Another beautiful day, and more billfish action!

My group this morning said given the choice, they would rather catch a billfish than target meatfish, so I headed offshore with plans of going marlin fishing, but keeping one eye open for some dolphin. I found some patches of grass in 30 fathoms, and we managed to catch a handful of dolphin, out of a reluctant school. With dinner covered, I jogged on out further, and set out in 60 fathoms on a current edge. Two baits out, and a sailfish was on my short shotgun. I managed to miss him, and at the same time, one was pulling on my right rigger. I cranked it up to switch him off to a TLD, and he faded away. Halfway around the circle, I had a new bait on my shotgun, and another sail after it. This one wasn't as lucky. We got him. There was a scattered bite around, so we set out to find another. I worked off to 150 fathoms, and up the beach a few miles, and we raised another doubleheader of sails. We got the one on the shortrigger, and missed the flatline bite. That wrapped up our billfish action, but we did catch a couple more dolphin and a wahoo around a float in the afternoon. Both of our sails popped the leader before I could snap a shot ... sorry!<BR><BR>I am hauling my boat out Monday morning to do some scheduled maintenance, so you'll have to live without me till Labor Day. Thanks!

The weather was perfect, and fishing overall was fair. There was a decent showing of billfish today, to make things interesting.

My group had requested that we look for a billfish, but if that wasn't happening, anything would be fine. Well, I found a grassline in about 70 fathoms, and figured we would try to break the ice with a few dolphin. There were quite a few little bunches of fish, but they didn't really want to eat very well. We caught a handful of bailers, and a couple of small gaffers, for the time we spent there. I had one nice school of big bailers show up, with a 40 pounder leading the pack, but we only hooked two, and the rest swam off with no interest in our bait. There were a couple of sails seen offshore of me a mile, so I worked that way in hopes of fulfilling their billfish request. We had a couple of unidentified bites that we suspected were bills, and then had a white marlin crash the left shortrigger, and we got him. In the next hour, we had three more single white marlin raise to our spread, two we missed, and one just made a pass without biting. Anyway, we were glad to get the one and to have the action. There were a few wahoo bites back in shallower water too.

It was a beautiful day, but fishing overall was a little on the slow side. I was blessed to find a float LOADED with big school size dolphin.

When you get your eye on something floating out there, a lot of times the closer you get to it, the less impressive it is. A dixie cup for example, can bee seen for a half a mile, but once you get near it, you realize that it probably won't have a big school of dolphin under it. I found a barrel floating today, and the closer I got, the better it looked. The dolphins came to my boat before we even got to the barrel. It was truly a gold mine. We caught our 60 dolphin and went trolling. After a long dry spell, we hooked and landed a 25 pound wahoo. As we trolled inshore, we had a few king bites, and landed two. There was one sailfish caught out of our fleet today.<

Fishing slowed down considerably for today, but I was persistant, and scrapped out a pretty nice catch of dolphin.

I woke up a couple of times last night to the sound of thunder, and heavy rain. When I got up to go fishing, it was still pouring. By the time we left the dock, it had slowed down to a drizzle, but we had to fish through a couple more squalls during the morning. I found some streaks of grass in 23 fathoms, but the east wind had made it a mess to fish. None the less, I stuck it out, catching one or two dolphin here and there and occasionally finding a small bunch that we could bail a half dozen or so out of. We wound up with forty or so, and went looking for something else. There were very few wahoo bites, and only one sail caught out of our fleet, and I didn't have either. I worked inshore hoping to find something in the shallows, but no luck. By mid day, the sky was sunny, and the ocean was pretty. It was a great afternoon to be on the water!

We pulled away from the dock this morning in a solid downpour, and it was raining when we returned, but the whole time in between was beautiful!

The forcast was ''rain likely'', but it held off all day for us, and the seas calmed as the day went on. We released a barracuda first thing this mornning, and caught a wahoo after that, to start our day. Working offshore, we came in to some heavy grass on a color change. Most of the other boats went to the southwest looking for dolphin, so I headed to the northeast. It turned out to be a good choice as we found several nice schools of bailers, and limited out. There wasn't much else to do after that, we trolled around looking/hoping for another wahoo bite or maybe a sailfish, but didn't have much luck. We missed one other nice fish, which was most likely a wahoo, and caught a king mackerel.

We had another beautiful day in the gulfstream, highlighted by some great sailfish action

Since I missed yesterday, I called around looking for a fishing report, and the report I got was slow fishing. Ok, we all know that things can change around in a hurry out there, so I don't get too upset about what did or didn't happen yesterday. I went with my normal game plan, as of late, and set out my wahoo spread. I didn't have a bite for a little while, so I worked down the beach a couple of miles, and was welcomed by a sailfish bite. We caught him, snapped a couple of shots, and released him. We hadn't been going long before another sail piled on the flatline, and number two was dancing across the surface. We got him to the boat, snapped a couple more shots, and threw him back as well. Less than ten minutes had expired before number three tried my shotgun bait. I cranked him up, and switched him over to a TLD that Ben had waiting down below. Mark us down for our third sail, however we didn't get a chance for a picture on this one. Anyway, I worked on off to some grass that was reported to be holding some dolphin, and we managed to catch around 35 out of two schools that we found. They were real nice size bailers again today. There were a decent number of wahoo bites around, although our wahoo streak was broken today, and we never had a wahoo bite. The best part was that the three guys that caught the sails had never been offshore before! They are ruined for life! Great day.

With the exception of a few rain squalls, today was just aboout perfect all around.

The weather man said something about a stationary cold front over us, so I guess that is what produced the scattered showers all day, but due to my highly skilled driving (ha ha) we managed to avoid almost all of the rain, and actually stayed in the sunshine most of the day. I set the lines out in 25 fathoms around some scattered grass, and caught a gaffer in a short ammount of time, but then there was a lull. There was a report of some more grass offshore, with a better sign of dolphin, so I started trolling that way. We caught a wahoo around some bait, and then another, before getting to the conditions we were looking for. When we got there, it was ''Katie bar the door'' on the dolphin. It didn't take us long to get a limit, and my group did a fine job. Anyway, we went back to trolling, and enjoying the beautiful day. I'd say we probably had six more wahoo bites, and landed three more, for a total of five for the day. Not a bad haul. <BR> I had a cancellation a few days ago, for tomorrow, so unless something happens tonight, I'll be tinkering around my boat tomorrow. See ya!

Fishing was sensational today, and once again, the weather was too.

This morning, the fleet spread out looking for dolphin in some scattered streaks of grass. There wasn't much going on, so I worked on off to look for something better. Today it was there. In 50-60 fathoms, there was an area of patches of grass, and almost all of them had dolphin. These bailers we are catching are bigger than I've ever seen school size dolphin in August. Almost every one is 4-6 pounds, with an occasional bigger fish. Anyway, I had a family group today, and they did great. They caught 60 dolphin, and four wahoos for the day. This one young lady, Katie, caught a 38 pound wahoo, and a 40 pound wahoo (citation)! It was a great day. <BR>There was a handful of boats that headed south to check out a body of water down there, and there were a few marlin bites in it.<scr

Fishing was fairly good today, and the weather was even better!

When we left the dock this morning, it felt more like November than August. Who's complaining after a couple of weeks ago, I'll take all the cool weather I can get. Anyway, the ocean was flat this morning, and as the day wore on, it got downright glassy. We started on a grass line in 35 fathoms, and found a school of nice bailers immediately. We caught twenty or so before they got finicky and left. As I looked up and down the beach, all I could see was boats in either direction, so after catching another half dozen or so, I headed for the deep, in hopes of finding more grass/dolphins, or maybe having a marlin bite. I made it out over 400 fathoms before giving up, and trolling back inshore. I did find a float with a handful of dolphin around it, we caught two, but they didn't really want to bite too well either. After I got back in to the grass line, I saw several bunches of dolphin swimming along, looking kinda shellshocked, like fifty boats had already been over them. We did catch a 30 pound wahoo in the afternoon, but as far as I know it was our only wahoo bite.

I felt like we picked up where we left off, with great dolphin fishing, and a few wahoo bites.

When I got home yesterday, I was greeted with reports of slow fishing over the last few days. My guys wanted to target dolphin, which normally would be easy, but the reports had me worried. Anyway, I was thrilled to find grass, and plenty of dolphin! Things change in a hurry out there. We broke down and bailed a limit of dolphin out of one school, and went back to trolling. We managed to catch one out of three wahoo bites, and a gaffer dolphin before we got the word to head in a little early. The northeast breeze felt great today, kinda cool for August. The marlin fishing was just about non-existant, but that can change in a hurry too.<BR> It's good to be back!<s

Another cool Hatteras day, thanks to a northeast breeze, it was very comfortable offshore.

Well, I definately had a meat fish party today, and with fishing like it's been, I was kinda glad. Anyway, we found school after school of big bailer dolphin, but I got just about as frustrated with them (the fish) as I've ever been. They just didn't want to bite. Well, we pretty much dolphin fished all day, while dragging a couple of wahoo baits around, and when the smoke cleared, we were pretty close to a limit, maybe shy a few. We also caught one out of three or four wahoo bites, and a couple of kings.<BR>I'm gonna be on vacation this week, so don't give up on me, I'll be back at sea in a week. Thanks for watching the reports!<

There was a weak cold front stalled over us today. Fortunately we didn't have to deal with any thunderstorms, and the north wind felt wonderful for a change. Fishing was as the same ... great!

My buddy Mark comes to see me several times a year, but his business has kept him away for a while. It was good to get him out there on a day where there was plenty of action. We caught our limit of dolphin first thing, with a couple of gaffers mixed in, and then we went trolling. We had better luck with the wahoos today, I'd say we caught half of our bites, and landed four. We also released a sailfish for an added bonus. Thanks Mark, see you this fall!

Fishing was great today, we wound up with a beautiful catch of dolphin and wahoo.

We found a school of dolphin first thing, but didn't exactly ''crush'' them. I worked around in some scattered grass, and we caught a wahoo while hunting dolphin. I heard about a grass line further offshore, so we turned on out. We caught another wahoo working off, and when we found the line, in 100 fathoms, it was holding some beautiful bailers, and small gaffers. We limited out on the dolphin, and I promised my group (from PA) that I wouldn't pick on them. They did great! There were a few bills seen in the afternoon. See you tomorrow!

Today fishing was ok, a little bit of everything and not a whole lot of anything.

I caught a wahoo first thing this morning, and got a report of a lot of dolphin in the deep, yesterday, so off I went to look. Well, in 250 fathoms down to the south, we found an edge to the hard gulfstream current, 5 ½ knots of it. There were patches of grass bigger than my boat, and I was licking my lips at the prospect of catching a lot of fish. Well, five miles later, two schools of dolphin, and a total of ten bailers, I gave up, tail tucked, and began trolling back towards the shallows. There had been a few schools of dolphin found, and a pretty good sign of wahoo bites, so there was still hope. We hooked and jumped of a sailfish on the way back in, and finally caught a second wahoo, out of three more bites. I never did find another school of dolphin, but my group had a great time, and is planning on wahoo steaks for supper!

I went wahoo fishing again this morning, but things didn't quite go as planned. Things change quick in the gulfstream.

My group was made up mostly of young people (including my daughter Andrea), so I figured it would be better to fish for something that would be easier to handle, and hopefully give everybody a couple of turns. We had quite a few bites this morning which I would have to say were mostly wahoos, maybe a couple of kings, but every one came unglued. Our average is getting worse. Anyway, I worked a pretty good ways to the northeast, trying to find some of the wahoo action from the last couple of days. I gave up a few miles east of the tower, and started working offshore. We caught a big sailfish, which was the highlight of the trip, and before that we released a couple of barracudas. I found a turtle in about 60 fathoms, and there was about 100 dolphin around him. I couldn't have been happier if I had found a pot of gold. We broke down, and bailed about 25 before they got in a knot and quit biting all together. I worked out to near 100 fathoms, and found a beautiful grass line, but after fishing it for a few miles, and only seeing a handful of dolphins that wouldn't bite, I figured we would just throw out our marlin stuff, and troll back down the beach. I saw a couple of fish get caught near me, but we never raised a billfish this afternoon. Things do change quick.

Fishing was great again today, and it doesn't get any calmer than ''flat''.

When posed the question this morning, my group voted to go meat fishing, so I headed back to the area I was in yesterday. Yesterday our batting average on the wahoos was way too good, so it was no surprise that we caught four wahoos out of probably sixteen bites today. It's just the law of averages. We wound up fishing around a lot of scattered grass today, and for the ammount of grass we saw, there were very few dolphin caught. We got lucky and found a few small schools. I guess we wound up with 35 or so, one of them was a gaffer, but most boats didn't wind up with dolphin. The marlin fleet had pretty good action again today, mostly whites.