I was so incredibly busy this fall that I didnt ever have time to put up a signle report….but that’s part of being booked every single day for almost two months (people know that I can put ’em on the fish 😉 ). This is a VERY belated report BUT i wanted to get it up anyway so people can see how fantastic our fall really was…

10/30 – I had a great day with very regular clients Wright and Wright – we caught a bunch of little puppies the day prior and a few trout but today was our ocean day. The ocean was SLICK but churned up from the day prior….we found some drum (but no trout) in the surf zone and decided to head offshore to find something bigger. Well, the kings weren’t around in the dirty water and we couldnt buy a strike – so we decided to look for some grouper. And we found them (and some really nice BIG seabass) – while most of the fish were under-sized, Wright did winch up a 15lb Gag…his biggest to date! After the bite slowed, we ran out to check out a king bite a friend told me about….kings and big spanish holding on the bottom in 130′ of water. We’d drop a stingsilver down and crank it as hard as we could to the surface….the problem was that the fish were too big for my gear and line and we were running out of day-light to fight them. We still managed a couple big spaniards and a king or two. Another great Day guys!! Can’t wait to see y’all in the spring!

11/1 – I fished with regular client Phil today – with a new face, his Dad. They grew up trout and red fishin’ on the pamlico and this was his frist time trout fishin’ in a long while. We found them too and picked away at them all day long – eventually getting a two man limit of 2 – 3.5lb fish. We capped off the day with both Phil and his Dad getting a thick 3.5lb trout out of a marsh creek! Awesome – can’t wait to have y’all back for some Bonito!

11/2 – Today I again had the pleasure of fishing with regular client Don – he fishes with me every fall for trout and what not….and boy oh boy, we found some trout. Not huge numbers, but we sure found a steady bite of nice, big fat 2 – 3.5lb fish. We fished through both tides, finding fish just about every where we went eventually picking our way to a boat limit of fat specks. Can’t wait to have ya back Don!

11/4 – Today it was the coldest day of the fall and howling out of the north – and I had a real trouble maker on board. The one and only Captain Stormy and his father-in-law. We really struggled with the specks in the morning – finding a few small fish, a couple decent ones and a few scattered drum. The real kicker was the hot albacore bite on the beach – there were scattered pods up and down shackleford and bogue banks and we chased them all afternoon…boating a half-dozen or so…before we decided to try for trout again…and we eventually found a good bite of 1-3lb fish in the evening and boxed 15 or so before it go dark. Not a bad day – awesome havin’ ya onboard Roy and Pa.

11/5 – Today I had Dave – an airforce guy from Seymour Johnson and we were after the albies. We found a few fish early, scattered along the beach, before we found a huge mess of bait about a mile offshore of PKS. We sat on it for an hour, casting at a few scattered poppin fish before we were BLITZED. We landed a half-dozen fish, broke off about that many, lost some, etc. In retrospect – it was one of the better days of the year. Awesome havin’ ya onboard Dave.

11/9 – 11/11 – I had the absolute pleasure of fishing with John and Burt – honestly two of the best fly-anglers I have ever had fish aboard my boat. They have been fishing the ablie run for years down this way and know the deal but they wanted to go with a local this time around – someone with, as John put it – a “plan B.” And in the end, they had as more fun with Plan B than with the albacore.

Day 1 was ROUGH – really rough and after a quick excursion o the inlet, we tied up the PArker and I splashed the skiff….and we went to find the trout and drum. And boy, did we found them. Each of these guys landed 20+ trout apiece and probably 12+ drum apiece…all on the fly,..blind casting clousers on a sink tip into the tide. The bite was hot and we were having a ball!

Day 2 – It was very calm but the albies weren’t anywhere in site. I heard of 2 fish caught all morning before I decided to make a looooong run to a wreck. When we got there, we found small 5-10lb albies sipping on the surface and we put the hammer to them. We had to work for them, and they were tricky….but we found that if you cast a gummy minnow to the side of the school and stripped fast….they would chase it down and explode on it! We ended up boating about 12 of the small guy using 8 and 9 weights (if i recall correctly?).

The highlight of the day was an AJ that Burt hooked on a 10 weight – it came to the surface trying to eat one of our albies and the bait and switch method worked. We had it on for probably 3 minutes and it was all the 10 weight and Burt could handle – wish we could have landed it but it still makes for an awesome story!

Day 3 – With the poor albie fish, the guys decided to try the inside thing again….welp, we be the bank for awhile landing a couple small drum AND one slot fish that came unbuttoned at the gunnel.

But it was hot – almost 70 degrees – and the tide was very high…and i started thinking about tailers…and we decided to give it a whirl…and guess what? WE found them – in 65 degree water in he middle of november!! They were bit lethargic and hard to entice to the fly but we got shots at about 8-10 fish and had a couple turn on it and 1 or two suck in the fly briefly. We struck out on the trout in the afternoon but we had a great day with some surprise tailers – awesome job guys i hope y’all decide to come down and fish with me for tailers (or albies) again some time.

11/13 – Today I took out the canvas boys in search for albies and it STANK. The water was rough, dirty – you name it. We got 1 or 2 shots early before we decided to look for trout. We found a few (and a few small redfish) – including this very deformed trout (well, i think it had a broken back).

11/14 – Thgis afternoon I had the pleasure of fishing with Ralph -for the third year in a row – and this time we weren out to get a red on the fly. The evening was calm and warm, and we hit a nice little tidal creek that had been holding a few fish and flind casted clousers on a 150 & 250 grain sinking lines. Ralph had a few takers and landed a couple rat reds to begin the evening before hooking up with a great fish that really tested his 8 weight – a nice upper slot red. Look forward to havin’ ya back next year!

11/15-21 – blowin’ all the time. That can be november for ya!

11/25 – Today I fished with Art and Mike in search of some trout. Well, the trout weren’t at the inlet holes, weren’t in the marsh and weren’t in the surf zone. They were at the ketty however and we were in about the only spot (Actually one of my favorite spots) in which no one was catching any…and by this time, the jetty was so incredibly packed that many areas were 2 – 3 boats deep. However, the albacore started blitzing offshore of the jetty and we had them all to ourselves – big pods of fish that stayed on the surface and allowed us multiple casts. We caught a half-dozen or so – and Art’s 10 year old son even fought one all the way to boat! I got some great video of it as well. Good job boy!

11/27 – Today I had the pleasure of fishing with Devin from Charlotte – in search of a few of the albies i had found the two days prior. They were a bit scattered today and the tides was pushing dirty water down the beach…but we found our tidal window and found a few fish. We had a half-dozen shots on the fly and we finally got one – on the spinning rod – but it was a BEAST – over 20lbs. Good job DEvin – perhaps we’ll get ’em again in the future!