Perfect weather and hungry fish

I had the pleasure of having Gale and Ellie on the boat with me this week.  Gale called me and said she was in town, and looking to get out and chase a few fish.  She told me that she fly fished but had only done it twice in the last 3 years, so she might be a little rusty.  I recommended a trip out of Beaufort for spanish and blues, and maybe an albie if they were there. 

I met Gale and Ellie at first light and we dropped the boat in the water, and laid out the morning's plans as we motored through the no wake zone.  When we hit the inlet we could see birds working outside so we made our way over to some schools of busting fish.  I pulled out a spinning rod for Ellie and got the 6wt out for Gale.  Honestly I wasn't sure how much success we would have on the fly rod since Gale hadn't thrown one in quite a while.  What I witnessed next, pleased me to no end.  I watched Gale take the rod, stretch the flyline, lay the line on the deck, step up to the front of the skiff and double haul a cast better than most men I know.  Both ladies were hooked up on fish within the first cast or two.  From that point we chased schools of spanish and blues for the next hour or so, until thing started to slow.  Gale and Ellie put a good amount of fish in the boat in that time, along with a handful in the cooler. 

I'm not one who leaves fish to find fish, but once the action slowed I made the decision to make a run down the beach towards Bardens Inlet.  The water was glass calm, and the little poling skiff made a smooth run down Shackleford towards the Cape.  There were no fish sightings, minus all the dolphins, until we got about a mile from Bardens Inlet.  We saw some fish busting, and as we made our way over, we saw that they were albies.  I switched Gale's 6wt for an 8wt with an epoxy fly, and had them both cast to the fish.  Unfortunately the pods of albies didn't hang around long enough for us to get a good shot at them, but now I felt good about our chances of catching one during the trip. 

We poked around in Bardens Inlet but didn't see much, so I decided to run down the west beach towards the jetty.  We saw nothing along that stretch but once we passed the jetty, we started running into pods of busting fish.  There were lots of small pods of albies that were up and down quick.  I call these teaser schools...the ones that bust until you get within casting distance and then they disapear, only to pop up 50 yards away 5 seconds later.  Although they were moving quick, if you could get a lure near the school, they would gladly eat it.  Gale handled the albies like a pro, not only casting to the schools well, but clearing the line and fighting them perfectly.  Along with the albies that Gale caught, Ellie was able to entice one into eating some metal, but it broke the line during it's run.  If anyone catches an albie with a chartreuse jig hanging from his jaw...that would be Ellie's fish.  As the tide went slack, and the bite slowed, we called it a day and ran back to Beaufort.  It was an honor to have these ladies on my boat and I can't wait to fish with them again.

After I dropped the ladies off, my friend Kristen, who was waiting patiently at the ramp jumped aboard and we made a run back to the Cape for round two.  I was hoping that the albies were going to fire back up when the tide started running again.  We found a few pods busting mullet, but the fish that were off the jetty earlier were nowhere to be found.  I ran to the shoals and we ran into a square mile of nothing but dolphins.  They put on a show for us, doing backflips and headstands in the water.  On the ride back towards the jetty, we ran into several schools of spanish that were more than happy to eat flies and metal.  Along the way, we were able to pick up a few Jack Crevalle along the beach. 

After we fished the jacks for a bit, we ran back to the spit and found a few albies busting mullet again.  Outside the spit in front of Shackleford we started seeing schools of alberts going after glass minnows.  Not long after that, the spanish showed up in force and we had a heyday with them.  Kristen cleaned up on the spanish, and caught her personal best.  I even got in on the action, and although I love watching other people catch fish, it's always nice to get to hold a doubled over fly rod.  The action was red hot, and we had to leave the fish biting when we ran back to the ramp...saying goodbye to one of the prettiest days I've seen in a long time.

North Winds and Chrome Fish

Last week, we had a nice showing of early false albacore along the beaches.  Along with the albies, there has been a good amount of bluefish, spanish mackerel and other fish in the surf. The North wind laid the ocean out flat and sent bait pouring out the inlets, which in turn brought the predators inshore to feed.

At the beginning of last week a few friends and I made a run from Beaufort to Cape Lookout to see what was happening along the beaches.  We made our way down Shackleford banks in about 30ft of water.  About two thirds of the way down the island we ran into several schools of feeding albacore.  These were the smaller 5-10lb early season albies that we ususally see show up around the first of September each year.  Most years, the early albacore are sippers who are slurping up larval fish, aka snot bait, and refuse to eat any lure or fly more than a half inch long.  Fortunately for us the schools we were looking at were eating larger bait.  We had a few spinning rods rigged up with stingsilvers, so we took turns casting to them.  The schools were small and fast but we were able to pick up a few fish.  When the action died down we made our way over towards the Cape, where we ran into mixed schools of spanish, blues, albies, and houndfish.  We followed the schools for a while before they broke up and dissapeared.  We made our way back home but before we got to the inlet we ran into an acre of spanish mackerel in about 10ft of water off of Shackleford.  We spent the next hour hooking up with spaniards on almost every cast. 


The following day, I had a charter with Scott Wood from Maryland. We timed our trip so that we could fish the incoming tide the whole afternoon.  We ran into some nervous schools of bait as soon as we got out of the inlet, and Scott hooked into a Jack Crevalle on his first cast.  After a few more casts, we made the call to run towards Cape Lookout to look for something different.  To my surprise, we didn't see the first busting fish on the 8 mile run to the Cape.  Once we got there, we were greeted by several schools of spanish.  We spent the next two hours running and gunning it to quick moving schools busting fish.  Scott wore them out, and by the end of the two hours, my skiff was covered in tiny larval fish that the spanish had spit out when we landed them.  As the bite died off, I suggested that we make a run back down Shackleford to look for albies or more spanish.  Again, to my surprise, no busting fish were spotted on the long run back.  When we got to the last half mile of beach before Beaufort Inlet, we ran into a few schools of feeding fish.  We chased them for an hour or so, landing several more spanish and some jacks.  After the bite slowed, we made a quick survey of the area and decided to call it a day.       

The following Saturday, I had my
friend Thomas Harvey on the boat for a shot at his first albacore. Harvey is the owner of Carolina Fly, a grass carp guru, and just a cool guy to hang with. We had been in contact for a few days waiting to see what the weather was going to do. The day before, we made the call to go for it. Thomas left Cary at 4am and made the drive to meet me in Morehead City. After hitting the gas station for gatorade, cow tails, and zebra cakes (albacore essentials), we dropped the skiff in at the ramp and made a run for open water. We came out the inlet and saw a few fish busting but decided to head to the Cape to look for Fat Alberts. Just like the week prior, I saw no activity running down Shackleford, but saw fish busting as soon as we got to the Cape. There were small schools of albacore up and down throughout Barden's Inlet. After a few quick instructions, Thomas took the bow and we went chasing after the albies. If you've never fished for albacore (esp with a fly rod) you have to understand that they can be tricky. Some days they are killer, some days they really make you work for it, and some days they are just down right hateful to you. On this day, they were in small schools, and would bust bait just long enough for you to get one cast into them before they split. About 30 seconds later they would pop up 100 yards away just to taunt you. Thomas was able to feed about a half dozen of them, but none made it to the boat. I think he got worked up just enough that albacore revenge is on his "to do" list.

On the way back in, we ran into my buddy Jeff, who told us he had seen some nice blues in a rip off of Shackleford. We ran over to check it out and saw several blues and spanish busting mullet and silversides in the chop.  We switched out the epoxy minnow flies for some clousers and 30lb fluro, and put the beat down on the fish. With the skiff thoroughly slimed, we knew it was about time to head in, but managed to squeeze in a few more drifts through the rip before we quit. Albies or not, we had a good day on the water and I look foward to having Thomas back. We still have some unfinished business with the albacore... and I've also got a few tailing redfish with his name on them.

Thanks to Thomas Harvey for the use of his photos in this blog post.

Great week on the water...

We had a great week on the water chasing redfish.  There was a nice run of flood tides for several days at the end of August and beginning of September.  We fished flooded grass for a few nights until the tides started flooding after dark.  After that, we had a few mornings with enough water to find tailing fish. 







We were able to get out and wade some new areas and find some great new fishing spots.  We had lots of shots at tailers, crawlers, wake pushers, etc.  We blew a few, got ignored by a few, and fed a few.  I've really got to leave the rods behind one day and just shoot some photos of the fish tailing...I'll do it before September is over, I promise. 

Lots of great high tides over the next month, and I'm looking foward to sneaking up on more redfish 4-wheeling it across the spartina.  The mullet and menhaden are everywhere in the intercoastal and are getting busted left and right.  There's also quite a few big spanish mackerel skying on bait in the backwaters right now.  Hopefully they will start to school up a little better over the next few weeks.