of the 4rth is always a long, busy week.

This year is was a long, busy and sweltering hot week.

But the fishing was good – decent Spanish in the inlet and nearshore, good big shark fishing, great wreck fishing for flounder (if I can get there!), decent flounder in the inlets (but the ratio of undersized to keeper is not as good as on the wrecks). Bonnet head fishing (fly and spin) has been very good.

Matt and Sarah had a great morning yesterday – we turned some bluefish into big sharks getting 7 crushing runs but they were all big and all spinners. All we broke off. But we saved the day doing some bonnethead fishing – not only did Matt get his first Bonnie but he landed a 4.5lb southern flounder! Wow buddy!

I had a great morning with Allen and son William – decent Spanish and blues which we turned into a nice blacknose shark very quickly! The end of the day we went looking for bonnetheads and immediately caught a 28″ cobia before, almost immediately landing a nice bonnethead!

Also, always good to spend some time around fellow duke alums!

Another hot morning of calm winds – ocean was a bit swelly. As soon as we got to the wreck we started getting bites and catching flounder. Unfortunately our fun was not to last as a couple of sick campers was not make for the type of fun that fishing is supposed to be.

Even though the tide was low and our options limited we made the best of a few hours – drifting bait around the port and bridges we caught bonnet heads, a small bull shark (30-40lbs?) and a surprise legal cobia! Pierce and josh both hooked big fish at the same moment – but while Josh’s fish pulled (def another cobia), Pierce landed a surprised 37″ cobe! What a way to save the day!

Really hot today with very little breeze – the later being totally unforcast. Truthfully, it was pretty slow for Lee and Raven – the Spanish were a no show and the sharks didn’t show so we decided to take advantage of the calmer seas and brave the nearshore wrecks. It was pretty, just swelly. Immediately we lost a big flounder and a few mind layer Raven landed this big boy – just shy of 5lbs! But Ralph threatened to make an appearance so we had to head in rather quickly. At least our fish were of good quality!