Blue Moon Beach Grill

Back when I was slinging drinks as a bartender at Owens' restaurant. There was a friend and Chef named Scott. Everyday after fishing I would come in a get him to make me something to eat because his food was always awesome. He just had the it factor. Some guys could throw in the same ingredients but Scott's food always just tasted better. Now he has a restaurant on the 13 milepost on the OBX. Blue Moon Beach Grill www.bluemoonbeachgrill.com And I am stoked about it. Killer food, great prices.

Been busy busy sanding, grinding, painting. Got to do a seminar at the Capt Marty's fishing school. That was fun and thanks Marty! Also get to slip in a little with a trip here or there to fish for whatever we can catch. The puppy drum aka redfish have been the best bet. They have been in the skinny water. Which brings me to a heads up for your support on a bill coming into effect in the state to protect red drum and speckled trout to designate them game fish status. This would relieve these depressed stocks from gill netting and our prolific estuary could rival that of Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina etc. Check it out at http://cfrgnc.blogspot.com/ Thanks!

Dates for next winter..

Been sanding and grinding and painting on one of the three boats. Not much to report lately with little trip activity as expected. Been some puppy drum showing up on the light spinning and some striper fishing in some new hollows as well. Ocean stripers may still be around. In years past I have landed them as late as March 25th but a needle in a haystack. Did hear of a trawler packing out at the fish house a few days back loading out his 100 fish limit with most fish over the 50lb mark. Wow and Bummer. This is a shot of Daniel Arnold holding one piggy of many fish landed off Nags Head jigging this season in early Feb. Figured you would rather see fish pics and all than some fat cap's butt crack sanding. Got a trip for Friday let ya know how we do if we go. Do not want to miss these pretty weather days. Hard to believe it almost hit 80 degrees today. Give me a shout if you want to do some fishing. Thanks everyone!

uh hum

Cool pic from my friend Matt. Yes those are cobia hanging around a whale shark in the Gulf.

Not scared! Thanks for everything Rusty.

26th of Feb. Got the call from the fishing center to run a half day trip for a nice man, his bride, and there dog!?! Since trips have slowed quite a bit and the weather was absolutely beautiful we went for it. Told Rusty the haps of what was going on and he said I am not scared lets go for rock! Half day trip for stripers in late Feb out of OI well I told him probably skunky in our future. SO off we went finding bait and whales but no rock. Talking with Rusty I found out he was a green beret and had been off in Afghanistan whacking Taliban. I really wanted to find him some fish. Got a call about some birds diving on bait above us quite a few miles. So off we rode and rode. And then we got em! Rusty, his bride, and Bam Bam whacked some fat piggy rock about a mile off the beach. Fatback swimming around in circles on the top, ganets, and stripers. Could not of asked for a better favor. We got back in at dusk with vapors in the tank. Mission complete. Thanks Rusty we all greatly appreciate your efforts for us to insure our freedom!!!!!Thank You!

Thanks, got it done!!!

After a few days and laying on the couch watching bad infomercials I decided to get off my lazy butt and update. After I wrongly tortured one of my good friends and clients to super crappy skundidlyupmtous fishing I was cranky. Sorry guys we will get our revenge in Sept.!! Our ocean rock fishing has just about finished up iff the OBX somedays we can get em and some not. So if you like to gamble with yer $, comeon.

Then of course it is fishing!!! A couple single clients called with interest in going fishing getting pumped up on rock fishing and all. I told them the rock fishing was (as expected for late Feb) quickly waning. I pitched the tilefish idea and the 50/50 shot on the rock. So off we went laying it to the tiles. We landed 25 keeping 15 and also some doggy doggs. Good action was to be had calm seas just a nice day of fishing, good action. 30 miles off the beach with calm seas in late Feb does not happen very often. Thanks Fellas hope you enjoyed all those tasty fillets, I did!

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!!!

Still Catchin

26th

Been fishing everyday so sorry for the lack of updates and pics. I will get more pics up soon. Left my camera in the truck a couple of times so gotta get the pics from my clients. We have been catching them. Friday off with Randy and we found good action jigging off duck. Sat morning Randy and I found ourselves trolling for nice rock off Kitty Hawk with some big fish in the mix. I will show you those pics when Randy emails them to me. Congrats to Capt Dean for putting a nice 52lber on the dock that day. Yesterday was a wash in the ocean with strong winds so we fished the Bonner Bridge and found a few local stripers along the pilings. Called it at a half day when the tide and bite died. Then today rough seas and we hung around the fishing center drinking coffee and seeing if the wind would lay out. I did just a little and we decided to go try for a half day and troll the blind to see if we could pick out a rock. Ten miles from the inlet we lucked into nice fishing with ten fish up to 48lbs!!! Good job MAtt, Kerry, and Sam. I hope your pics turned out so we can post them!!! Had to put some pics of Ches after his trip on Sat (congrats on the fat 41lber) turning around, going back out and helping some guys by giving them a tow in. I though the old Mercury was going to just fall off the back. Over 4000 hours on that girl. Sounds like the jigging bite for schoolies are the Bay bridge is going good and our other slip is right there so if anyone wants to do a half day/ all day jigging trip. Myself or Ches will be available. I will pump that up more once the big fish trolling along the beach dries up. All booked up this week but have some holes opening up next week. Thanks everyone!

Team Turning Point

Off today with the Brower crew. Boat was still covered with ice and snow but the winds and seas were calm so off we went. The fishing center looks more like a ghost town these days with maybe only one or two other boats fishing. We picked four nice rock off Nags Head then ran up the beach another 14 miles off Duck to find plenty of nice sized cooperative stripers!!! These guys landed all they wanted and released many more.

The commercial season was open today for beach netters, dropnetters, and trawlers all looking for a striper. Wonder when the quota will ever get filled. We have some openings in Feb and early March still. So if you would like to get a nice buffalo, I mean striper then gives us a call. Thanks Aaron