WaterDog Guide Service

Had a regular crew today / Durham boys who just keep me laughing all day.

Bonito didn’t happen but Jason managed a fat albert and roger a big Spanish. Bonito are still here but north winds are not conducive to a good bonito bite.

Our primary focus was flounder – we found them good. 12 keepers – not too shabby. A steady bite – we were picking away at them but as soon as we decided to try something different the wind went east and when we tried to get back on the flounder, the bite died.

What’s that I always say about leaving fish to find fish?

Great day – always nice to see you guys!

Sometimes the bonito just disappear, and the slowest days happen to the nicest people. It’s the hardest part of my job and I am so grateful for clients like Alex and Jeff and Nicole – people who understand. For a month the fishing was great, and the last two days were just horrible.

Sometimes the weathermen are wrong….and it doesn’t blow twice as hard as they forecast. That day was today and Alex made up for a crappy Sunday with an un-forecast slick tuesday. The bonito showed back up and we fooled a few along with a few Spanish. We spent the rest of the morning finding a some very nice flounder and releasing some very nice seabass. Not hot but far from slow!

What a difference a day makes.

It’s been windy the last week – really windy.

Today Tom and Tim got a bit of a morning reprieve and we has light SW winds for a few hours. Without a boat in sight we found acres of bonito. They busted for hours and the fish were scattered over acres and acres of water. We were hooked up for the better part of 3hrs.

Probably the best bonito day I’ve had in years. Better than last week even.

They should stick around at least for another week.

When the bonito slowed, we switched over to flounder. With building winds and an incredible morning experience we opted to not run to the superior flounder spot. Bite wasn’t hot but we landed 2 good keepers and lost several in an hour or so.

I still have good dates over the next couple of weeks – cobia should be here soon!

Bonito fishing the past few years has been pretty so-so, but this year is really bringing back old times. Good consistent fishing.

Yesterday was a great morning – Kyle and Kim got to witness some of the best Beaufort inlet bonito of the past 5 years. They tore up the surface for the better part of 2hrs – they were on small bait so you needed to have your stuff together! We caught some big fish too – with Kim having one topping 8lbs!

Did I mention it was slick calm too?

We finished out the day jogging for flounder – there was so little current it was hard to cover ground but we eventually found a good little knot putting 4 keepers in the box and missing several more prior to heading on in. We finished the day following a leatherback in the hopes of seeing a cobia (no go).

What a great day – I look forward to seeing y’all again!

The last week has been good for Atlantic bonito – one of my favorite fish to catch! It was so warm I thought they would show early, but they showed at the sand time they do every year…right around april 12-15th. Sometimes tides, currents and length of day are as important as anything else for migrations.

We’ve been picking away at then every morning with plenty of bluefish and a few Spanish mackerel. The flounder bite is also very good in a few places.

Tom and I caught several bones this morning and regular Paul, and ken, dud well yesterday morning. We also got a shot at a school of big reds before we lost them in the white water!

Still have dates – come catch a few bonito!

It’s been a warm winter and even a warmer spring and thinks have gotten off to a good start.

The flounder bite is picking up quickly – we had about 6 good keepers (and lost many more) this past Saturday.

Lots of bluefish onshore and AB excellent sea mullet bite is currently happening near the inlet, etc

We also caught our first Spanish mackerel (in the inlet!) this past Sunday! That is extremely early!

With nice weather I should have my first bonito at the end of this front.

A few pics from a great recent trip – Marty and Connor had an excellent trip this past week. We caught tons of bluefish and an insane amount of large seabass very close to shore. There is also a lot of albacore close to shore. The kicker was the big reds – which have been pretty reliable on nice weather days.!

Check out this hoss Connor caught chasing bait marks!! Way to go buddy!!

I had a great time with Steve and porter today – it started off cold, windy and slow. It took us a while but once the wind started to lay down and we started to get bit.

Weekend is gonna be slick!

Clear water, lots of bait and excellent water temps…and few if any albies.

What gives?

Weather was great and John struck again boating a good fish but we’re still going to trout fish some tomorrow!

.…and as tough as it’s been, that’s saying something.

Calm and quite dead today until a few fish started showing late in the afternoon. Hit a couple bites and john got his.

Good trout bite today in the jetties and surf – may try that tomorrow if the Albies don’t show.

…for convincing me to take y’all out.

Me :It’s pouring rain, there’s a big ground swell and the wind is going to start howling in the next several hours”

Brant: “Sounds like a great day for an adventure lets go!”

But he was right – we got on a pretty decent trout bite first thing catching several really nice specks. Then we beat our way to the cape to find a great albacore bite. Lots of decent pods of fish up and down for several hours. They were much more willing to eat than days prior, but it was hard to get the baits to them…being that we had to time our casts to the swell. We didn’t catch many, but we got a lot of bites and had tons of bites.

When the wind swung around and started blowing 25, gusting to 30 out of the northwest we called it a day.

I may have been right about the weather, but Brant was right about the fishing and adventure.

Always a great time with you boys!