Expectations...

When I talk to potential clients about a fishing charter, I like to see what their expectations are for the trip.  I want to know what they hope to get out of their day on the water.  Once I know what they are hoping for, I do my best to meet, and if possible, exceed their expectations. 

I just wanted to to talk a little bit about what you can expect to get out of a guided trip with Tailing Tide.  You can expect to get a Captain who will give his 110% to show you a good time.  I will do everything possible to put you in the right place to catch the fish you are looking for.  I will teach you everything I can about the right way to find fish, approach them, present a lure to them, etc.  I will share my love of the marshes, estuaries, tidal creeks, barrier islands and all the animals that inhabit these places.  I will show you natural places that most of the human population will never get to see.

I can't make any guarantees on how many fish we will catch or how big they will be.  Every thing changes on a daily basis on the water, and these fish are always moving and changing patterns depending on the weather, tide, food source, etc.  I put a lot of time and pride into being able to locate and read fish and get them to eat.  Sometimes fish will eat anything near them, and sometimes we have to work really hard to convince them to take our offering.  Sometimes fish will let you get close enough to touch them, and sometimes they are so spooky they won't let you get within sight of them.  It's all a game, and it's always changing, which is why I love it so much...for the challenge and for the reward. Giving you as many shots as possible at catching fish is a big part of my job, but I also want you to have a relaxing time, learn something new, and take home some lasting memories of the experience.

If you judge a good day by how many fish you can put in a cooler, there's nothing wrong with that, and there are guides who cater to that.  If you enjoy the entire experience of fishing, the sights, the sounds, the memories...then give me a call and we'll have a great time.  Not to say that we don't catch a lot of fish, we have plenty of days when we catch obscene numbers of fish.  But when you book a trip with any guide service, and show up with expectations that a memorable day can only be achieved by catching huge numbers of fish...you have already set yourself up for disappointment.

On another note, winter redfish is in full swing.  The backwaters from Beaufort to New River have become crystal clear.  When everything lines up...sunshine, calm winds, mild temps....the sight fishing has been ridiculously good.  Even on nasty days....heavy cloud cover, windy, and rainy....the fishing has still been very good.  The other day, we found over five hundred redfish in a single creek system in crystal clear water.  You could watch them swim up to your lure, investigate it, and inhale it.  The marsh is full of young redfish that have moved in over the last month or two...along with slot size fish mixed in.  It's been awesome lately, and should stay that way the entire winter.

Exceptional Trout and Reds

The redfish and speckled trout fishing has been exceptional the last week or so. 

Here are some pics of Randy and Jake with a few of the trout they landed.

Josh and Andrew with a few of the fifty redfish they landed.

I've even gotten in on the action a little lately.

We've seen a lot of young redfish showing up in the local waters lately, which is a great sign for the 2013 season.  Unfortunately a lot of them have had gillnet damage.  For every one we catch with gill net cuts, I wonder how many weren't lucky enough to escape alive.

Fall Trout

                            The speckled trout fishing on the coast continues to be exceptional. 

The trout have moved into their Fall/Winter haunts.  The rock jetties, beach sloughs, and mainland creeks are stacking up with fish.

Fall trout fishing is always good if you know where to look, but this year, we have the best size class of fish I have seen in six or more years. 

Thanks to last years mild winter and stricter regulations, we are enjoying some great fishing...come and get some.

Capt John Mauser
www.TailingTideGuideService.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pre Hurricane Albies

I got to do some fishing with good friends last week before Hurricane Sandy rolled through and made a big mess of the East Coast.  We have an annual get together every October, and friends come in from all over the Country to stay in Atlantic Beach and chase albies.  Some years, mother nature and the albies are good to us, and we reap the benefits.  Other years, the fishing and weather is less than perfect, but we still have a great time tying flies, eating good food, and talking smack.  This year we had a few days of very good fishing... and then a few days of 40mph winds, sideways rain, and 15ft swells as Sandy skirted the coast.  Lots of fish were caught, lots of lies were told, and several bushels of Oysters gave their lives during the Saturday night Hurricane Party.  Talk is cheap, so here are a few pics from last week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cool weather and hot fishing.

With October in full swing, and the water temps dropping into the low 70's and upper 60's the fishing has really started to pick up.  There has been a ton of shrimp in the marsh the last few weeks and the fish are busting them like there's no tomorrow.  From redfish in the bays, to bluefish under dock lights to trout on the rocks, everyone is in feed mode.

I had an evening trip set up a few days ago with a two guys who were looking to catch a few reds.  The morning of the trip, we got a big cold front and gusty winds along with a 70% chance of rain.  We made the call to hold off until the next morning, once the rain had past.  I met Chris and Lee at the ramp and we made a run to a nice low tide redfish spot.  The wind and rain had the water pretty muddy, but I hoped with the low tide we would be able to see the pushes from any redfish moving through.  Within a few minutes, we started seeing signs of fish working through the mazes of marsh grass and oyster beds.  Not long after that, Chris was hooked up on his first fish on a topwater plug.  From there we continued to see good numbers of fish working around the skiff as we poled forward.  We made our way into a very shallow bay that sometimes holds good numbers of fish.  As we approached, I could see seagulls working a few feet above the water and I knew something good was about to happen.  The gulls were catching shrimp that were being tossed up by feeding redfish right below the surface.  I poled up to the birds and we could see a dozen or more tails breaking the surface with just as many making swirls right below the surface.  Lee's first cast into the school was immediately inhaled.  The school split, but was reformed and feeding on the other side of the bay by the time Lee got the fish to the boat.  We wasted no time pursuing the reds and continued to hook up on fish as they busted shrimp.  We fished a second creek afterwards and found mostly rat reds, which are a welcome sign for next years season.

 

A few nights later, myself and a buddy were out cast netting shrimp when we ran past a lit dock
with fish busting shrimp underneath.  We had our hearts set on catching some speckled trout, so we made a quick run back to the truck to grab some fly rods.  We got back to the dock and made a drift past the outer edge of the light and chucked our flies up into the light.  The hookup was instant, but unfortunately what we hoped to be trout were actually bluefish.  I'm not too picky about what species of fish I'm chasing as long as they are willing to eat and put a bend in the rod, so we anchored up and spent the next half hour catching bluefish on every cast.  We called it a night around 11pm and ran back to the dock.

I got a call from my good buddy Chuck yesterday evening with an invite to go chase some albies and maybe a few gray trout the following day.  I'm not one to turn down an invitation to spend some time on the bow of the boat, so we made plans to meet before daylight the next morning.  The albies have been on one day and off the next lately, so we decided to check out a rumored gray trout bite at a rock jetty while we listened to the radio reports to see if the albies were eating.  The albies never materialized, but we were able to hook into a good number of gray trout along the rock jetty.  The 5wt's and sinking lines got quite a workout from about 7am until noon when we called it a day.