WaterDog Guide Service

We fed them a lot of bait – but catching a few nice ones!

Thanks to a convenient wordpress for blackberry app. I can update reports from my phone! Look soon for real mobile updates on the fly!

It’s been a hot summer – I keep thinking it should be September already but we’re barely half-way through August. Thankfully we’ve enjoyed a lot of good fishing and I’ve been extremely busy.

Inside – very good redfishing for a mixed class of fish between 20 and 33″. The best days are when we have good tides early and late in the day as the fish seem to be feeding a lot better in the early/late hours. We’ve also had some great flounder fishing around the docks – windy days being the best.

Ocean – plenty of big 4-8 spanish on the wrecks and we’ve had a lot of fun chumming them up – some nice ‘cudas are around just to mix it up. The Jack fishing (fly and popper) is also great I just haven’t done it lately! Would love to just need someone who wants to make it happen!

Nearshore – we’ve had a lot of fun fishing for spanish and blues with the kids on light spinning rods (probably the best trip there is for kids under 12!). Lots of big sharks around in the shallows to tug on…and some fun bonnethead fishing on the right tides.

Couple of great red trips from this week on the calm mornings – we found some really big schools of fish prowling oyster bars and managed to stay on them for hours, catching as many as 10-20 during 3+ hours. They can be spooky but if you can make the cast – they will cooperate.

Graham and Andy just killed it this morning – we were on fish for the entire half-day!

A couple of over-slots….

Alex and his nephew had a great morning – they were a little less agreeable to the topwater this morning but they hit everything else very well.

Some very happy kids!!!

Big Spanish and a Cuda that was an epic fight on a 8lb spinning outfit!

A good day with Tom, Tom and Tommy with Capt. Tom (seriously!). We had some good fun with the big spanish (but couldnt find much of a flounder bite) – Tommy ended the day with a nice bonnethead that he jigged up himself!

…the flip side to the windy July has been our excellent inshore, nearshore and backwater fishing. I’ve been so busy this summer I’ve really neglected the camera, but I still have more photos than I know what to do with.

When we can get out the inlet – the big spanish fishing is excellent on the nearshore wrecks and live bottoms chumming with live bait. The flounder fishing remains STRONG. I’ve also taken a lot of kids out for spanish and blues and then enjoyed some excellent fishing for big sharks – actually, probably the best big shark fishing in a couple of years as we’ve enjoyed some really nice conditions for it.

The real gem has been the excellent red drum and flounder fishing in both the shallow marshes and around the docks. The flounder fishing has been the real surprise – most days we’ve been landing 6-8 keepers with many smaller fish and reds in the same areas. The fishing in the marsh for reds, using topwaters and other artificials, is getting better every day – this week I’ve found many big schools of fish and we’ve caught many good fish between 20 and 32″. It’s only going to get better the later we get into august!

Found several nice schools of fish with Bo and Larry – he had a lot of blow ups and landed some really nice upper-slot fish. Dock fishing was slow today, unfortunately.

Typical dock drum – the over-slots are a bit hard to land in the structure….

Brian and Joe had a great day – we did a number on the flounder around the intercostal docks getting about 5 keepers (one close to 5lbs) and many smaller fish and a half-dozen nice drum – we also went looking for some bonnetheads and while we only had a couple of bites, Joe landed a really nice one that bottomed out my 15lb boga (BTW – look at his mouth, all those marks are from eating whole bluecrabs…talk about tough!) – not bad for a really windy day!

A great example of a nice nearshore day with the Scruggs group – they wanted me to talk a pic at the end of the day with a few of their fish. We had a great time with the big spanish (also lost a 20lb+ king) on light rods and boated several nice flounder. I also want to point out the 2nd gent on the left – Smitty has the energy of a man half his age (he’s 86) and a veteran of Iwo Jima and Siapan (and a hunter with some incredible stories). What an honor to meet a man who has given our country so much!

July 2010 has to be the windiest July of the last decade. In the 8 years I’ve been guiding full time, my records indicate that I can fish offshore (or be able to get out the inlet no problem) and average of over 5 days per week. After the first 8 days of the month, which were all slick calm, the wind has been blowing non-stop. While the inside fishing has been great, here is a report of what we’ve been doing when the wind isn’t HOWLING.

We’ve had a lot of fun with the jacks on topwater – fly and spin, excellent flounder fish and big spaniards on the wrecks….and offshore, amazing fishing for bailer dolphin. We’ve encountered some giant schools of bailers and played with them with topwater poppers for hours – easily keeping what we needed and releasing many more. When you catch a mahi-mahi on a lure on a light rod they are an entirely different gamefish. You barely want to catch them any other way.

7-8′ 150lb+ Tiger Shark that ate my chum bag (AWESOME!):

JACKS – all on poppers:

An example of a graet day with great people – Paul and his son Jacob fish with me a lot and this time we went first for jacks catching 4 or so on poppers before deciding to look for dolphin. We found the motherload – seemingly miles of them roaming temp breaks. Huge, HUGE schools – we caught and caught and caught and caught them probably boating over 80?? We kept about 15 releasing the rest – they were small with most being 3-6lbs but we had a couple nicer ones mixed in. What a day!

June was an extremely busy month for me…just incredibly windy. We found our days to go offshore but they were much less common than the last few years and we spent many a day near the beach. The good news is, for the most part, that the fishing was not only good offshore (jacks and mahi) but very good inshore with great redfishing in much of June and excellent sheepshead fishing to go along with it.

Sean has been fishing with me forever – with his mom, friends, sister – always brings great people with him. This trip he brought his buddy Corbin, who i haven’t seen for a couple of years, who was about to go off to boot camp. We wanted to catch mahi on spinning, drum on topwaters and jackson topwaters. We had good weather for all and we accomplished all three over 3 days. First day it was the dolphin – we picked away at them throwing poppers as trolling was so freaking easy it wasnt fun. Hits every 2-3 mins – but when they are scattered they can be tough to bring to the boat. Corbin also pulled a cobia out of the mix with his lightening reflexes. Day 2 – drum. It took a bit but we got on a great school and we wacked some upper slot fish with skitterwalks and 7″ bass assassins that sean walked across the surface – awesome fun. Day 3 – JAcks. We found ‘em and we got ‘em. We did loss a lot, hooked (and lost) a couple of dolphin in the fray – the only thing that ended our fun was a thunderstorm…but we cant have awesome conditions forever! Always great to see you guys!

Good day with regular Jason and his two bro-in-laws. He ended up heading out to look for a few jacks, among other stuff. The jack bite was on and we managed good numbers on jigs and poppers. We also boated some nice flounder, seabass and a couple gags. Not a bad bag. When the jacks were really fired up and his bros tired from fighting theirs, Jason grabbed the 12wt (he does a lot of fly fishing) and hooked up within seconds. The only problem was that his fish was big – almost too big. The fight was very long, too much for the rod and we finally boated the beast! We finished up the day trolling up a few small dolphin and big spanish on the way in! Always a pleasure!

Ken with his cobia – we caught several “rats” today while looking for a big one. We found the big one and hooked it (prolly went 60lbs?) and promptly pulled the hooks THREE TIMES. After we gave up on her we got into a great flounder bite.

HAd a great couple of WINDY days with two of my favorite clients – Dave and Beth and their crazy boys. I didnt take a lot of photos for some reason but we managed a good morning with the drum (Despite the insane heat) and also had a good time with the boys catching bonnethead sharks and a bunch of spanish and blues. I even let drew drive the boat – he was a very good captain.

Dave with a nice multi-spot drum.

Rich and I had a great morning – it was calm and we found a BIG school of reds pushing bait on the falling tide. We had a bunch of blow-ups on topwater and we finally cam tight, landing several really nice fish. After that we went and hit the sheepshead – landing several in the 2-5lb range and breaking off a couple of beasts. All catch and release today – always a good way to be! Great fishing with ya!

Had regulars Ed and John – unfortunately they did not have their regular luck with good weather and were being paid back for their amazing albie fishing last october and their 3 straight slick calms last august. We barely had a window to get out day 1 but we managed to find some jacks breaking of several before Ed landed his – spent the rest of the time inshroe dealing with extreme wind and extreme heat. Tough conditions but we made the best of what we were given.

Today was all about David – he wanted to catch something big and he really wanted to catch a dolphin. We stayed nearshore due to time restraints but we found a great Jack bite and he flat out outfished the entire boat catching and landing several jacks on poppers to his pop’s 0 (sorry dad!). Right before we were about to pull them in and a nice little bull dolphin streaked by – we wrapped him up in no time! Great day with great weather.

Jason and I ran out on a slick day looking to bust a few things on the fly – we found a nice gaffer dolphin just a couple miles from the inlet. Two casts – fish on and a great aerial battle! After that is was on to the jacks – it was a bit tougher today. We chummed them up no problem but had to work for our bites and lost a handful before….i hooked a nice cobia on the teaser popper. We lost him boat-side. Oh well – right after that J got his jack on the fly and it was a haus!

After the Bonito bite starts to slow and the water gets in the low 70s, some of the best and most diverse fishing of the year takes place. May is like October – everything is migrating by. This year we had the typical good King bite, good AJs on the wrecks, the best cobia fishing I have ever experienced, and bar none, the best flounder fishing I’ve seen in 6 or 7 years.

Other than the absurdly great cobia bite, the flounder bite was astonishing – we had several days of LIMITS fishing in the ocean. That’s been an extremely hard thing to accomplish for a long, long time!

Some pics from a few reports…

We had a tough day with east wind and the cobia and Jacks didn’t cooperate so Jason, Donnie and Roger decided to switch plan B – flounder. We absolutely crushed them – catching over 30 with 3 limits. Amazing.

Great afternoon trip with Brent and his lovely wife – we concentrated on flounder landing some serious quantity. We had 7 or 8 keepers with 3 easily being over 5lbs. During this time we also had a shot at a cobia (no bite) before we switched over to looking for some mackerel – we caught a bunch of nice spanish and managed a nice 10-15lb king that we released.

Great day with Philip, Hard and their boys. We wacked some kings and big spanish, caught some flounder and then moved on to the cobia – we had 3-4 shots, landing a good eating size one.

Jason with his first cobia – we lost a couple of big boys before he spotted a pod of 6 or so, threw his jig into the middle of it just to watch the smallest fish rush out and grab it immediately. Still, we got him (and he was a keeper)!

Great day with Maria and Amy – we did a lot of different things too. It was a bit too over-cast to look for cobia so we hit the wrecks. First fish we saw was a cobia that tried to eat one of our poppers – couldn’t get it buttoned up…but we hit the jacks hard. Amy also had 3-4 strikes from king mackerel on the poppers with the one picture skying three feet out of the water when he hit it. Absolutely incredible strike. We finished up the day on an incredible flounder bite – we left them biting and kept close to two limits, tossing back several keepers.

The Gibson crew did really well landing on an exceptional flounder bite – we landed a bunch and had several over 5lbs. Good job guys!

Jeff and his buddy (and their ladies) had a very good, though rough, day. We fought east wind and some rain and caught a few flounder and spanish before trying to get the girls on some big fish – we had to work a bit for them with the wind but we managed some nice jacks. Despite a little sea sickness in the chop, the girls did great and got their fish.

It’s been hard to get out this week but the good cobia fishing cruised straight on through monday. I have been without a camera for much of the time but I have got some pictures from clients and a friend who took a pic of me while I was fishing this past friday during the EPIC bite.

Not only did the Bonito chew the bottom off the boat yesterday and today, the cobia fishing has been nothing short of the best I have ever, ever experienced.

After an incredible day yesterday, I went SOLO this morning (until I procured an angler later in the morning to help me land a fish and was able to land 10 myself between 10 and 80lbs. I caught 7 and released 6, my friend caught 3 and released 2. Most of the fish were in the 30-40lb range. All sight casting to schools of cobia on the surface – we saw multiple groups of 10-20 fish. I have never seen anything like it – INCREDIBLE.

Pictures later.

Time to come fishing – multiple days open next week. Bonito first thing, cobia after the sun gets higher.

I tried to keep it secret for as long as possible, but the word is pretty much out (and I have a few open days) so it’s time to come clean and do a quick report. I do have dates available after May 6th (thurs), including Saturday May 8th and I would love to get a few sponsors out on the water! Give me a call if interested!

April has been a great month for the Bonito – I caught my first one on April 4rth (tied for the earliest I’ve ever landed one out of Beaufort Inlet) and I have found them steady for just about every single fishable day since. While April can be a windy month, I’ve been blessed with pretty good conditions – at least 3-4 workable days each week in between the blow days. Fish have been very agreeable to the fly and we’ve caught most casting – on a few days the troll has been better and it’s on those days that we just SMOKED them!

Last week was fairly excellent – good numbers of fish just about every morning and just about nothing in the way of boat pressure (hence a good reason to keep some things to ourselves!. Bonito have been just about everywhere – some days we opt for the short runs, other days we opt for longer trips to find the epic bites. It’s just about all worked out.

There are also plenty of blues to keep us busy, the flounder jigging has been very consistent and the Amberjacks are starting to show up (and starting to get a hair more aggressive)!

Backwaters: Consistent red drum, a few flatties and the sheepshead are already THICK. It’s gonna be a good year for the sheepies! Once these Bonito start passing I’ll be going after some big sheepshead to go along with the drum – look soon for some good reports!