Both mine and Captain John’s trips have been liberally spiced with catches of mahi mahi to 15lb, king mackerel to 25lbs, cobia to 25lbs, and amberjacks to 30lbs. All this has been 12-15 miles from the dock, leaving ample time to fish with quick runs to the grounds. Both live bait fishing and dead bait fishing have been very productive.

  Some notable catches has been Sean Sahlstrom from Minnesota with a 9lb sheepshead caught on a Gulp! 3″ shrimp fishing with Captain Jim. Chris Smutzer’s party fishing with Captain John had over 15 king mackerels caught and released, as well as a 25lb cobia and 30lb amberjacks. Alex Crawford, 9 years old, from Ohio with his first mahi mahi while fishing with Captain John. And Andrew Neighbarger from Ohio with a nice catch of mahi mahi and cobia while fishing with Captain Jim…..Now some pictures.

Alex Crawford age 9 from Ohio with his first mahi mahi caught with Captain John

Sean Sahlstrom with a 9lb sheepshead caught on a Gulp! 3" shrimp while fishing with Captain Jim

Some pictures from Chris Smutzer's party of some fine eating and fighting fish while fishing with Captain John.

Andrew Neighbarger from Ohio with a nice cobia caught while fishing with Captain Jim

Mike Johnson from Ohio with a nice mahi mahi caught on a pink Pirate Plug while fishing with Captain Jim

Sara Johnson from Ohio with a nice mahi mahi caught on a pink Pirate Plug while fishing with Captain Jim

  On the 1/2 day trips we are finding consistent action with spanish mackerel, king mackerel, chopper bluefish to 10+ lbs, amberjacks, red drum, and flounder. We are fishing minutes from the dock and have been keeping the rods bouncing throughout the trips. The spanish are 1-3 lbs. average and the kings are from 5-10 lbs. both species of fish are being caught on light tackle on spoons, casting lures, deep diving plugs, and both live and dead bait.

  The 3/4 and full days we are catching alot of the same fish, with a few notable additions and sizes. Going out a little further on the 3/4 days we have had some action with mahi mahi to 18lbs. kings to 25+ lbs. , and the grouper bite has been steady in the 30+mile range. With calmer seas now we are able to range out a little further offshore and get into the larger pelagics and tasty bottom fish. Both John and I have been working hard to put our clients on exciting fish and fun times, giving you a memorable day on the water. Now a few notable catches from the last 2 weeks.

Roy Fowler with a 10+lb chopper bluefish

Roy Fowler with a nice schoolie king mackerel!

Harvey Key with a decent king mackerel.

Harvey Key with a 30+lb amberjack caught on 15lb test!

Nick from Wilmington with his first spanish mackerel.

Daniel Geist with a nice North Topsail spanish mackerel.

David Geist with a 25+lb king mackerel caught on a Pirate plug.

Doug puts the catch of the day on the boat, an 18lb mahi mahi!

A pair of May bonitos

  Did not do a report last week, was only able to sneak in Sunday last week, and Saturday this week, the weather has been relentless! When we are getting out though the fishing has been excellent, probably due to the decreased pressure with the weather.

  Sunday the 10th we fished out of New River inlet again, waited til 7:30 to leave with the wind shift and slop from the previous week. Went through the inlet and put the Yozuri deep divers out in 40ft of water and immediately got into the nice 16-20″ spanish mackerels, caught a few and started to move out to the weather bouy. Got close to the bouy and found the bonitos, when the first rod went down and took off I knew that it was not a spanish! Wound up catching 8 with a few spanish mixed in, had a first for me on one pass had a double bonito on one and a 30″ king on the other.  Captain John was there with his charter and they wound up with a few spanish. When the bite slowed we decided to move out a little  and see if we could not find some bottom dwellers. Captain John had gone out before and found a 12lb gag grouper, we found a few seabass but no kings or groupers. We stayed on and John decided to head back in and troll the clean/dirty water line near the inlet and was rewarded with a pair of bonitos and a few more spanish. We ran back and threw at a few schools of bonitos that were tearing it up but no takers, we headed in with a nice catch with seas that had really flattened out.

  Yesterday I was again rewarded with a window of opportunity with Richard Martin and his sons Justin and Preston. We left Surf City and headed to Topsail inlet first to see if we could find a few bluefish to play. We trolled the flats and were rewarded with a pick of nice size blues and a flounder, all caught on Yozuri deep divers. A little later we fished a couple of creeks and had a nice catch of  trout, and pigfish on spec rigs tipped with shrimp. Heading to our last stop at a dock the thunder started to rumble, as well as a few stomachs so the decision was made to head for the dock. We made it back in just in time to get a few pictures and get the boat on the trailer before the sky opened up. A fun day with a great family!

Preston with a nice blue

Justin with a nice blue

Flounder

  Saturday and Sunday had some VERY consistent fishing with a bunch of tasty and hard fighting fish caught. Both days were chock full of lite tackle bonito and spanish mackerel action. Saturday I had the Smiths on board, they have a house in Snead’s Ferry and were doubting the existence of fish in the North Topsail area. By 7 a.m. we had caught more fish then they had last year, starting off with blues we quickly started hitting the bonitos on the Yozuri deep divers in pink and clown colors, the bite kept accelerating as the morning wore on.  After the first bonitos the Smiths did not want anymore bluefish but the blues had other ideas, they were ravenous and could not keep them off the lines. As the morning ticked away the spanish mackerel started to show and some very nice large specimens were added to the fish box. The fish were biting so well that seabass were hitting the deep divers trolled at 5 kts. The bite continued into early afternoon when we went in.

  On Sunday I had Max, Seth, and Nate on board, they wanted to catch the bonitos and spanish on fly and jigging tackle. We left a little earlier and were rewarded to less boats and the fish really going off! Captain John was out there working the area and wearing out the fish on the troll with the deep divers again. His charter was ready to go in at 9:30 with enough fish for a fish fry for their Marine Corps unit. My guys worked with the flies and jigs and were rewarded with a fine catch of bonitos and spanish mackerel. Shore lures glass minnow jigs in pink/white and all white contributed fish to the box, fly caught fish ate pink and white clousers and chartreuse and white alf’s. Also part of the catch today were some nice seabass caught on the flies and jigs. 

  We have some great weather coming up this week and the water is warming quickly, time to get out there and fish!

Tight lines,

Captain Jim

  It looks like later this week we are going to have some pretty weather, the bonitos are only here for a few weeks come and get them before they are gone. Bonitos make great table fare.

Tight lines,

Captain Jim

Wahoo

Derek Green with an April False Albacore

Well this week was the best so far, we got 2 days where we did not get weathered out, and we caught some nice fish both days!
Tuesday we went to the gulfstream running a 34′ Yellowfin for a few guys with my co-captain Capt. John Mallette. We had a pretty decent day with 30lb and 40lb wahoos, 2 blackfins 15lbs and 25lbs, and a 25lb yellowfin. The wahoos and the larger blackfin were caught on a small purple/black skirted ballyhoo fished off a planer. The other tunas were caught on blue/white skirted ballyhoo fished off the outriggers. We jigged for a few hours after trolling in the morning and managed a few amberjacks and assorted other bottom dwellers on of the amberjacks weighed over 85lbs!
On Sunday I had Derek from Sneads Ferry on looking for the first Atlantic Bonitas of our season and we are still looking. We did find a fun mix of fish today which kept us busy from the start. We tried at Divers Rock but found cold water and just a few sea bass and a few bite offs. Made our way out to Honeymoon Rock area and caught a couple of gag grouper and some sea bass and a false albacore all on the jig. Decided to start trolling Yo-zuri deep divers and started to catch the false albacores pretty regularly. Worked our way out to the E Bouy and continued to work the false albacores pretty good, had a few double headers and kept the rods bouncing pretty steady. All in all a productive day with steady action!

Tight lines,
Captain Jim

September ended on a high note though and the trips I ran at the end of the month produced some solid spanish mackerel and king mackerel fishing.

October (and November) I look foward to with alot of anticipation and was well rewarded! We had some of the best king mackerel fishing we had all year! Hank Brown rigs with cigar minnows produced non-stop catching on every trip we made for them, we often could only get two lines out before being bit. The fish were from schoolies to teenagers and had the added benefit of being 5-10 miles offshore, quicker run, more fishing time. On some days we would think the bite was over because we had not had a bite for 10 miutes, we would reel up to find that we had all baits cleaned out and would rebait and go back to catching. Some days we actually switched to other fishing to mix it up a little.

We would find the spanish on top eager to take a maria jig, glass minnow jig, or even a fly. Some mornings found acres of feeding 5-8lb false albacore which would be a good warm-up for the king fishing. After our fill of the speedsters we would go looking for the grey trout and found those to the south pretty regularly, some days we scratched a few keepers, others we had nice fish to 20″ all on jigs.

Did little inshore fishing this month when we could not get out and that was also productive. There was a consistent bluefish at the Masonboro Jetty fish ranged from 10″ to 5-6lbs, the fish hit just about anything flashy. Had a few good mornings of topwater trout bites and then did well trolling mirrolures along the same banks. Funny thing was that while we could get the fish trolling the same spots would not prodce the same action when my clients would cast to them. Go back to trolling and they would bite again. Had some nice flounder and drum also mixed in but the trout seemed to be the more consistent action for me.

All in all October was a great month. The next couple of weeks I am running out of Harkers Island for albacore and trout, the bite has been excellent up there, stay tuned for details. We still have alot of great fishing to come in the next couple of months, kings are steady until at least Thanksgiving and the grouper fishing is some of the best all year at this time (get your grouper by Dec 31st, or else wait until May, closes to all fishing Dec 31st.) also giant tuna trips available.

Tight lines,
Captain Jim

Just want to thank you again for a great day, a little rough but then again that’s fishing off shore. Nothing I haven’t seen before. Hell that’s what makes fishing fun! I don’t know what is better, catching them or eating them, my wife still talking about how good they were. Again thanks and hope to do it again next year.
-Billy Guy

August was my busiest month this season, and the most successful. Fishing in late August I found a little spot that was just full of fish and bait. Went there for nearly every trip (was a little far on the 1/2 days) but with the new boat it made getting there a breeze. Once there the king mackerel and mahi fishing was consistent. Fishing cigar minnows on Hank Brown rigs and Pirate plugs, and ballyhoo on dink hooks we had an average of 6 kings a trip, 2-3 mahi, and one sailfish. The best trip saw 2 guys do battle with 10 kings and 6 mahi! Most of the kings were 8-12lbs with a few pushing 20lbs, the mahi ranged from slingers to one beast over 20lbs.

We tried the bottom there and got a few snapper and groupers, the AJ’s seemed more prevelent there but when the weather cools who knows? Speaking of grouper we took the PLAN 9 on a few grouper trips this month. One trip was to some of the further out ledges that I fish, dodged squalls all day, east wind, bad current….scratched out a few reds, had a bunch of 18″-22″ seabass and some big pinkies, a few kings, one over 25lbs and ran home dodging squalls again. The next grouper trip we did we went south, good move! Fishing in the red and white area we worked a few ledges for a great catch of reds and scamps to 26″, had mahi around the boat most of the day, the fish kept us busy that day!

Fished a few trips nearshore and continued the catching. Found nice 16″-20″ spanish on most trips with a few 2-3 lbers mixed in. We fished these on light tackle, 12lb test with yozuri deep divers working in 40-50 feet of water off Wrightsville Beach and Masonboro Island. Had a few shark trips which were also productive, anchoring and chumming we averaged 3-5 sharks a trip most were 3-5 ft long but had a few to 7′, also on light tackle, 20lb test which gives makes fish in that size range very sporting.

Thankfully Hanna gave us just a glancing blow and it looks very good for the upcoming fall. The bait is starting to stack up and move out of the creeks. The butterflies are here, the drum should be biting well soon. All the signs that the fall fishing is right around the corner are popping up, just cannot wait!!!!!

Tight lines,

Captain Jim