First of all, I still have the
This past weekend brought some of the best albacore fishing that Cape Lookout has seen in 6 or 7 years – and some of the best days I’ve ever had!! While the bite slowed with the south wind – expect it to pick up quickly as soon as the wind switches back to the north today (thursday the 17th). It should fire the albies back up and get the trout moving again. Expect an epic weekend of fishing!
This past weekend – everywhere I went I was greeted by the delightful sites of large bait balls of silversides being pounded by huge schools of albacore. Even with the heavy veteren’s day boat traffic – there were so many fish that most boats had multiple bait balls to themselves!!
Typical sight this past week:
11/14 – This morning I had the pleasure of fishing with Bill Schrader for the first time – he wanted to hit the backwaters and do a little trout action on the fly rod – and most importantly, practice his cast.
While the warm weather turned the fish off just a tad, we still managed to find some nice specks (largest in at 3.5lbs) while most were 13-16″. Not red hot but still a good nice. It was nice meeting you Bill!
11/13 – This morning I had KArl and Matt aboard – old army buddies who were in town to spend some time with old friends. I had told them that Saturday the 12th was one of the best albacore days I have ever had….well, actually, this day would turn out to be one of the best albacore days I’ve ever had.
We left the inlet at 6:45 and were into our first bait-ball by 7am with instant hook-ups. From them on out until past 1pm – the action was non-stop for hours. The water around us was churning like a washing-machine as silversides flew through the air and hundreds of albacore cut through the bait.
We started off on the spinning rod and then went to the fly with both Matt and KArl landing how knows how many fish – they were just blown away by the power of these fish and never tired of catching them. At several points we actually had baitballs take shelter under the boat as albacore cut through them – eating every last bait. We barely had to cast 3 feet to get a hook-up – it was unreal!
We started off west of the rock jetty and ended past the west slough buoy – so we decided to run out to an area of live bottom and do a little king fishing to end the day. The bite was pretty quick and within minutes we put two nice 8-10lb kings in the box before the sharks moved in…so we ran home WOT in the slick calm conditions.
What a day!!!
11/12 – Today I had the absolute pleasure of fishing with Kristen and her husband Anthony. Antony is from florida and is an extremely avid fisherman – so Kristen booked the trip for his birthday. Is he lucky or what?
Albacore on the fly was the name of the game and it started off just like that – we began the morning finding scattered pods working off the shoals, crashing small balls of bay anchovies and silversides. We had to work to get hook-ups – but for the most part, it was paying off. Then everything went absolutely nuts. From 10:30am until dark the bite was simply insane – huge baitballs and groups of fish appeared, every where.
With fishing busting all around us, hook-ups became easy and as I helped kristen get her first fish on the fly, antony broke out his 8 weight!! From them on out, we had fish on all afternoon until the sun started to set and we ran on home.
One of the cool things that happened today was a mola-mola (ocean sunfish) decided to pay us a visit – with albacore busting a bait ball around the boat, he just appeared right under my lower unit (with albacore racing past him) and stayed there for probably 5 minutes. What weight animals (picture below)…
Fishing with you two was one of the most fun days I have ever had with clients. I wish you guys well in the future and I hope we cross paths again!
11/11 – Again I had the pleasure of fishing with regular clients, Wright and Wright. Or, as I call them, #1 and #2. These guys love to fish and Wright #2 shows a true passion for the sport – something I dont see enough of in young people nowadays.
We started off with a little trout action in the morning – the bite was slow but steady and the fish were how I like them – big. All morning we picked away at the 1-3.5lb specks, putting over a dozen in the box and losing just as many at the gunnel – i kid you not. It was just one of those days.
The highlight was the two gators we hooked up – Wright #2 was first in hooking a big speck that screamed out line and shook her head before throwing the hook. Wright #1 hooked the fish of the day – as I was watching his rod, he had a very subtle hit and set the hook strongly into what bent his rod like a snag. He yelled “whoa!” at the reel started to scream and a huge trout came up to the surface and rolled. We got her right up to the boat before she raised her massive head and shook it violently…and the riptide flat’s chub lure shot out of her mouth like a rocket. I estimate the fish at an easy 8-9lbs – bigger than katie’s famous fish of last year. We were dissapointed…but as I always say, the bigguns dont get that way by being dumb!
In all honesty though – the riptide flats chub lure has been producing some very big trout this fall. In fact it’s amazing how many of the large trout we’ve landed this fall have come on that grub!!
With the trout bite winding down, we went and started chasing a few scattered pods of albacore popping up and down along the beach. After we broke one off, I got a call that the fish were showing en force on the east side of the shoals. It was around this time that the 20knot North wind started to die and the ocean started to lie down.
Once we got to the east side – the bite just started to evaporate. But, one thing I’ve learned is to wait for all the impatient boats to leave and the bite will fire back up again – guess what? It did and we had the whole place to ourselves. Big baits of silversides being crushed by albacore and some huge dusky sharks. While watching the blitz was incredible – I had a blast watching both these guys jump around and have the of their lives. We had many, many double hookups.
The highlight of the day would have to be Wright #2’s “albacore on steroids” – it was a 12lb fish that simply would not give up as the two battled each other for over 45 minutes before I tailed the fish and got him to the boat. My friend, and fellow NCW Captain Scott Crocker, had a client hook one out of the same bait ball that did the exact same thing – but they fought that guy for over an hour!!
It was pleasure fishing with you two again and I can’t wait to get you on board again in the future!
