We had a slick calm day, and pretty good tuna fishing to boot!

The bulk of my career has been spent at Hatteras Harbor Marina, till I built this boat and there was not an adequate slip available. Well, two years later, there is. Yesterday I moved my boat back to the Harbor, so you will find me there from now on. Ok, about the fishing. We tuna fished today, and when we got where we were headed, there was five knots of current. Tuna fishing is never real great when there is a lot of tide, so we worked up the beach to try and get out of some of the current. We did somewhat, and wound up picking along on the tunas. Mostly 40 pound yellowfins, with a couple of blackfins mixed in. Thirteen was the count, plus a wahoo. I think there were a few kings caught, but not red hot.<scri

Today was slick. It's supposed to get bad by late tonight, but it was gorgeous today. The fishing was great as well.

I gave my group the option this morning of going tuna fishing or king fishing. They went for the kings, and since I haven't been yet this fall, I was looking forward to it too. We broke out the TLD's, and used ballyhoo on live bait rigs. The fishing was ridiculous. The kings were acrobatic today, and most of the bites were explosive. I don't think we had a 30 pounder, but we had several over 25, and we limited out in short order. I snapped a picture while we had five on. It was great action. The boats that went tuna fishing did well too.

After several days off, due to weather, we finally got a break

My group needed to be in early to catch a plane, so we headed out a little early, and went looking for tuna. Unfortunately, we had been plagued with cold green water over the bottom that we like to fish. We did catch a couple of 50 pounders, and the biggest white marlin I've seen all year. The bites were few, but they were nice ones! Hopefully things will straighten out for tomorrow. One boat fishing further to the south limited out on kings, so it looks like they are here.<scr<

The weather was a little ''iffy'', just ahead of a cold front, but the fishing was great.

First of all, I promised my group yesterday that I would post their picture, even though fishing stunk, so their wives would know that they were where they said they were. Well, when I got home, my photo card was messed up, so sorry.<BR>Today I had three adventurous ladies who were looking for some good fishing action. Well, they got it. We found a school of dolphin first thing and caught close to twenty, just to break the ice. After that, we picked away at the yellowfin, one and two at the time, and wound up with a dozen. They were nice fish, 40 -50's. The weather turned a little crappy in the afternoon, but we were already on our way home, so all's well that ends well. <BR>Happy birthday Chris!

We were up against adverse conditions today, but managed to catch a few fish anyway.

Yesterday was slick calm, and I was hating that I didn't have a charter. The tuna fishing was great. Anyway, I spent a few hours in the sound catching speckled trout and puppy drum. I wished that I had my camera with me. Anyway, today was a different story. Southwest winds 25+, and plenty choppy. We didn't really have a lot of trolling strikes, but bear in mind, we were quite limited in where we could go and how we could work. We did find a couple little bunches of dolphin along a color change, and caught a dozen or so, including a gaffer on a bailing rod. Upon request, we shallowed up, looking for calmer water, and had a couple of heavy strikes working inshore, that we lost. We did also catch a king mackerel. There were a few wahoo bites today too.

The weather has been too bad to fish the last couple of days, so we eat.

I couldn't resist. I have eaten fresh tuna salad the last couple of days for lunch, and tonight Kelly whipped up something so good, I had to take a picture! I had some fresh dolphin and tuna left from our last trip. I've been getting kinda tired of Italian dressing maranade, and fish on the grill, so I asked her to come up with something different. She broiled the fish until almost done, spread tomatoes, onions, and green peppers that she had diced on top, and then put on a good heavy layer of sliced Monteray Jack cheese. Back in the broiler for another minute, till the cheese was drooping down the sides, and ...whew. I've gotta rest. Hungry?! It was every bit as good as it sounds. See ya!

Nothing like a cool calm fall morning. Perfect weather, and great fishing.

After yesterday, I had made up my mind that I was gonna head a little more to the south, to fish in some pretty water for a change. When I got up this morning and checked out the satellite shot, it looked like the water had blended out over the bottom we fished yesterday, so I was willing to try it again, and so was my party. The day started out great. We hooked a sailfish, and while we were fighting him, we hooked a white marlin, and managed to land and release both. The pressure was off already! After that, and during the rest of the day, we picked away at the tunas, mostly singles, with an occasional double. The class of fish was really nice, we had three in the 65 pound class, one 50 pounder, a half dozen 40's and one 20 pounder. There were a lot of dolphin around a color change, but we tried to avoid them today. There were some really nice catches of dolphin and wahoo to the south, and it sounded like some fall size kings showing up. <BR>I need some trips for this week!

It was a little on the choppy side today, and I must admit, fishing wasn't that great.

My group wanted to fish for tuna, so we steamed to the east this morning. It was kinda breezy, and cool out of the north, but we made it to our destination. Unfortunately the water looked like pea soup, and the bites were few. We hooked a tuna about an hour into our day, but the leader broke up next to the boat and he escaped. After that, it was a whole lot of nothing, except the grass. We pulled grass all day. Anyway, I worked back down the beach in the afternoon, and we did catch one out of a double. Whew, we narrowly avoided a skunk. The boats to the south caught a few wahoos and dolphin, but it didn't sound too hot down there either. Tomorrow is another day!

Fishing was fairly good today, and the weather just improved as the day went on.

It was a little choppy out of the north this morning, but the ocean wasn't bad at all. We caught a wahoo first thing, and then one out of a couple gaffer bites. After that our luck kinda went down hill. Over the next few hours, we had three more wahoo bites, and lost all of them. I poked out in the deep to see what was out there, and had a tripple on tunas, but lost all of them too. Fortunately, near the end of the day, I worked back inshore, got around some grass patches, and found a pretty nice school of dolphin. We caught 30 bailers to end the day. By then the winds were light, and the ocean was pretty flat. The last couple of days there has been a bettere sign of tuna on our eastern end. See ya!

With light winds and a good forcast, we took off for the fishing grounds. Things changed quick.

The trip out this morning was beautiful, not a white cap. Once we hit the bluewater, it breezed up a little, but nothing major. I'd call it 16-17 knot wind. Within a couple of hours, it was blowing northeast close to 30. Out in the current, it was stacking up in a hurry, and I felt like it was best to get back inshore. I wish we would have had more time out there, because we caught three out of four wahoo bites in pretty short order. We got back out of the bluewater, and caught a king mackerel, but a couple of my crew had decided they were ready to wrap it up. I don't blame them. Anyway, we caught a few nice fish and made it in safely. Another successful trip.<s

With all the hype about the developing coastal low pressure, and an October Northeaster, most of the boats cancelled their charters. My group showed up, the weather turned out great, and so was the fishing.

Things started out a little slow, so when we lost a nice gaffer right to start with, I was a little worried. We fished around a beautiful grass line, and did find one school of dolphin which we bailed seven out of. Next we were in thunderstorm avoiding mode. I trolled inshore to skirt the worst of a heavy squall, which wound up raining on us for over an hour. After the weather passed, the sky brightened, and the ocean became beautiful. We caught a wahoo, circled around and caught a nice king mackerel. Another line had formed offshore of where I had been fishing, so we gave it a whirl. It was holding. We finished off our limit with a couple small gaffers to boot. We had a couple more wahoo bites that we missed. It was a pleasant surprise today!

It was a picture perfect day on the water, calm and cool!

Not long after we started this morning, I found a current edge with grass on it, and was hopeful to find some dolphin. We didn't go far before we found a school, but they didn't stick around long, and we only caught a few. We caught three single gaffers trolling along the edge, but it wasn't producing like it should. Later, I crossed back in to the cooler water, and found two more schools of dolphin, but they weren't very cooperative either. We managed to land 20 or so, and I was proud to have them! During the day we also had a couple of wahoo bites and landed both of them too. It was a great day on the water for my new friend Josh, and his groomsmen. Good luck Josh!

Another slick calm day, but fishing was a little scrappy.

We headed straight offshore this morning, there were a couple of rips with grass on it, but it didn't sound like many bites, so I went off looking. 500 fathoms, 85.5 degree water, and almost four knots of current. It was a lost cause, so I jogged back inshore, and above everyone else. I worked to the northeast, quite a ways, and we found several schools of dolphin, but for the most part, they either wouldn't bite, or wouldn't stay hooked. Either way, we had to work our tails off for the twenty or so that we caught. We did catch a wahoo trolling by a float, and I saw a sailfish tailing, but he never rose to a bait. There wasn't too much activity anywhere today, but I'm hopeful that fishing will pick up tomorrow ahead of this cold front.

We headed back up to the northeast this morning, and had a fair number of quality bites.

Well to start with, it wasn't slick calm as forcasted, but it wasn't too bad either, so up the road we went. Not long after we set out, I found about five acres of shearwaters circling over a flat spot of bonitas. I told Jay to load up his guns, it was getting ready to go down! Well, on the first pass, we caught a 20 pound gaffer. Not bad, but I was thinking more along the lines of getting covered up with tunas. Anyway, I circled the spot for twenty minutes, and only caught one bonita. The crowd up the line was calling in bites fairly steady, so I worked that way. We caught a single 50 pounder first, and then two out of four. For the next couple of hours, it was just an occasional bite, and we wound up with a half dozen nice yellowfin. I started working back down to where we had our first tuna bite, and was delighted to see a white marlin paddle up and eat my right long rigger. It was a great ending to a nice day. Hopefully my group will email me a picture of the marlin for the report.

With the exception of a thunderstorm this morning, it was a beautiful day. The tunas weren't as active, but the dolphins saved the day.

We headed up the line again this morning. I knew after looking at the satelite shot this morning that hot water had covered up the area we fished yesterday, but my group was willing to take the gamble with me, so off we went. We weren't there long before I saw the birds over the tuna busting the water. I made a couple of passes, and we hooked a single nice fish, but he pulled off after several minutes. We got going again and hooked another single, but he came off too. By then, the squalls to the southwest had gotten to us, and it started to rain a flood. The rain didn't bother me so much, but the bolts of lightning got on my nerves. I worked inshore to get around it, and after the weather had moved on, I fished back out to where I had seen some life. When I got there, it looked like a graveyard. Dead. We looked around for a long while, and never saw any sign of a tuna nor did we have any more bites. Fortunately I found a couple of floats that had some dolphin around them. We wound up with 25 or so, three or four were pretty nice gaffers. My group had a ball, and were a treat to have on board. I think we're gonna try it up the line again tomorrow, so wish me luck!