Light winds, fair seas, and hot fishing. This group from Auburn had the best of it all!

With the weather as nice as it was, I gave my group the option of heading up to the northeast a good ways, in search of tuna. The fleet out of Oregon Inlet had been having pretty good fishing, so I went in hopes of finding some fish south of them. My guys gave me a little extra help with the fuel bill, and off we went. It worked out fine. We had a couple of bites not long after we set the lines out, and pretty much stayed in the same general area all day and scrapped along. We did get whammed twice, and held on to five each time. By 12:30, we had our limit, and were headed back home. The fish ranged in size from a few 20 pounders, to several over 50, but I'd say the average was 35-40. The good news is that there were a few tuna bites southwest of where I was, and hopefully there should just be more fish showing up down on our end. The report I got from the Hatteras fleet, to the south was a fair sign of wahoos and dolphin, and a pretty good showing of sailfish.

Today started out pretty windy, but turned beautiful by the afternoon. Fishing wasn't as good as it has been, but there was still some action to be had.

With an agreeing nod from everyone in my party, we proceeded out into the choppy northwester. We made a couple quick passes over the rockpile, and headed on out to the deep. I had just turned down the hundred when Josh's birthday present ate the right flatline. A nice sailfish release, congratulations! Next I found a board floating, and we caught three bailers around it, but surely we would find more. Not. It was a long morning after that. I scrounged around in scattered grass out to 500 fathoms, but I never found another float, or had another bite. There had been a scattered wahoo bite back in 30-40 fathoms, so I worked back in to try my luck with them. We had two wahoo bites, got one of them up to the leader, but lost them both. One blackfin tuna would take in the afternoon for us. I must say that my group had as much fun as any group I've had all year, and it's good to see people that are just glad to be fishing. There were a few more billfish seen around the fleet, and a good handful of wahoos caught.

The weather today was nothing short of perfect. The fishing was plenty good too.

There was a little bit of everything going on offshore today, but I'll start by giving you the one minute version of my day. We started out in 35 fathoms, and pointed her offshore. Once we got out over 200 fathoms, we started crossing rips, and grasslines. I'm sure that any of them would have produced some dolphin eventually, but I kept going, looking for a better temperature break. Finally I decided to follow a line I found out in 600 fathoms. Eventhough I hadn't found the temperature I was looking for, the current had picked up quite a bit and it was just as good a spot as any. It turned out to be a pretty good spot, and we found some nice bailers and probably a half dozen gaffers. Three of the dolphin were in the 20-25 pound range, and put up a struggle on TLDs and bailing tackle. Anyway, looking around, I found a float and we caught three wahoos and another gaffer off of it. That just about wrapped it up for us, I was a long ways offshore, and had to work back in, we had a couple more dolphin bites, and missed a wahoo on the way. There were a few boats that fished to the south, and there was a pretty good sign of sailfish and white marlin bites from two of the boats. There was also a good sign of wahoos on the southern breaks and dolphin around grass in the deep. Also, a tuna or two, but I can tell you that the yellowfins are getting closer, and it's getting ready to rock.<scri

After having the last couple of days off, it was nice to get back out and find some fish.

It was supposed to be a light north wind today. Well, they got the north part right. It was a little on the breezy side, and seemed to increase as the day wore on. It was actually pretty good dolphin fishing, around some scattered streaks of grass in the deep, and random pieces of float. There were a pretty good number of wahoo bites around most of the floats, although we only caught dolphin around the ones we found. We picked along, and wound up with 35 or 40 dolphin, a couple of them small gaffers, and all the rest were respectable bailers. In the afternoon, we caught a wahoo as we trolled back in over the break. See ya tomorrow!

We fished in a sou'wester for a change, and there were still a good number of wahoo bites around.

It was a warm day, and really a nice ride out. The wind was from the south west, and it breezed up as the day went on, but it never got miserably rough or anything. My group today had fished with me before, and were great. We were plagued with the bad average thing today, and caught two out of nine wahoo bites throughout the day. The highlight was when Stephanie caught her sailfish. It was on a TLD, so we had a great fight with lots of jumps. I tried to snap a shot of him jumping beside the boat, you can see something there ... use your imagination, and trust me, it's a sailfish. Anyhow, I think that was the only billfish caught today. We caught one out of a couple dolphin bites, and one out of a couple of king mackerel bites as well.

Another gorgeous day, in spite of swells from Helene. The fishing was good enough to make everybody happy too.

Crossing the bar this morning was a little hairy, but once we were clear of the inlet, it was slick calm, with a gentle rolling swell. When I got a bite setting out the first line, I figured we were in for it. We were. Another slow morning. We caught one king mackerel, and that was it till after lunch. Now, bear in mind that I decided to explore the deep for a change, so I probably wasted a good part of the morning looking for a goldmine that didn't exsist. Anyway, I had heard of a few wahoo bites, so I committed to spending the rest of the day inside of 40 fathoms. There were some schools of dolphin being found, but my group wanted to look for something bigger. Well, we had a handful of wahoo bites in the afternoon, and held on to four, the biggest weighing in at 40 pounds. The afternoon was a blessing because up until then, the little bird that flew on board to join us was our best excitement! See you tomorrow

The weather was great, but the fishing slacked of a little. We still managed to put together a little catch though.

I think that if it stayed fall all year, it would be fine with me. I just love cool weather. Anyway, I pulled the throttle back in 30 fathoms, and we caught a nice wahoo as we were setting the lines out. Great way to start. Only problem was, we didn't have another bite till after lunch! The action picked up a little in the afternoon, and we caught another wahoo, a few nice, fall size kings, and a handful of small dolphin along a color change. There were a handful of wahoo bites scattered around the fleet, but it seemed that the catch ratio was down again today for most everyone. There were a half dozen sails caught, although we didn't see one. There were also a couple of yellowfins caught. See you tomorrow!<sc

It was non-stop action this morning on the wahoos. I'd have to say it was just about as good as I've ever seen it.

I set out this morning in green water, 30 fathoms, and hooked a wahoo with three baits in the water. I don't know how else to describe it, but by 9:00 we had eight wahoos, and by 11:00 we had our limit of 14 (two per person). Double and trippleheader bites were common. The wind picked up out of the north about 22-25, so I began to shorten up the ride, and after working in for an hour and a half, we wrapped it up. I got in ahead of the rest of the fleet, but it sounded like everybody was going to have great catches. I've gotta say, I hope this holds up for a while!

We didn't have quite as many bites as yesterday, and we certainly didn't catch as much, but the fishing was still great, and the weather was equally as good.

In a previous report, I mentioned how the bites/catch ratio always seems to even out. Well, my group today had to pay for yesterday's good luck. Don't misunderstand me, we were in the right spot, and had plenty of action, we just couldn't keep them on the line. Some people call it rubber hooks. Anyway, long story short, we had 21 wahoo bites today, and landed four. The highlight of the day was catching a sailfish in the afternoon. It's really what they wanted most anyway, so mission accomplished. I think most everybody had some wahoo bites, and maybe the high boat had eight. I call it great fishing. I saw some yellowfins busting this afternoon, and there were only a couple caught, but it's good to see them showing up.

The dolphin disappeared for the day, but there were still some quality bites around.

I started on a beautiful green to blue color change this morning, and didn't fish long before we landed a gaffer dolphin. You would have thought it should have been loaded with dolphin, but there were very few bites. With the exception of one bailer that we caught later, we had no more dolphin strikes the rest of the day that I know of. I'd say that for the rest of the day, we had no more than a dozen bites, maybe ten. We caught three wahoos, one 30 pound yellowfin, we lost a 50 pound yellowfin just before the gaff, and pulled off a couple more heavy fish that were unidentified. The action was spread out, but the ones we caught were nice.

Fishing was great again today, lots of dolphin and wahoo bites.

Well, as they say, all good things must come to an end. Wednesday was Ben's last day, he is moving back to Virginia with his family. He has been a huge help to me this year, and a good friend. Now you'll have to get used to a new face on the reports. Today my new mate, Jay, started with me. he has fished out of Hatteras the last couple of years, and has now found a home on the Godspeed. I was thankful that fishing was good, there were bites all day, but things started out a little slow for me. There was a color change that had a lot of small dolphin on it, but I stayed offshore of it for most of the morning, trying to find some bigger fish. We caught a few wahoos while we were looking around, before I gave in and fished the change. It didn't take too long to find a school of dolphin, and we limited out, with a pair of small gaffers to boot. We trolled for a little while longer, and caught a couple more wahoos, for a total of five for the day.<sc

The effects of hurricane Florence have kept us in for the last three days, so it was good to get back out there today!

There was still a big swell left over, but very little wind this morning. With a low tide, the inlet was pretty messy, so caution was required while crossing the bar. Obviously we made it, and the ride offshore wasn't bad at all. I was the first boat out, and the first one to discover a color change in 27 fathoms. We looked around for a little while, but didn't have a dolphin bite, so I worked on off. There was no current, so I kept going in the hopes of finding an edge. We caught a handful of dolphin around a couple different floats, as we worked off. I made it to 110 fathoms and found a grass line which I worked for about five minutes before finding a massive school of big bailers and a couple of small gaffers. We finished up our limit and worked back in to try for a wahoo. We didn't have a tremendous ammount of action, but we did manage to land one out of a couple of bites that we had. In the fleet, there were a few other wahoos caught, and a couple other boats found dolphin back in on the first change.

Fishing was pretty good today, it was a little breezy, but the fishing made it worth while.

Most everybody got dolphin today, not everyone got a limit, but everybody got a catch. I'd say that just about everyone had a couple of wahoo bites as well. We caught our limit of dolphin this morning around a float, but the cool part was that the fish were big, and we probably had seven or eight gaffers mixed in, up to 20 pounds. We had a couple of wahoo bites during the day, and landed one of them too. There were two sailfish caught, not a lot of billfish action in the fleet today.

We caught some dolphin today, but the weather was less than desirable.

For today, the three R's were rough, rainy, and really small dolphins. <BR>We waited around for a little while this morning, due to the nasty radar shot, but finally decided to give it a go. Well, it rained and rained and rained some more. Of course, it was blowing too. We found some schools of dolphin, but they were much smaller than what we have been spoiled with this summer. We wound up with 35 or so, and maybe had two wahoo bites, but didn't connect with either one. Throughout the fleet, there were two sails caught, and a very scattered wahoo.

We had a little bit of a northeaster to deal with today, but fishing was plenty good enough to keep everybody happy.

My buddy Vinnie, who has fished with me forever, was along today, with his group from PA. It's never too rough for them, so there wasn't any discussion about whether or not to go. Surprisingly, it wasn't too bad, although it was on the choppy side. The wind died out, and it got nicer as the day went on, so the afternoon was a cake walk. Anyway, about the fishing. Lots and lots of dolphin, but they were on the small side today. We caught pretty close to a limit before we went looking for something else, but we threw a lot of fish back that were unquestionably too small. On a positive note, we did catch a half dozen gaffers, a couple of them close to twenty pounds. We trolled around looking for a wahoo bite, and managed to catch one out of two, a 30 pounder. I didn't hear of any billfish today, just a handful of wahoos around the fleet. See ya tomorrow!

We made it back to Hatteras this afternoon, and were greeted by wahoos everywhere!

I was ready to run my boat home Saturday evening, but when we showed up Sunday afternoon, the boatyard guy told us that the travel lift was broken. Well, we made the drive back home, and back to Wanchese again Monday morning. By 3:00 PM, the travel lift was still broken, so Ben and I had to bum a truck to get home. Thankfully, it was operational this morning, and we were able to get home. It wasn't the prettiest weather to come across the sound in, but we made it just the same. Ben took this shot with his cell phone (I gotta get me one of those things), and thought that ''inlanders'' might find it interesting. Anyhow, as I got closer to home, I could hear the chatter over the radio about good dolphin fishing, and great wahoo fishing. I can't wait to get back out there. Thanks for checking in.

After a grueling week of boatyard work, we are finally coming home!

We have been so busy this summer that I just had to set aside a week to get the things done that my boat needed. On top of the already hard work, we stayed till 7:30 Thursday night and worked under the boat while it blew 30 and rained a flood. Friday morning, we drove through a foot and a half of water to get there, and work in 30 - 40 mile an hour winds. On top of everything else, the machine shop wasn't able to finish the jobs I had given them, so I'll just have to do the rest another time. Anyway, I replaced my rudder ports, painted the bottom, and did a few other things. Bottom line is, we finished installing the rudders and hooking up the steering this evening, and plan on running her home tomorrow after church. I had a couple of requests for a picture of the Godspeed out of the water so here 'tis. I took this picture this morning, and wasn't quite finished, but maybe you'll find it interesting. See ya this week!