http://www.topsailangler.com/site/blog en mike@topsailangler.com Copyright 2011 2011-09-12T11:02:42+00:00 http://www.topsailangler.com/site/wahoo-in-the-stream1/ http://www.topsailangler.com/site/wahoo-in-the-stream1/#When:10:02:42Z It’s been a long, stormy & hot summer with few opportunities for me to fish.  Not many catching reports from me.  That changed yesterday.  I was able to go on a Gulf Stream on Taylor’s Boat.  We headed out about 5am with high hopes and weren’t disappointed! The seas were slick and the ride was smooth in Taylor’s Glacier Bay catamaran.  We deployed some high speed lures about 5 miles form our intended destination.  We had a couple of hits, lost one lure to a cut-off but no fish boated.  Once we got to the Swansboro hole we put out a full spread.  The best action was in the early afternoon.  We boated a mahi and 3 Wahoo with the largest going 29 pounds.  We had two other knock-downs - one that was a reel screamer and lost a black fin tuna at the boat when it headed under the boat and into the prop. I enjoyed fishing with Taylor and Jonas, very nice day! Catching Reports, Trip Reports 2011-09-12T10:02:42+00:00 http://www.topsailangler.com/site/wahoo-in-the-stream/ http://www.topsailangler.com/site/wahoo-in-the-stream/#When:10:02:00Z Catching Reports, Trip Reports 2011-09-12T10:02:00+00:00 http://www.topsailangler.com/site/king-fishing-7-2-11/ http://www.topsailangler.com/site/king-fishing-7-2-11/#When:14:16:50Z Had the pleasure of fishing with my buddy HuntersHaven yesterday. We were fishing in our club’s little monthly tournament. This month there were prizes for both kings and mahi. King fishing has been VERY SLOW this year and I hadn’t heard to many reports this week with good results, so I consulted my fish logs. I noticed that I seemed to always catch kings at this one particular location the first week-end in July (our club king tourney is the first Sat of the month so I have plenty of history for that week-end). Also a few other seasoned king fisherman suggested the same place. We launched my boat around 6 and headed out of New River inlet (the buoys are all WRONG so use great caution). We made a quick attempt at AR362 for some live bait but it was all small so we broke out the frozen cigar minnows and headed to our spot. We landed two kings there, they ended up weighing in within .05 of each other. First one at 7:50, the other one at 8:20. Both were caught on the downrigger on a naked Bluewater Candy deadbait king rig with a pink jighead. We stayed another couple hours, had our bait terrorized by a school of small bluefish, caught a shark and one more king bite but he missed hooking up. So we left and tried a couple of other spots. Nothing but an amberjack, a shark and a mahi barely bigger than the bait he tried to eat! On the way home the GPS display overheated and so I had to dead reckon with the compass back to the inlet. I turned it off so it would cool and then turned it back on when we got to the inlet so I would have the sounded and my old tracks to navigate the inlet. Our king ended up winning the tournament! The mahi didn’t At the club meeting we had our usual 4th of July week-end meal - boiled shrimp and boiled corn on the cob with all the fixins. We all brought our families and had a great time! Man I love this place! Catching Reports, Trip Reports 2011-07-03T14:16:50+00:00 http://www.topsailangler.com/site/grouper-slaying/ http://www.topsailangler.com/site/grouper-slaying/#When:21:01:21Z On Sunday, I finally got my first chance to get out and do some serious grouper fishing since the season opened on May first.  It paid off!  I was with my friend Scott on his boat the REEL DREAM and our friend Tanner.  We left out of New River inlet and headed out to some nice bottom in about 120-130 feet of water and began dropping out baits.  we used a variety of lures including Bluewater Candy Roscoe’s and something Tanner calls the “after school special”, it’s a squidhead and some bling with an attached J hook and a stinger hook.  The first drop resulted in Tanner bringing in a citation sized Red grouper (weighed 26 pounds).  He later caught another citation red grouper at 21 pounds.  Scott and I didn’t get any citation size fish but we did catch some nice reds, scamp and a trigger fish.  We also caught a few bailer sized mahi on poppers.  A pair of them followed a fish be had hooked, the others we ran across at weed lines as we moved between spots. Fish that didn’t make it home with us (cause the season is closed):  A handful of huge Black Sea Bass including one knot head that was 22 inches long!  And a very nice sized American Red Snapper. The ocean was flat, the sun was bright and the water was blue! We had an AWESOME day on the water with good fishing and friendship!  (and of course Tanner couldn’t quit talking about those groupers…..........) Catching Reports, Trip Reports 2011-05-24T21:01:21+00:00 http://www.topsailangler.com/site/gulf-stream-trip1/ http://www.topsailangler.com/site/gulf-stream-trip1/#When:00:30:18Z Finally!  The marine forecast was decent for a day that I could manage to fit into my schedule for some offshore fishing.  I headed out at 4am this morning on my buddy Taylor’s boat with Scott and Doug.  We left out of New River Inlet and headed in the direction of the Swansboro Hole near the Gulf Stream.  About 6 or 7 miles short of there we stopped and deployed some cow bells (high speed Wahoo Lures) and then continued on at a speed between 15 & 20 knots.  We got one quick knockdown but it came unbuttoned before we could even pick up the rod, that was a little after 7am.  No more hits for about 15 minutes.  Then we ran across a nice rip caused by 72 degree water on one side and 70 degrees on the other.  The rip was popping and was about 50 yards across and full of WEEDS!  We pulled in the high speed lures and deployed a nice spread of ballyhoo on Witches and JAGS.  Soon it was GAME ON!  We worked that weedline for several hours and boated 9 mahi including a bull that I caught that weighed over 25 pounds.  We also caught a 15 pound king and two barracudas.  Then the bite died.  We tried some other places with no luck.  Finally we headed home with plenty of fish and smiles!  Great day on the water fishing with friends! Catching Reports, Trip Reports 2011-05-11T00:30:18+00:00 http://www.topsailangler.com/site/flounder-gigging/ http://www.topsailangler.com/site/flounder-gigging/#When:12:21:00Z I had the pleasure of going gigging for a few hours with Breadman last night. The wind was calm and the tide falling so we headed out just as it got dark. It didn’t take long before we had the first fish in the boat. Within an hour and a half I had gigged 6 fish limit including the two 5 pounders in the picture. We stayed for another hour or so and gigged a few more fish. We saw lots of barely legal fish which we did not gig. They are out there guys, go get you some! 2011-04-14T12:21:00+00:00 http://www.topsailangler.com/site/rockin-the-reds/ http://www.topsailangler.com/site/rockin-the-reds/#When:10:50:48Z It has been so long since I went fishing, I had to relearn how to hold a rod. Well maybe not that long but long enough. Finally had the chance to go today so I met up with Bread Man 1 and left out of New River Marina. Our first stop was non-productive so after a half hour or so we headed to the next spot where it was GAME ON! We caught 12 reds in a matter of an hour or so. The biggest one was 24 inches and the smallest was 17” with most of the others in the 18-19 inch range. We were using several different colors and style of Gulp on Bluewater Candy Jigheads. All the fish were caught in about 10 to 15 inches of water in the sound.          2011-03-18T10:50:48+00:00 http://www.topsailangler.com/site/record-striper/ http://www.topsailangler.com/site/record-striper/#When:23:28:45Z The striper fishing has been HOT out of Oregon Inlet this month!  Just two days after a potential state record 63-pound striper was landed in Oregon Inlet, a 64-pound striper came across the transom on January 7th. Keith Angel caught the pending state-record striper.while fishing aboard the Poacher. The Poacher is a 42-foot sportfisher charter boat out of Oregon Inlet Fishing Center and is run by Capt. Devin Cage. “We were about in the same spot as where the 63-pound striper was caught, and the fishing conditions were calm,” Cage said. “There has been a lot of big stripers around this year and, as soon as this one came to my deckhand Russell Long, he yelled that he knew it was over 60 pounds.” Angel caught the potential state-record striper at 1 p.m. while all six of the charter’s anglers were snagging fish. Weighing 64 pounds, the bruiser bass measured 54 ¾-inches in length and had a girth of 33 ½-inches.  The catch still must be certified by the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries before it is entered in the record books. (revised Jan 12th - video added) News 2011-01-08T23:28:45+00:00 http://www.topsailangler.com/site/jacks-first-keeper-flounder/ http://www.topsailangler.com/site/jacks-first-keeper-flounder/#When:19:11:34Z I took my friend Andrew and his son Jack fishing this morning.  It was very windy (20 mph) but we decided to give it a try anyway.  We headed over to some nice marsh creeks to see if we could find some specks.  We did but not before Andrew caught a 17” drum and we each caught some small flounder.  I had one BIG trout slam my bait but lost it on the way in on the surface not far from the boat. Then Jack, age 11, caught his first KEEPER flounder!  He had just been saying he wished we would find the “children good luck” spot.  Guess we did!  After a few more moves and no hits we moved out to my #1 high water speck spot (bi secret, only a few hundred people know about it…lol).  And walla, Jack made the first cast (right were I told him to cast) and in comes a speck!  Two more casts, two more specks.  They were spikes but Jack had a blast anyway.  Then he cast and nothing.  One more cast and one more speck.  Then the bite stopped and the rain was coming so we left. Mission accomplished - we had a boat inshore nursery slam, and Jacks first ever keeper flounder and three big, broad smiles! 2010-11-26T19:11:34+00:00 http://www.topsailangler.com/site/supper/ http://www.topsailangler.com/site/supper/#When:22:37:28Z Marine forecast looked awesome for today so I ran out mid morning thinking I’d fish through the afternoon.  The 5 - 8 knot winds that were forecast turned out to be 15 knots by lunch time.  Was right snotty with 2-3 footers but tight and lots of slop.  I caught two flatties, one was barely 14” so I let that one go, the one in the picture below came home with me for dinner. Talked to a couple of guys in a boat next to me, they had been there an hour or so and had caught 2 flounder and some black sea bass.  I didn’t see them catch much after i got there.  Typical (near) full moon slow bite I guess. 2010-11-20T22:37:28+00:00