The breezing southwest wind kept most of the boats to the dock, but for those of us that went out, fishing was pretty good.

I had the same group today that fished with me on the 23rd, and they expressed great interest in trying the jigging rods out on some amberjacks. It was pretty rough, but I beat my way down to one of the southern wrecks to give it a shot, but no luck. I jogged six miles to another spot, but no action there either. I decided to set out the trolling stuff, and troll to the next wreck on the list. On the way, we caught three dolphin and a king mackerel. Once we got to our destination, the vertical jigging was as good as it gets. We caught our limit, and it was about all my group wanted. They asked if I could go inshore and try for some blufish for the little guy. We caught a handful of them too! The others that ventured on offshore further had a few dolphin, a few tunas, and some billfish action.

Well, fishing was a little scrappy today, and on top of that, the wind breezed up out of the southwest, making things a little bumpy.

Today I had the pleasure of fishing with a Coast Guard veteran from WAY back in the day. This man has seen some salt. Anyway, fishing was sorta slow today, so I wasn't able to provide my group with a ton of action. We fished way off in the deep, hoping to find the conditions we fished on yesterday, but once we found them, the fish were missing. We scrapped out a handful of small gaffers, and caught one out of four yellowfins, probably a 25-30 pounder. We tried jigging, but the AJs didn't want to bite either. Still we had a fun trip, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.</s<sc

Things were a little ''scattered'' today, but we found enough to keep it interesting.

The boats that fished to the south yesterday reported green water and no fish, so I steamed way on down to try to get below that band of water. It worked, but we still didn't set the world on fire. We caught a handful of dolphin and a wahoo out in 80 fathoms, and then worked up the hundred hoping for a marlin bite. There were quite a few bites, and we finally had some sort of unidentified billfish bite, but no hook-up. Everybody got to tussle with an amberjack or two for some ''big fish, light tackle'' action.

Things straightened back out today, and fishing was pretty good.

We wound up getting a little bit of a late start this morning, but by lunchtime, we had fished the shallows, and out over 300 fathoms looking for some dolphin. It sounded like the boats southwest of us were having better luck, so I trolled down the beach. It was a slick calm day, so it wasn't hard to see, and I finally saw a dolphin ''flip'' in some scattered grass. We finally got squared away, and wound up catching all my group wanted, which wasn't far from a limit anyway. We had a brief and unsuccessful white marlin encounter, and caught a couple gaffer dolphin as well. There was a fair sign of bills, a little of all three.

Today was a squally ol' day, but fishing was great again.

When we left this morning, there was a scattered thunderstorm on the radar, and as we fished, the gaps between the storms closed in, and it looked like it was going to be an all day event. The good news was that as soon as we started fishing, we got on some great dolphin action, big bailers, and a few gaffers, one close to 30 pounds. We worked hard to get our limit, and once we did, made the decision to call it an early day, and go in where the weather was better!

Fishing slowed down a bit for today.

To say that I covered a lot of ground today would be an understatement. I fished a couple different conditions looking for a dolphin without much luck. I took a spin of the wheel, and wandered off in the deep, hoping to find a goldmine, or atleast get a big bite, but other than one dolphin that we missed, there was no action. Once I made it out to close to 1000 fathomss, I decided to throw some plugs out and truck back inshore. It sounded like there were a few dolphin bites back in the shallows, so in we went. By the time we made it back in there, it was over. During the course of the day we scrapped out a handful of dolphin, a couple of them gaffers, and probably lost another handful. We tried jigging, and caught one nice AJ, but the current was running kinda hard for that. The weather report started sounding bad, so we decided to try to make it in ahead of the thunderstorms, and we did, just barely. Some of the guys had better luck than we did, some didn't. That's fishing.

Fishing was still great today offshore!

I had the same group as yesterday, and they had plenty of meatfish, so we concentrated on finding another billfish, and I just love it when a plan comes together! We did catch a few dolphin, and there were plenty to be found, if you wanted them, but we pounded it out, and sometime in the late morning, we hooked and landed a big white marlin. He put up a great fight on a TLD, and jumped a lot. In the boat for a picture, and back over the side. That would be our only billfish encounter for the day, but glad to have him!

If it was dolphin you were looking for, today was your day!

We didn't even leave the dock till 7:15, and were finished up with our limit of dolphin by 8:45. You couldn't avoid them. We went offshore to marlin fish, and had three different sailfish encounters, landing the third, but there was an equal showing of blues and whites around the fleet. There were some gaffers around too, not just bailers. Great day!

Great dolphin fishing again today!

There really weren't any great conditions to fish, that you would expect to find a lot of dolphin, but just about anywhere you went, you got bites. We caught a few gaffers, but mostly bailers today. I don't know how many schools we found, but they didn't seem to want to stay around the boat very long. At one point we cranked everything in to punch through a thunderstorm, and right in the middle of the heaviest rain you've ever seen, the dolphin came from everywhere. Only one guy in the group would go out in the rain, so I jumped down and helped he and Justin sling some dolphin! After the rain let up, the dolphin were still biting, so the rest of the group came out to help us finish up our limit. The boats that stayed out further had a couple of billfish encounters, and even some tunas out in the deep.

Fishing was great again today, everything was biting!

We caught a wahoo first thing, which was a treat since they have been a little scarce lately. I worked out to the marlin grounds, and up to the northeast with dolphin in mind. As soon as we found a nice current edge, we hooked a tripple on sailfish, and managed to catch and release all three on TLDs. Perfect. After that we continued on our quest for mahi, and wound up being very successful. We caught our limit, with several big gaffers mixed in on light tackle. After that, we went back to looking for another billfish, but never got a shot. It doesn't get much better than that!<scr

Another slick calm day in the gulfstream, made complete with some great fishing.

My group showed interest in marlin fishing, so I decided to take what I could get in the deep. Our first bite was a 30+ pound dolphin (pictured), to start us off right. A couple of us trolled on off to find the back side of some cool water, and once we found it, in over 1300 fathoms, the big dolphin fishing was great. We found a nice school, and pretty much caught our whole catch on bailing rods, including a 40 pounder. I trolled back in to the hundred, had a white marlin switch off of a teaser and eat a dink bait, but spit it back out. We caught another pair of gaffers on the TLDs, and just as we were starting to pick our lines up, a blue marlin crashed the short rigger, and made our day complete. We released him, about 150 pounder. Happy father's day to all you dads, especially mine!

The dolphin fishing was as good as it gets today, and not just bailers. We had a beautiful catch of big gaffers as well.

After how slow it was yesterday, I pulled the trigger a little early on the amberjacks. I knew something was up though, when I stopped to give it a try, and we hooked a 36 pound, citation size dolphin! Next, we landed a 30 pound cobia. Finally, the AJs got a chance to bite, and we jigged up a handful of them before shoving offshore in search of more dolphin. It didn't take long on a streak of grass I found, to get in to a big school of bailers. That was fine, till the gaffers joined them, then it got crazy! We caught the bulk of our limit there, and headed offshore some more. I found another float that was loaded with gaffers, and we caught the rest of our limit. Out of our limit of 60, probably 20 were nice gaffers, several in the 30 pound class. We did have a brief sailfish encounter, but that was all the billfish action for us today. There was a pretty good sign of fish though, mostly blues and sails, but I did hear of a couple of whites seen.

The wind was out of the northeast today, which cooled things off, unfortunately the fishing cooled off too.

I have to give props to my good friends who fished with me today, from Salisbury, NC. They make the best barbecue in NC at their family owned and operated resteraunt ''Winks''. I know, because they always bring me some! Part of the group fished with me on Monday, and did great on the dolphin, but they were a little scarce today. We caught one decent gaffer, and a couple of nice bailers. I checked out one of the amberjack holes, and it was full on war with the jiggin rods. I believe they had more fun than any group I have had jigging. Other than that, we caught a few kings, a spanish mackerel, and lost a sailfish. It was still a wonderful day for a family to spend together on the water. Thanks guys!

Things were getting back in order today. Of course, there's not much wrong that a blue marlin can't fix!

We had a slow start this morning, and after a pretty good bit of trolling, out to almost 1000 fathoms, and back in to 150, we found a school of nice bailer dolphin. We only caught a half dozen, but it was a start. A little while later, we stumbled across a nice size gaffer. It wasn't long after that, and just as I trolled in to 100 fathoms that we had a pretty exciting blue marlin bite on a short rigger. He was a fun fish to catch, and did a tremendous ammount of jumping. We guessed the fish at 350 pounds once we got the leader. After that we got on another school of bailers, and caught a dozen or so. We wrapped the day up with one more big gaffer. Beautiful day!

The fish seemed to take a break today, but we still caught a few nice ones.

There was a color change with scattered grass in about 200 fathoms today. There were a few gaffer dolphin bites, but not as good as you would expect. We caught just a few, and lucked up with a sailfish release this afternoon as well. We jigged up a few amberjacks before we left for home. A couple of the boats that made it way south started having some action on the same color change we were on, only shallower down there. There were a couple blue marlin bites, but nothing like yesterday.

No better way to start off the new week than with some great fishing!

After a great Sunday with my family, I got up this morning rested and ready for a new week. We made the right turn this morning, seeing how my group wanted to catch meat fish. I got on a color change east of the rest of the fleet, and had some great dolphin fishing this morning. Mostly big bailers, but we did catch our share of small to medium size gaffers. After reading the reports, my group was anxious to try the jigging rods out, so we did so for a short time. The current didn't make for the best conditions, but we caught a half dozen AJs just the same, and then went looking for a wahoo. We never found him, but we did catch a couple kings late in the afternoon. Today was the first day of the Big Rock Marlin Tournament, and the report I got was one of great blue marlin fishing, so maybe we will get in on some of that action this week.

There's nothing like calm seas, regardless of the fishing. As an added bonus, fishing was pretty good too!

I had the same group of guys as yesterday, so we agreed that if we saw some dolphin we would try to catch them, but ultimately we would like to find something different. Well, we caught a nice handful of gaffers first thing, and even had a brief blue marlin encounter that didn't work out. I spent most of the morning dragging baits for a billfish, but never saw anything else, and wasn't hearing of much. I decideed to work back inshore to try for a tuna, and after a lot of looking, got lucky and caught a pair of 40 pound yellowfins. A couple more gaffers as we trolled inshore would wrap it up for us. Two great days. Thanks guys!<scri

Everything was just like you want it today, perfect weather and great fishing.

The satellite shot showed a hard current edge in 100 fathoms to the south, so I headed down that way hoping for major action. Fishing was pretty good, but I overshot the best of it. We still scrapped out a nice mess of gaffer dolphin and the highlight for today was a citation size wahoo, weighing in at 62 pounds! I tried a new jigging spot on the way in, and it was fabulous fishing for the big amberjacks. The boats that stayed in shallower, further up the line, had good catches of dolphin. There were some tunas caught up to the east, and out in the deep, there was an excellent showing of blue marlin for a couple hours.<

Eventhough we had a 25 knot sou'wester working against us, the fishing was excellent.

NC State has an offshore fishing school that I have had the opportunity to work with a couple days each June, since I was a teenager. Today was their second day, and we had a ball. It was a little on the rough side, but everybody was good with it, so off we went. The gaffer dolphin fishing was real good, and we wound up with a wahoo as well. The highlight was a 250 pound blue marlin that we fought and released this morning. I wish I could post the pictures that I take with my eyes. It's hard for me to drive and take pictures, but this particular fish jumped and jumped. He was a lot of fun to catch. Another great day!

Fishing was pretty good again today, especially the marlin fishing.

On my way out, I was going to cross one of my amberjack holes, so I thought we would start the day off with some good jigging action. The AJs bit good enough, and we got a good start on the morning. It sounded like there was a random dolphin bite just about everywhere, so I worked down the beach, but began to get frustrated after loosing several nice dolphin. Several boats offshore had found things floating in the water with dolphin around them, so I worked off in hopes of scoring big. We did score big when a 300 pound blue marlin crashed the short rigger. He put on a pretty good show, and my buddy Bobby made short work out of him. We had the wire in 10-15 minutes. There were several others seen in the same area as well. We caught three big gaffers for the grill while we were out there. I would have liked to found more dolphin, but in my book, a blue marlin is worth a lot!

You couldn't ask for better weather on our first charter in June!

Our first bite of the morning was a sailfish, and we missed him. Our second bite was another sailfish, and while we were fooling with him, a pair of gaffer dolphin swam in. We wound up with the two gaffers, but missed the sail again. Next was another sail. We got the better of this one, on the bait and switch over to a TLD 25. After releasing him, you'll never guess...yep, another sail, but we missed him too. We had an occassional bite during the rest of the day, but only caught four more gaffers. The boats out in the deep had a good sign of blue marlin this afternoon, but there didn't seem to be any meatfish to go with them. Some of the other boats did better than us, that's just the way fishing is sometimes. Glad to be there!<scr