If you’ve ever done any kind of fishing, you know that a surefire way to find your prize is to look for a potential food source. This could be checking the hatch to know what fly to use or the structure for what may bring up that bigmouth bass. When it comes to offshore fishing, birds are the key. As baitfish are driven to the surface, birds will pick them off, so if you spot birds diving in a particular location, you can bet it’s a good place to wet a line.
And that’s what happened off Cape Lookout in North Carolina recently, within an easy swim of shore no less. Red drum and spot-tailed bass had driven a buffet of bait to the surface and with the shallow depth and clear water, the entire show was something to see.
Check out the photos after the jump.
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Fishing
North Carolina, saltwater
Reprinted from “The Sea Breeze: The Bayside’s Favorite Newspaper” of San Leon, Texas. Story by Steve Hoyland, Sr.
Two weeks ago a group of four men, Steve Hoyland Jr. with friends Bruce, Ken and Erik, set off on an overnight offshore fishing trip. They left at noon on a Tuesday and went about 120 miles out into the Gulf.
They were having a great night of fishing, catching big snapper, grouper, ling and kings. About 3 am, two of them went down below to catch some sleep. The two remaining on deck were catching fish and drinking beer, enjoy- ing the warm tropical night air.
All at once, Bruce got a big run on his line. This thing went all around the boat and took more than twenty minutes to bring up to the surface. When they got it up to the surface, they could not tell what it was. It looked prehistoric.
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Fishing
saltwater, Texas
Not all fish are caught from million-dollar yachts! These good ol’ boys aboard a tugboat traveling offshore from Cape Canaveral, Florida to South Carolina in early June passed the time by dragging a line. Traveling at nine knots, conditions were perfect for this huge dolphin to strike.
The crew estimated it to weigh in the neighborhood of one hundred pounds, making it a potential record. Apparently tugboats don’t come with fishboxes so the trophy catch was fileted and never weighed.
More photos after the jump. Read more…
Fishing
saltwater
Beach Billy was at it again this week, this time some twenty miles offshore of Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. While the rest of us were breathing the piped-in air and enjoy the padded goodness of our cubicles with the occasional glimpse of the gorgeous Carolina sunshine on walks to the water cooler, our boy Billy was busy draggin’ naked ballyhoos with Captain Adam and boat owner Nash Johnson.
He made quick work of this sailfish and was back at the dock before happy hour.
Fishing
North Carolina, sailfish, saltwater
During a jaunt to Louisiana two weeks ago, Michael Renault of South Carolina took time off to stretch his sea legs. It was a success as they limited out on amberjack two wahoo, “a big*ass grouper”, 22 dolphin plus this wallhanger of a bull dolphin.
Check out their haul after the jump.
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Fishing
Louisiana, saltwater
Mike Krantz of Wilmington, North Carolina got the spring fishing season off to a great start with a 126-pound amberjack, besting the state record caught in 1973 by 1.5 pounds.
Krantz left Bogue Inlet last Tuesday and headed for the warm waters of the Gulf Stream with his father, Ron Krantz, and friend Andy Duskie. The trio began trolling as they approached the Stream, landing a wahoo and six blackfin tuna. Tiring of the trolling, they decided to drop some jigs over the continental shelf where they quickly hooked up with a 40-pound amberjack. Then the record hit. Read more…
Fishing
amberjack, North Carolina, record, saltwater
These shots were scanned and sent to us from Beach Billy and feature one of the toughest gamefishes around: tarpon. This one was caught off Bald Head Island, North Carolina by John Guggenheimer. Tarpon are spectacular to watch; they jump when hooked and put up a fight worthy of bigger fish found further offshore. They’re big fish too – I recall hold the scale of one and it was bigger than a fifty-cent piece.
More photos after the jump… Read more…
Fishing
Fishing, North Carolina, saltwater, tarpon
