Today was what I expect out of mid-summer fishing. I followed my normal game plan, and everything went as planned.

There was no shortage of grass today. It wasn't all holding dolphin, but if you put your time in, sooner or later, you found an area with some fish. We found a spot to the south, in about 45 fathoms that was holding. It started out with a few of gaffer bites, and then came the mother load. These were big bailers/hoisters, a few small gaffers, and a 25 pounder all on the bailing rods. Just before we finished up, a 35 pounder swam in and we hooked him on a TLD. It was a great fight, and worthy of a citation. After we cleaned up from the dolphin action, off we went to the hundred. We weren't there long before we caught and released one out of a doubleheader white marlins. There were a few more fish seen, but that was our only shot. I worked back in for the last hour, and made it worth while by catching a wahoo. Awesome day, everybody's happy, including me!

Another nice day in the gulfstream off Hatteras!

The forcast was perfect, however, the radar showed a heavy line of squalls offshore this morning. As we proceeded with our trip offshore, the weather seemed to move off, and we started out with a nice calm morning. I found an area of grass that had some really nice size bailers, and we broke down and caught about 35 in one stop. The wind breezed up out of the south, and streaked the grass out so bad that it was difficult to fish, and the bites became few. We did catch a nice gaffer, and picked at the bailers, getting a bite once in a while. The squalls offshore looked like they wanted to come back in and join us, so I never ventured much further offshore. We dropped a planer down, and scrapped out 15 or so kings before calling it a day. There were a couple of sails caught, and a scattered wahoo and tuna. All in all, I'd say it was a great day!

Well, after a three day blow, it was looking doubtful that we'd get out this morning, but the wind dropped out, and eventhough everybody got a late start, it really wound up being a pretty day.

We headed straight out towards where the kingfishing had been, hoping to get some fish in a hurry for the young fellas on board. Well it was a pretty good plan, and we had quite a few bites. I worked off a little deeper, after hearing of a few wahoo bites just offshore of me, and we caught a couple of dolphin, one of them pretty nice size. A few of my guys weren't feeling the best, so I was advised to start shallowing back up. We had a few more king bites before throwing in the towel. It sounded like things were shaping up to be pretty good fishing though, and I'm looking forward to tomorow.<BR>This weekend is open, and the forcast looks gorgeous, for anyone interested.

After a brief discussion this morning, my group decided that they would prefer to go another time, when it was nicer.

As forcasted, the winds had increased some from yesterday, and I felt like we could probably get out, but it wasn't gonna be pretty. It was an enjoyable day just the same, I got to go to church with my family, and after church, we piled all the kids on the boat and went for a ride down to the inlet, to see if we could find something for them to catch. The water was dirty, but everybody managed to catch a couple before we headed back. Mostly blufish, and one spanish mackerel. In the group were my two kids, Andrea and Simon, my niece and nephew, Megan and BJ, and Katie and Ben's son, Jonah. Tomorrow sounds worse than today, so I'm not expecting to make it out.

Nothing good ever comes out of a southeaster, but the fishing was pretty good today.

We were greeted with a fairly rough ride out this morning, so I took the shortest passage to some fish. The kings bit pretty good, and we limited out this morning. A southeaster destroys anything resembling a grass line, and streaks out the grass so it is difficult to fish. The last couple of days, there has been no shortage of grass, but nearly impossible to keep baits clean. We did catch one nice gaffer, and found a school of bailers, that we caught ten or so out of. My party had enough, so we headed in early, but the boats that made it further out wound up having a fair number of marlin bites, along with a scattered gaffer. I'd like to see this southeaster die out, we'll have to wait and see.

Today, my friend Mark came to try and scratch off a few fish on his list of fish he hasn't caught. I love it when a plan comes together!

I headed her south this morning, as planned, and it was a pretty nice ride, although there was a little bit of a southeast sea starting to build. Anyway, I started out in 70 fathoms, and at 85, the gaffers attacked us. Fortunately, Ben's wife Katie rode along because we put her to work too. They both caught big gaffers out of that, and Mark caught a small gaffer. We circled around, and found a float that they came from. We got a nice catch of big bailers and small gaffers out of it. Anyway, we got struck another time by a pair of big gaffers, as I turned down the hundred. After we got cleaned up from that, we got about halfway set out before ''whitey'' showed up. Congratulations on your first white marlin Mark! We worked down the beach a little further, and Mark caught his first wahoo around another float. Later, we worked back inshore, caught a couple more dolphin and a few kings before wrapping it up. Great day!

Another gorgeous day in the gulfstream waters off of Hatteras.

We started out on the same condition that we have been fishing on the last couple of days, only one thing missing...dolphin! Well, we headed offshore, and scrapped along on the gaffers, a couple of them were 25 pounders. For a couple of hours we were entertained by 30-50 pound yellowfins jumping and chasing flying fish, but we only had one bite. As the afternoon wore on, we shallowed up, and continued to scrap a dolphin bite along, with a few kings and an amberjack mixed in. All in all a beautiful day, great group of guys, and a nice catch of fish. For a change, the boats to the far south had some marlin action, and my plan is to be there in the morning. Wish me luck!

Today I took six of the 21 Corkran family members vacationing here at Hatteras. They had perfect weather and great fishing too!

We set out on a current edge this morning, and it was what we call ''one stop shopping'' on the dolphins. At 7:30 we quit at 55, hoping to need a little room for a few gaffers. I jogged off to the hundred and set back out. There was another grass line out there, and we did catch a few nicer dolphin on it, but never raised a marlin, like I had hoped. I worked back up the hundred for an hour or so, and angled back inshore after lunch. We got on some kings in the afternoon, and were able to limit out on them as well. When we got back to the dock, I don't know if I have ever seen so many people in one family, and in one place! The best part...everybody wanted to buy a Godspeed <BR>t-shirt! Thanks guys!

Fishing was plenty good to keep everybody happy today, well, most everybody. I had a few in my crew that were a little under the weather, if you know what I mean.

Well, for a change, it wasn't slick calm. It wasn't miserably rough, just a little choppy, I'd say southwest 15-18. There were plenty of dolphin conditions to spread everybody out, from inside of 25 fathoms, on out close to 200. We caught a few gaffers in the morning, and headed out to find a grass line that had been discovered in the deep, with gaffers on it. I made it to the hundred before I was asked to troll for home. Well, fortunately, I begged for a little more time to try and find some fish, and we managed to find a couple more gaffers, and one school of bailers which we probably landed a dozen of. We did come on in early, but my crew got plenty of dolphin to eat during their vacation in Hatteras!

Ok, how are we gonna bail dolphins with just two guys? Easy, you just catch gaffers all day!

It was kinda hit or miss for the crowd today, fortunately for us, it was hit. We scrapped along on the gaffers most of the morning, and even had a school of five or six nice ones that we caught on the small tackle. All in all, we wound up with twenty gaffers and a dozen or so bailers. There was an occasional king mackerel bite, and one or two wahoos in the fleet. Great day!

Another calm ocean greeted us this morning, and we enjoyed it all day, along with killer dolphin fishing, of course.

We set out this morning on a similar condition to what we have been fishing on, but it wasn't ''automatic'' today. We had to work for the first 12 or 15 dolphin we found. After that, the schools got bigger, and the dolphins got hungrier. We limited out again, probably six or seven were gaffers, the biggest I'll say was 25. We looked around for a wahoo, and had one good bite that was most likely a wahoo, but he got away. Later in the day, we chummed up a 63 pound cobia, on a spinning rod. It was a great battle, glad we won!<s<sc

Another beautiful June day yielded two limits of fish for the Godspeed.

Another slick day, and we headed straight for dolphin territory. We were in luck, they were waiting for us. It was pretty much all bailers for us today, but we had no trouble limiting out this morning. I worked back down the beach, hoping for a wahoo bite, but the farther southwest I worked, the more king bites we were getting, until it was pretty steady. It wound up being no trouble to limit out on those either. By then, I had heard of a few tuna bites way up to the east, but I was too far away to make that, so my group decided they would just wrap it up early, get their fish cleaned, and head on home. Another great day.<BR>Here's another ''ride to work'' picture for you too!<scr

Another spectacular day in the gulfstream. Beautiful weather, and great fishing.

Looking back at my book, it was ten days ago that the dolphin fishing really cut loose, and so far, so good. <BR>We steamed offshore this morning on a glassy ocean, light north wind, nice and cool. I guess summer will get here eventually, but I'm not rushing it. We set out again this morning, and found a few small schools, catching seven or eight out of each one. Throw in a nice gaffer or two, and about thirty boats, and off I go, to the deep. We made it out to 600 fathoms, and all the grass in the world, but for the ammount of life, the bites really weren't that many. I found a float, and bailed about a dozen more, and then got hit by a pair of nice gaffers, followed by four or five ''hoisters'' (5-6 pounders). There still weren't many billfish bites, so I worked back in later on, and found another school, to finish off our limit. Glad to have 'em! See ya tomorrow.

As the back side of the tropical depression kicked up winds gusting to 70 last night, I was wondering if it would die out enough for us to make today's trip. Well, this morning welcomed calm winds and ridiculous gaffer fishing!

Ok, here's the way it was. I slowed my boat down, as I approached the color change. I glanced over the side, and there was a school of bailers. We started out catching just shy of 20 out of that bunch, and began easing up the line. A few minutes later, we hooked a nice gaffer, and while we were fighting him, an unbelievable school of gaffers joined us. We broke out the bailing rods, and had six big gaffers, all on light tackle. Well, that was the way it continued until we had landed about 20 nice gaffers out of the school! I pulled off the change to regroup, let Ben get squared away, and get out into some marlin water. Well, marlin fishing was just about non-existant today, but we did manage to scrap a few more gaffers while we looked around. Later in the afternoon, I trolled back in to the change, and, you guessed it, more gaffers. We caught about five more nice ones before trolling inshore. It wound up being a slick day, and unbelievable dolphin fishing. Glad I was there!

Fishing was great again today, almost as good as yesterday. With gale warnings up for tomorrow afternoon, it's doubtful that we'll make it out, but you never know.

I've always found fishing to be pretty good right before a storm, but I don't think the results of the last several days have anything to do with the weather, the fishing is just good, and that's that! Today, wasn't much different from yesterday, we found schools of nice bailers, and gaffers mixed in, near a rip that had formed up in 40 fathoms. We had a plenty by 9:00, and went offshore looking for a big bite, but all we found was more gaffers. We did catch a citation dolphin today, a 35 pounder! There were a few blue marlin seen, and some whites showed up too, so that's exciting news. Not too sure what tomorrow is gonna bring, as far as weather.

We have had good gaffer fishing for a month or more, but I think today was the best day so far.

I set right out on a color change this morning, and started catching dolphin like I knew they were there. We found a school of nice bailers, and a couple of gaffers first thing. As we worked the change, we continued picking off a couple of gaffers here and there, and finally wound up pitching baits to the gaffers with our TLDs and bailing rods. We caught our limit, but I'd say that over a third of them were gaffers, and I don't mean seven pounders. There were many in the 20-25 pound range, our biggest was 32. My group wasn't too interested in marlin fishing, so we trolled in and caught a couple of kings before we wrapped it up early. It was an awesome day!

I had two guys that made up my party for today, and they sent me on a mission to find dolphin.

I searched for a little while this morning untill I found a condition that was holding a lot of dolphin. Right after we found a school, an ugly thunderstorm began to bear down on us, and forced me to jog down the beach a few miles to avoid it. It worked out, and after it passed, we worked back to the temperature break that we had started on. It didn't take long for us to find another school, and then another. We limited out, with a couple of gaffers thrown in as well. It turned out beautiful, and my guys decided they wanted to spend the rest of the day back at the dock, so we headed in early. Today wasthe best showing of blue marlin in a while, so hopefully they are here to stay.<scr

We had good dolphin fishing again today, and it looks like the bailers are showing up. The good news is that the gaffers are still plentiful!

Today worked out fine for me. I headed her on down to the south, in hopes of some marlin action, but it never really happened. There were a few fish seen, but for the ammount of boats out over the edge, it really wasn't anything special. Anyway, the guys further up the line had good dolphin fishing, a lot of bailers, along a little tide line with grass in it. There was no sign of it where I was, but we scrapped along on the gaffers, one and two at a time, and really put together a nice catch. I went out over the hundred and spent a few hours, but wound up trolling back in, ten miles up the road from where I had set out. We found the same line everybody had been hammering all morning, and to my surprise, found a school of bailers, and managed to sling about 25 of them before we wrapped it up to go home. It turned out to be a beautiful day!

That is the question I asked my party this morning, as we looked at the windy conditions. They chose yes, and it wound up being a great day of fishing.

We wound up with a limit of dolphin today, probably a dozen gaffers, and a wahoo. I fished from 40 fathoms to over 500. The seas were stacked up pretty good out there, and I found several grass lines, but not much activity in the way of bites. I did find a tree floating, and we caught four gaffers and the wahoo around it, but everything else we caught on a rip back inshore, in the afternoon. There were a couple of blue marlin seen, but to tell you the truth, I wasn't crazy about the idea of dealing with one of those today. There was a scattered tuna bite as well. Southwest 20-25 all day, close to 30 out in the deep. I'm ready for more calm weather!

The morning started off slow, but as the day wore on, the action picked up, and we wound up with a great catch!

Today was kinda choppy, north to northwest winds around 20 all day, and he bites were scattered, one here, one there. We pretty much picked at the dolphin all day, and wound up with a really nice catch of gaffers and bailers. We caught some nice amberjacks, 25-30 pounders, and a wahoo as well. Again there was a scattered tuna, and I heard of one blue marlin release, and a sail. I think fishing is gonna be good tomorrow!

Today, I participated with the annual NC State Fishing School. It's tough, being a Carolina fan and all, but we all seem to get along!

We left this morning watching the radar as the band of thunderstorms moved toward us. Fortunately, they dissapated before we got to them, and it wasn't much more than a shower. I had to snap a shot of my group with the rainbow on the back side of it. Anyway, things were about the same with the fishing, we picked along at the dolphins, never really finding any schools, just one here and there. Around lunch time, or a little before, I started working up the beach, in the hopes that the next round of storms would miss me offshore, but by 1:00, it was obvious that they were moving more inshore than we hoped, and our only route to safety was toward the beach... at 24 knots! We did catch a few kings right before we picked up. My group was great, and we all had an enjoyable day, in spite of the weather.

Not much changed for today, fishing wise, but it was an interesting weather day.

I pretty much hung out inside of 40 fathoms again today, and tried to put together a catch of dolphin. For some reason, the quality of the fish we were catching wasn't as good as the last several days, and we had to work for what we got, but we managed to scrap out a few. There were a few tunas again today, and the best news was that one boat who made it out over the hundred saw two blue marlin. I'm hoping to get back out in the deep tomorrow. Today's forcast was for light winds, and rain in the morning. Well, the squalls stayed inshore, and it blew northwest 25 for the first couple of hours. Fortunately, it died off, and got pretty for the rest of the day. I think it's supposed to be a nice week.

I think most of the boats had good dolphin fishing today, and a nice class of gaffers.

All I can say is that pretty much anywhere you went today, you stood a chance of getting dolphin bites. It's kinda weird though, we have very little grass for them to gather up in, and the fish are just scattered all around. I don't know that we had a bite from anything but dolphin today, but we had plenty of dolphin action. There were a few tunas to the east, and a very scattered wahoo. I heard of one sailfish caught out of our fleet, to wrap up the billfish count for the day. It was a gorgeous day too. I'll take a bunch more just like it!

I made up my mind to stay in the shallows today, and we picked at the dolphin all day.

It was kind of a squally sou'wester today, and most of the fleet stayed inside 50 fathoms all day. I got on a thin grass streak this morning, and caught a handful of gaffers and bailers. After that we scrapped along, a bite every now and then, mostly small to medium gaffers. In the afternoon, I shallowed up even more, and caught a few kings, and a few more dolphin. No marlin reported, and just a couple of wahoo and a few tuna in the fleet.

Today proved the shallows to be the place to be for meat fish, and the deep was a let down for me.

If you have been following my reports, you will begin to see a pattern. When the marlin meter goes up, off to the deep I go. We usually do fairly well on the big dolphin while we are out there, but there wasn't much action over the hundred today. I set out south of the inlet in 100 fathoms, and worked off shore. We did catch a gaffer, and loose one, but with almost four knots of current, my hopes were dwindling. The boats further inshore were consistantly reporting dolphin bites, so with tail tucked, back in to 50 fathoms I went. We managed to scrap up a nice catch of gaffers, but some of the guys that stayed in there all day had some beautiful catches, so I heard. I also heard of a random wahoo bite, and an occasional tuna. I think I may have heard a private boat loose a blue marlin this afternoon, but that was about it.