Rock Fishing

Went out with Robert and his son Friday for one of those fairy tail fishing days. We lost count some were around 70! All fish were caught on lite tackle jig bite with the smallest fish being in the 25lbs range and the largest at 43lbs. Thats a nice Rock on a jig bite, congratulations Robert!! Going out in the the morning to try them again. With all the west wind hopefully the fish have moved in some. Keep your fingers crossed for the wind to calm down this week so we can get out a few days.

Washapotamous, but we got em!

Fished yesterday with the Johnson crew. We had stiff westerly winds and we were hoping to get some fish in the boat before the heavy stuff came. We got in them but we did not stay long because it was snatchy. All fish were released after pics. We had some nice sized fish with the largest being 40lbs. Thanks fellas and see ya this season on the cobia! Did not fish today hoping to try it tomorrow.

The big one that got away!

Hats off to Ronnie Baker for firing off a pretty killer spot in time. I had the Capuzzi party on the boat on this one on 2-21-2010. Slow fishing day but a memorable one! Heres your sign.

Captain Slacktor updating!!!

Sorry have not updated since the great fishing day of the 17th but actually had a spell of make-able fishing weather and today is my 1st day off in a while. Which was much needed for groceries and bills. The Stan, Stan, and Ron crew came out on the 18th and we quickly got on a jigging bite since we were the first at them. The bite was quick and the fish dissipated. We were getting the crap washed out of us due to the 25+ North/northwest winds that the weather man screwed up on us. Truth be known these guys were tougher than me I was whining about the roughness and these guys were like it's not too bad as the occasional whitcap washed into the boat. We headed back in for a short day.
Randy was out on the 19th and it was once again gangbusters. Out at the crack of 9 and back at dark just a couple other boats and a couple miles of fish with birds of em!!! They were so thick Randy broke out the fly rod and landed some with non sinking line.
20th Jt crew was out and these jig masters landed some fish right out the gate jigging off marks on the bottom. Then these picky fish started getting tightlipped so we fired out a couple trolling lures and picked them off for couple more hours. Then bite died and off to find another bite somewhere but went down in flames the last hours of the trip. My buddy Pat that morning also landed a bluefin tuna jigging in the rock marks that morning. Pretty work.
21st we landed a few fish in the late morning. It was calm tons of boats and the bite materilized with me way out of position so we had a few more bites and got wrapped up early. The cool part of the day when I was fishing in lunchland was the insane whale show we got. I got some killer footage that I hope comes out, but Ronnie Baker fired off and got a killer shot!!! So Dave sorry about the slow fishing but man I would not change a thing on this one! All fish have been released.
Yesterday the Erickson crew came out fishing and calm seas. no boats, and killer fishing with great fishing and they were in the sand!!! Fish the last five days have ranges for 12-46lbs.
Thanks everyone for coming out and fishing hard!!! I really appreciate the fact of not beating me up about keeping the meat. We fish longer in the bite and offer a better trip then the three circles trolling meat in the box in 20 minutes then back home boats. You waving bye bye smiling holding your bags of fillets as your capt is eating fish tacos for lunch with full day loot in his pocket. Come on man. IF that is what you want then save your money and spend your charter money on some crab legs, lobster tail, tuna, rock fillets, couple fifths of bourbon. You pay for the day we gonna work the day for you. If that means you get skunked or catch a 100 so be it. Thanks to all my rockin clients!!!

Jig-a-licious

Off today with the Harrison crew and these guys washed out with me on a cold morning. Looking forward to finding some more of these nice fish that have been around lately. The fish were very cooperative today. We landed two trolling and 73 casting jigs. Biggest fish topped out around 43lbs. It was a fantastic day of fishing. My favorite part of the day was watching single menhaden swimming around on top and the stripers would nose them, smack, and eat them. Sometimes you would see it 30 feet away and sometimes right next to the boat. Tried to get some on film. We will see how it turns out. Saw bunch of whales today which is always cool. All fish today were released! Thanks guys and pretty work on one heck of a day.

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly.

Bad trip by the captain.
Well getting back to the updates here. Weather lets us get back out on Valentines day. The morning started off cold and wet and the afternoon finished up cold and wet leaving us bumming all the way home. We looked everywhere and late in the day found a good mile of gannets, a dozen whales, and huge bait marks. No fish marks no nibbles except the diving gannets. Sorry fellas I apologize for the long tough day. The skunk was riding proud that day. At least we fought to the end and didn't pack her in at 1:00. These hardchargers are the ones that hurt ya most because no whining all day toughed it out and just the fish did not show.


Good
Next day heading out still feeling the snake bite telling long time striper whacking journeyman Randy Wong we blanked the day before. He still drove on down 7 hours to give er a shot. Randy normally fishes 7-12 trips with me in the fall/winter for rock and we had been weathered out 7 times already. The weather looked good and he was not scared. Off at 7:30 and 11 miles from the dock and thirty minutes later we landed a rock! Then the marks started poppin off the bottom and by 9:oo fish moved off the bottom and started feeding on menhaden. There was a 3-5 mile area of scattered pods of rock and diving gannets fighting for food. Randy caught them trolling at first and then jigging the rest of the day. Our biggest fish was 48lbs! He actually landed 12 fish over 40lbs out of the 70 landed! I am not sure but that has to be a Rock Solid single person record. At 5:00 last boat out I had to drag him off the bite to beat dark and get in by 5:45. All fish we released.

Ugly
My buddy Johnny Mac fishing with friends on Haywood's boat had an absolute piggy at 64 lbs!!!!! (side note- Johnny is one of the best surfers from our area I grew up watching him rip every wave he was on) They estimate this fish @ 25+ years old. Wow to dodge all the hooks, nets, and predation to make it that long. This fish would of beat the current state record by a pound! Quite the accomplishment! Sorry about all the tools that had to complain. Glad you did not want to deal with that! Took the high road. You caught the 64lber! I cannot wait to see that piggy hanging on your wall. I guess they should of called when the last state record or the last two Va records (caught in NC) were caught as well. I wish I would of caught that sticky wicket. Congrats!~

Wishin I was fishin!

A one day gorgeous weather window. Slick calm, calm seas, no wind. Butter mcbutterville. Been blown out the last three days with bad weather and the one good weather day no trip. Wish I was out there. Talked to a buddy and he said they were catching some fish about 12 miles from the dock. But supposed to get foul weather again starting this evening.

Slippin out before she gets ugly!

Gettin ugly by the minute. Weather does not like us this winter. Already cancelled my all day trip today because the guys had to travel from up North and did not want to get caught up in the foul weather snow etc. This fella called this morning and wanted to try it since the forecast missed and the bad weather had not moved in yet. Well out we went at the crack of 9:30. By 10:15 we were in some fish! We caught and released a catch of fish and headed back before it go too nasty. This time we even got some dinner right in the inlet as there were fish up top west of the bridge with birds picking on em! Thanks Mr.Horne for fishing!

Good as it gets!

Fished today with the Slaughter party. It was fitting. Not sure if the ocean would be fit today but it was! The seas were calm. We got on a mega school of linesiders and jigged up fish all day long! Saw whales as well. The gannets were a big pain today. There were so many birds around we caught and released 6 of them. Was not sure what the limit on gannets were but figured you can't keep anything else these days so we let them go as well. Fish averages around 14-20lbs today with 38,40 and 48 being the biggest of the bunch. The majority of the fish we landed using 7 inch shads on 10lb mono and 20lb braid. Cannot say we landed a 100 but at least 25 fish a piece. Don tossed out a heck of a compliment that was the best fishing he had seen in 57 years. Next time we go who knows maybe not even bite but you never know till ya go! Only bummer to the day would of been the 7 trawlers gettin there's too. Thanks fellas. Wish I had a trip tomorrow so I could go whack em again.