Just call Me Sea Bass!

We finally got to head down south to look for black fin tuna this past Saturday. I have been looking forward to this trip for a long time this year. I went out with my duck hunting buddy Drew, Pat and his friend, who will remain unnamed and out of the pictures long story!! With a lot of cold water that pushed down from the north over night, we knew the tuna bite would be off, so we went with PLAN "B". Yes there is always a plan "B"! We went fishing for some Black Sea Bass. First stop...Smooth Dog sharks, fun to fight but not exactly what we were looking for. Stop #2 in deeper water, we found some nice sea bass!! These were some nice and tasty fish. Now we are heading back down south so I may follow my true dream of becoming yes, A SCALLOPER, if I'm not too tired. I will post tomorrow and let you know how this little adventure goes.

My Whale, Ha JT

This is a video of yesterday fishing off Kitty Hawk. We landed nice fish up to fifty lbs. Told them big fish if we can find them. We have been landing big stripers all winter off Oregon Inlet just gotta know where to go. And the Good Lord feeling sorry for my butt out there I guess. And luck never hurts.

Catching up the past week. Wanted to once again apologize to my group on the 10th. Besides my best efforts and major fuel burn I could not produce one fish. I am sorry.

11th last minute weather cancellation.

12 bad wx

13th Super Randy Wong came out and we toughed out three nice rock.

14th Super Randy opted for some trout so we picked off a few specks and puppy drum. Randy kicked my butt with some smallmouth bass stickbait technique.

15th half of a half day at the OI bridge one bite then we came in the weather was foul.

16th trout hole with specks, puppy drum, and a flounder. Sorry Mark we did not get to go whack the rock this winter.

17th trout hole with specks, few pups, and a striper.

Last scheduled trip is on the 21 and 22. So if anyone wants to shoot for any late season heroics for ocean OBX stripers give me a call. Also we can fish Va waters if you incline. We also have some good reports for schoolie stripers in NC backwaters which you can keep three per man right now. Ches has been dying to go jigging for the blackfins off Hatt. So maybe we can get some insight on them soon. Calm days tilefishing is an option as well. Thanks everyone!!!

Great weather and nice fish!!

Went out fishing on the 7th and 8th. On Saturday we tried to stay close to home but it just wasn’t in the cards, so we ended up running up north to fish with Ryan ( AKA Bagel Boy) to catch the end of the bite. We haggled out a few fish that the VA hoop net fleet left for us!!

Went back out on Sunday with the guys from Orange County and took the boat ride up north to the bite from the day before. The bite was pretty picky but we ended up with three nice Rocks weighing up to 34lbs. Left a little early to run back south to search for some fish on the way home. I added some pics of Kenny catching his fish along with a couple of boats I fish with that both catch a lot of fish. Sorry guys you can only book one of the two!!!!

Park rangers are nice guys too! Thanks!

New guy always gets the big one!

Stokes here in the little beach lauch getting ready for an evening whacking!

My friend Todd, A very smart man bribes me for fishing info, he is always in the meat!!!

OI sunset
My Cleveland crew with some cows!

Fished the 7th and 8th and off today. On the 7th we found slow conditions. Lots of boats showed up from somewhere in the parking lot. Full moon and clear night skies. Randy and I pushed around 10 miles north of the inlet and trolled east and in the afternoon landed 6 out of eight bited trolling for an hour or so. We released the fish and they were in the 18-24lb range. So super pig whacking Randy's giant moby catch fest was slowed today but we go again this weekend!!
The 8th was a beautiful weather day along the beaches. The last 10 trips we have been within 16 miles of Oregon-Inlet but the hot bite was up the beach the day before and so off we went to find a slow squashed bite. We were just North of the Hampton Inn 7 miles North of Duck pier. The Hoover fleet from Va was there and these big Chesapeake deadrises get it done 16 rods and suck the fish off the floor. The Dewey party from Cleveland hung with me and after a few pulled fish Ches put me on the mark and we picked out a nice catch 1.5 miles off the beach of Pine Island. Our biggest was a 40lber. Pretty work guys! Hope you had a good time at the dirty bird, aka black pelican. Of course was the kick in the pants from three different buddies calling me telling me how good the jigging bite was 2.8miles from the Oregon-Inlet sea bouy. We headed back from our 30 miles steam to find that bite squashed from a couple draggers and dropnetters preparing for today's striper commercial season. Felt like I have zigged and zagged right most all the winter today I vortexed myself out of position. Devon on the poacher last night called and told me a buddy had called him with a 61lb released moby off Cape Henry. Piggy.
Also got to give a big shout to my friend Donnie (DOA)and his family and congrats on the new addition to the Davis family!!! http://www.doacharters.com/ I am sure he will running a few more evening trips with me this summer. Feel free to call us to book an evening shark/cobia chumming trip this summer already getting some of these bookings now!!!! Thanks everyone.

That's just WONG!!!

Friday Feb 6th, after a couple days off from foul weather back on the saddle with Randy. Randy fishes friday and sat. from late Jan through March. Call it good Karma , timing , non whining, whatever we just get it done. We have had out share of crappy days over the past 7-8 years but 90% of the time we whack em like we did today. We went south to Rodanthe today where another Randy was fishing and picking out a few nice rock. We were lunchin so off we went for another spot. Well my buddy Creeper aka Zak, and super Tilford put us in the meat today! Pretty cool to have a few boats fishing and helping out. Most days only one or two of us out there nice to have a few more eyes. We landed fish jigging and trolling. Got some good clips to get us going just no time now gotta fish. I put a couple pics on. The horzontal fish was the first bite and the super piggy was the vertical shot over 51 inches!!!!! As with almost all of his catches these and many more were promptly released! Sometimes it hurts so good!

Thanks for the calls and emails I filled in the spots on the 14,15th. Which brings me to a new idea. So many one and two people parties have called and showed interest that I will be happy to make up some trips with you guys. Shoot me an e-mail with dates you can go how many you got and we can get some of you fish hungry singles and couples in the meat. Or feel free to call the house. Some of the guys can go any day and some only on the weekends. Hot chicks are welcome as well.

Here we go!

Here we go!!! Thank you Lord!!! The Steelers did it and fishing is good!
Finally got a day off. Between the stripers and trout fishing been very busy and successful!
The fishing has been great lately. We have landed fish every trip. Some days jigging but most days trolling. And I will admit this time of year I prefer to troll because I get bigger fish to the boat with bigger baits trolled on the bottom. We have not landed our fifty pluser yet this year but I have a good feeling about it. With a forty eight, 47, 45, 45, on and on. Danny Arnold crew trolled up a few on the 1st of Feb then we quickly switched over to jigging and landed 17 nice bass with some into the mid forty pound range. Gotta crank out a couple videos of the action here for you guys tomorrow. Matt got his 40lber off Nags Head on the 27th of Jan. Kerry and Sam also whacked them. Pics will be coming as well. Sam runs the Atlantic anglers web site and represents our industry well so check it out.
One of my favs the crazy Asian Super Randy Wong has been dragging up some nice moby's as well of lately. You probably will see alot of pics from him because his fishes every friday and sat. for four weeks. This keeps him in the yearly peak of piggy time! He also got a nice 5 pound speckled trout with me. Of course we have a couple stories of the ones that got away. Some days we have to catch and release and some days we keep a few like yesterday with the dynamic father daughter dou. Half day trip yesterday afternoon from my super bowl victory hangover whacking 14 on the troll with stripers up to 40. Two miles off the beach 12 miles from the dock. The Ball family had a BAll! Captain Ball runs trips on Lake Michigan www.fishtalescharters.net/first for Salmon, trout, and perch, call him if you are in the area. Also special thanks to his wonderful daughter for protecting our country and giving us the opportunity to fish in this great country serving in the United States Navy!!!!
The last 10 trips we have landed fish within 15 miles of Oregon -Inlet. Once again I must remind everyone not everyday is gonna work out for the meat guys, some days we must catch and release. Have a few open dates left for Ches (Carolina Blue ) or a myself as well. Just call the house to get rigged up. Also need one or maybe two to hop on with cool clients on 15th and 16th of Feb to help fill an unexpected void in on a trip. 252 441 6575 is the booking number for either boat. Thanks to the guys already booking ahead for summer cobia and next winter striper/ trout fishing. Also booked a few for late feb and into middle March when we will be fishing out of Cobb's marina about a mile for the Chesapeake bay bridge to get in on some good jigging pre spawn pig whackings!!! Hope you guys can tell I am pretty jacked up on the fishing. The only bummer has been the beach net, drop net, and trawling seasons all have been open. This is the first time ever in NC history to my knowledge that all three are open at the same time. The trawlers have been super whacking them hopefully they crushed their quota. Everyone wants a piece of the ever dwindling pie and we have to get all this mismanagement in order or in three years there will be no stripers!!! DEPEND on THAT!!! Depend on it!!! Greed is wiping out the stripers. I do not want commercial fishing out of the picture but reasonable harvesting techniques and accountable quotas need to be in place. So guys lets try to throw a few back for seed. And to all you high graders... rec and commercial...quit . Seeing floating 15- 20 lb stripers half dying on top of the water because the trawler wants to sell the biggest 100 he can box is wrong. It is good busines for him and most of us would do the same in their shoes. Put an observer on the boat the them whack the crap out of em and when the poundage quota is filled then they go harvest something else. Besides the 15-25lbers to me taste better. I am telling you guys the stock, just like I said last year at this time are down, try way down to 20% of what is was five years ago. That is forty million stripers gone. It blows my mind in the year 2009 we are going to finish off the striper stocks to endangered because of greed. Not many in the industry both commercial and charter want to admit it openly but believe me behind the scenes the consensus is the same, the ha ha ride is gonna end.
Thanks to everyone for fishing!!!