We were blessed again today with great fishing.

The day began as slick calm as it gets, and eventhough it breezed up during the day, we managed to have great dolphin fishing, a lot of small to medium size gaffers, and a handful of bailers too. We even caught a few blackfin tunas and oceanic bonitas in one spot, for a change. There was a good showing of billfish, especially to the south, and a sign of sails up where we were, more to the east.

We had a great group today, and had good fishing as well.

The wind was a little on the strong side, once we hit the bluewater, but we hung in there and had some great light tackle action on the dolphin, many of them gaffers today. I worked back inshore into some calmer water, in hopes of raising a sailfish, but only had more dolphin bites. Everybody in the group caught some fish, and got to take home a big bag of meat! Good goin' guys!

The morning was slow for us, but we finished strong!

We caught the two biggest dolphin of the day first thing in the morning, and then it was a long dry spell till we finally got back into some good fishing. The biggest dolphin was a citation 36 pounder! In the afternoon we found an area that hadn't been fished over for a while, bailed dolphin twice, and picked at the gaffers over an hour and a half stretch. We wound up with another beautiful catch, and plenty of meat for this crowd! Thanks guys.

It was almost "greasy calm" out there today, and the fishing was as enjoyable.

We found a lot of dolphin today, mostly nice bailers, but we did catch a half dozen gaffers to help round out our limit. We spent most of the day looking for a sailfish. We did have two encounters, the first fish rose to a teaser, and as we were about to switch him off to a bait, a dolphin came in and took the bait from him. We never saw the sail again, but the dolphin died. The next one ate the short shotgun bait, and came up jumping about three or four seconds into the feed. He tailwalked right at the boat, faster than I could retrieve the slack, and when he finally threw the hook, he was twenty feet away! Oh well, it was some action just the same, just without the flag. A great trip with my new friend NIck, the "natural born killer"!

You can't ask for any more than beautiful weather and great fishing!

We never really got in any one "hot spot", but we managed to get a bite right along throughout most of the day. It started out as mostly gaffers in the morning, one or two at a time, and in the afternoon, we found a few small schools of bailers and hit them pretty good. We had a sailfish on for a couple minutes, but he wound up jumping off. Still a great show. Fortunately it was a gorgeous day as well. Thanks guys!

We had great dolphin fishing again today, with another bonus sailfish.

Ok, the weather man stuck it to us agin, but whatever, we made the best of it. The dolphin fishing was great, mostly gaffers, till the end when we found a big school of bailers and finished off our limit. Earlier in the day we had a covey of sailfish in the baits. We got a hook in four of them, but only got one to the boat for a release. Still a great bit of action!

The marine forcast predicted that it would be beautiful today, but what do they know?! Fishing was pretty good just the same.

It was supposed to be light northwest, but never really got under 20, and hung around the 25 mark for a while. It was choppy enough, but still plenty fishable. We had a few gaffer and bailer bites about everywhere we went, from 20 fathoms out over 200, and by the end of the day had put together a real nice catch of fish. The highlight of the day came near the end when we hooked and released a sailfish.

Fishing was ok today, but a little more spread out than yesterday.

Depending on your location, you could easily have missed or hit with the dolphin. There was the worst scattered grass evr, and if you got lucky you found some dolphin. We wound up with a handful of gaffers and bailers, but we worked ourdelves to death looking for the big school that we never found. I realy expected to have a sailfish bite, but that never happened either, although there was a pretty good sign of them around the fleet. Still a fun day with some new friends!

Today was just right, nice weather, and great fishing.

No pressure at all today, just my buddy Alan and his sons Thomas and Marcus. We had a ball catching gaffers up close to 30 pounds, on light tackle, and a pretty good mess of bailers to go with them. There was a scattered billfish bite, so we spent a good part of the day looking around. We had one mystery bite that I assumed was probably a sail or a white, and later in the day raised a blue marlin to a long rigger, but he never showed much interest. Thanks agin guys for a great day!

The ocean was kinda rough, thanks to a 20 knot southeaster, but the fishing was still good.

My group didn't want a whole lot of meatfish, but once we got out in a little current this morning, the seas were challenging, so we decided to try for a sailfish along the first color change. Every where we went, the dolphins kept attacking us, and we finally wound up pulling only teasers, with pitch baits handy for a sail bite. We never got the chance, but we did wind up with a good catch of dolphin in the morning, before we took the hooks out of the water. A couple boats did try it out deeper, and there were still a few bills in the area.

The marlin action turned on today.

We started in shallow, caught a couple of gaffers, and when the boats offshore further started getting a lot of marlin bites, I picked up and steamed out that way. I stopped when I saw one tailing down sea, I couldn't identify what flavor, but definately a billfish. We didn't get a bite out of him, so we trolled on. A little later we had another blue marlin tail by the boat, but never made a pass at any of our baits. I was on edge as the wait continued. We had something knock down both of our larger longrigger baits, but I never could identify the fish, and he never got hooked, but we feel sure it was a marlin. Finally, we had a 300 pound blue marlin crash the right teaser, and everybody in the party got to enjoy the show as Justin switched him over to one of our LXs. The fight was about an hour on the light outfit, and the last few minutes were filled with acrobatic jumps right by the boat. It was worth the wait!

Today was as comfortable as a summer day could get, thanks to a cool northeast breeze.

Fishing was a little scrappy, but we still had a very enjoyable day. We caught a handful of gaffer dolphin, and had a brief encounter with a white marlin that never really tried to eat a bait. Things were about the same everywhere, great conditions and a sign of fish, but for some reason they just didn't bite very well today. There was a report of EXCELLENT marlin fishing to the south, so I'm hoping for some flags later in the week. See ya!

We had the pleasure of trolling in the deep all day, but never really found what we were looking for.

It is great, however, when you can spend the day marlin fishing, and whether or not you catch one, still have quality bites throughout the day. My guys didn't want to "fill the box", and told me prior to the trip that a couple of fish to eat would be plenty. I think we wound up with ten gaffer dolphin during the day, and had what we suspected was a white marlin bite first thing, but I couldn't get a 100% positive ID. There was a scattered blue, white and sailfish bite around the fleet, but the marlin action slacked off a little from what it has been. Still prettygood gaffer dolphin fishing, and a couple of wahoos caught in shallower.

We spent half a day dropping to the bottom, and wound up with a nice catch of tilefish.

The boats that fished to the south had good billfishing, but I knew my group would prefer eating fish, so I hoped for more of the same from yesterday. I must admit, I can easily become addicted to the deep, so I had hoped that if I trolled off, we would be able to scrap out a catch of gaffers, and still have a shot at a billfish. It was pretty dead. I worked up to a spot that I wanted to try for tilefish, and they bit pretty good, although the current made it a little hard to fish. We caught three out of five or six gaffers on the troll towards home in the afternoon. It was greasy slick calm, and a great day to be offshore!

We spent the day out in the deep, and had enough action to keep us busy most of the day.

I started out on the first color change, but it quickly became overpopulated (with boats not fish), so I decided to work offshore and see what I could find. We caught a few gaffers just inshore of the hundred fathom line, but I decided to make a lap out to 200, just to check. We saw a sperm whale blowing as he cruised up the beach, and just as we got near where he was, we hooked and released a sailfish. He put on a fantastic show for us, but was a little too wild for Justin to get him in the boat for a picture. As soon as we set back out, we hooked up with a blue marlin, but the hook pulled out a couple of minutes into the fight. I began working down the beach in some scattered grass, and by quittin' time, we had put together a pretty nice catch of gaffers. A couple of them were in the 30 pound class. It was a beautiful day offshore, and I'm glad to have been there!

Things picked up for us today, and we wound up with a really nice catch of gaffer dolphin.

Not that yesterday was bad by any means, but today was just better. We got on some fish early, and then again in the afternoon. There was a report of some good white marlin fishing to the south, so I hope to be able to participate in some of that action this week! We missed a wahoo bite, and had a mystery bite or two today, but other than that it was all gaffer dolphin.

You can't help but enjoy yourself on a beautiful day such as today!

Fishing was a little tough today, and we had to really work for the bites we got, but they were all pretty nice ones. Some of the guys got lucky and scrapped out a better catch of dolphin, but overall it was a little slower. We had about twice as many gaffer bites as what we caught, and it seemed like they just weren't real hungry. I fished in the shallows, out in the deep, and all in between. There were a couple of marlin bites, but for the number of boats fishing in the deep today (Big Rock Tournament), there really wasn't much activity. I don't know if I heard of a wahoo bite either. We stopped on a mark and caught a half dozen sea bass, and on the way in spotted a cobia that we insisted must join our gaffers for the ride home. All in all, a great fishing adventure!

Fishing offshore was a little less productive than it has been, but we managed to have a variety of action during the day.

Ok, first, how did I come up with "jackhammer" for the title to my report? Well, we did a little jigging today for some amberjacks, and somehow the name went from amberjack to hammerjack, to jackhammer. I think I got my buddy Rodney staright on it by the end of the day, but it was definately worth a couple of laughs! Anyway, we trolled most of the day and caught a few gaffer dolphin, two of which were close to 30 pounds. We had atleast three wahoo bites, none of which worked out in our favor, and we did hook a 250 pound blue marlin today as well. We had him on long enough to enjoy several jumps, get the lines in and start backing down before he came unglued. Still plenty good to get my heart pumping! An enjoyable day with new friends. Thanks guys.

Today was simply beautiful.

Every year we participate with the NC State sportfishing school, and today was the second day of their offshore trips. My group was great, and said they would like to catch a few dolphin and then go marlin fishing. We got lucky and found a couple conditions that had some dolphin, mostly small gaffers, but a couple of nicer ones, and a few bailers too. Things were a little "hit or miss" today, so I felt lucky to get a nice handful of fish early. There were some blue marlin seen, but the best of the action was pretty far south, and we were up the line a ways. Still, I expected to see a fish but never did. It was a great day to be out, and everybody had a lot of fun.

We spent the WHOLE day in the deep looking for the big bite!

Fortunately we had an occasional gaffer dolphin bite throughout the day, to put some fish in the box, and keep us occupied, but we went another day without our turn for a blue marlin. We did catch and release a sailfish, so our billfish quest was successful after all. We did have a mystery bite this morning that could have been the one, but we'll never know. There were a lot of fish seen from 30 fathoms to well over the hundred.

Fishing offshore was still good today, not quite as crazy as it has been, but still pretty good.

As we headed out the inlet this morning, we could see the cloud line of a cold front that was rapidly aproaching, The reports warned us that there would be a substantial ammount of northeast wind, but that within an hour or so, would subside. Well, before the clouds reached us, they fell apart, and what little wind there was wound up making the morning quite comfortable. We never saw more than 15 knots of wind. We scrapped out a nice catch of dolphin, mostly gaffers, and spent the majority of the day in or near 100 fathoms. We searched hard for a blue marlin, but never found him. There were a few seen however, and I'm hoping that tomorrow will be the day!