Laboring on Labor Day weekend

I’ve had this theory that it is possible to kayak out to Cape Lookout for a daytrip…and when I say Cape Lookout, I mean the cape itself – Cape Point.  It is possible to get there and back, but unless you have a very long day or very favorable currents and winds, it is not a practical daytrip.  I guess I should have checked before I left, but it was about a 25 mile round trip from Shell Point on Harkers Island.  Each way took about 4 hours of paddling with about a 30 minute break thrown in each way. 

Virtually all of my fishing was trolling or casting to surfacing fish from the kayak.  I didn’t really have the time (or energy) to surf fish the point and frankly, at mid-day, it didn’t look all that promising.  Trolling was slow – I only had two strikes, all south of the cape but outside of the hook – both Spanish mackerel, one a decent 2 pounder.  I also managed to land a little jack casting to some surface busting fish on the east side of the jetty on the way back.  The jetty was loaded up with big jumping mullet on the way out, but on the way in it was all glass minnows and other small baitfish.  Also had a number of casts to small pods of false albacore from the hook to the south beach, but not surprisingly didn’t hook up.

Overall, besides dodging boat traffic all day, it was a great trip.  The yak to the hook is definitely doable in a day trip, but to get out to the jetty and then the point about doubles the length of the trip.  This would make an excellent weekend or at least overnight yak camp.  It would also be very viable to land on the far side of the hook, lock up the yak, and haul your gear over the dunes to foot fish the jetty or point.  Either way, Cape Lookout is a special place with exceptional fisheries and every trip I make there – via kayak or truck or foot – is fondly etched in my memory.

Summertime done, come and gone my oh my…

My oh my oh my…my oh my oh my oh my!

I guess it is official – I don’t fish during the summer.  My last post was before Memorial Day and here I am, just before Labor Day.  OK, well, I just made it back before the unofficial end of summer.

I’m packed and ready to hit Cape Lookout in the kayak tomorrow.  I had hoped to fish Hatteras Island this weekend, but Irene threw a kink in those plans.  Hatteras Island is closed till Hwy. 12 can be repaired, probably at least a month.  However, the fishing north of Oregon Inlet has been excellent since the storm, with a surprise early showing of speckled trout…lots of borderline keepers along with enough nice fish to 19″ to keep things interesting.  All of the piers were reporting specks once the water settled down after the storm, but they’ve slacked off since, with just Avalon reporting specks yesterday.  However, bottom fish – especially nice fall spot – have provided lots of action.  I’d guess the blues and Spanish will pick up very soon (if they haven’t already) as the water continues to clear at the ends of the piers.  There’s been a good bite of specks in the sound too with the Little Bridge between Manteo and Nags Head reporting fine catches.

Hurricane Irene made landfall right about at Cape Lookout, but again, the fishing has recovered nicely, with a nice early showing of false albacore the past few days.  Vehicular access to South Core Banks is restricted due to the storm, but I am guessing – and hoping – that the surf action is similar to that further south – namely lots of puppy drum, blues and nice pompano.

Water temperatures have fallen a bit from the summertime maximums, with mid-70s north to low-80s south.  The rain from Irene cooled the waters some and pushed a lot of baitfish out to the sounds and surf zone.

As for the next week, the wind is slowly coming around to the south after a few days of some very welcomed NE.  The winds will pick up a bit over the next few days, but should remain very manageable.  However, the swell from Katia will rough up the surf for the bulk of the coming week.

 

Memorial Day Weekend fishing update

The weather and water is approaching full-on summer mode at this point, with the surf mostly in the 70s, except north of Oregon Inlet where prolonged SW winds have lowered the water temperature to about 60 via upwelling.  That can and will change very quickly with some easterly winds.  The winds were the major factor impacting shore fishing this week, with some pretty steady and strong SW winds and scalding heat for most of the week.  The water has been fairly muddy north to south, slowing down the sight-feeders like bluefish and Spanish mackerel.  However, the bottom fishing – sea mullet, in particular – have been doing well in the churned up surf.

Big bluefish are still scattered, mostly on cut bait, but the bite has slowed a little since last week, probably because of the conditions more than anything else.  Otherwise, I’d be remiss not to mention flounder.  You might recall from earlier reports, a good bite of keeper flounder along the Outer Banks beaches a few weeks ago.  There are still good numbers of flounder in the surf, but the size has dropped off.  However, inshore and nearshore fishers have been finding lots of nice fish and the word on the street is that the flounder fishing is the best its been in years.  Sheepshead have also shown up around bridge and pier pilings, and there appears to be fair numbers of speckled trout – mostly dinks, but also a reassuring amount of breeders.  They are protected till June 15.  It will be interesting to see what the new limits will be.

The forecast looks excellent, with the wind dropping out as I type and light SE winds anticipated into next week. I expect to see some good reports for the rest of the weekend and will try to get another update posted early-mid week.

Days 6 and 7 Ocracoke

So much gear, so little time.

I have a bad habit of taking lots of stuff that I never end up using on most surf fishing trips…most notably, my kayak and a plethora of lures that rarely make it out of their storage boxes.  With great conditions, particularly at the end of our stay on Ocracoke, I took advantage of my surplus of gear and got the kayak out each of the final three days while throwing an assortment of lures at bluefish and Spanish mackerel behind Hatteras Inlet.

The biggest excitement came on Saturday morning, just a few hours before I needed to close up our rental house.  I launched just before sunrise and arrived at the rip just after the sun had peeked up momentarily before hiding behind some of those low morning clouds on the horizon.  As I slid onto a shoal behind the spit fighting a drenching chop caused by the wicked outgoing current, I saw a glorious sight about 20 feet toward the inlet proper – a couple dozen big bluefish tailing the in 2 foot deep water.  I practically fell out of my kayak before making a couple casts with the only rod I had ready – my light trout rod armed with a Clark spoon rigged behind a trolling weight (one of those cool, but rarely used lures I mentioned earlier).  Both casts I lobbed into the fray got hit with passion, but the light line perished from from too many teeth and too much power and I broke off.  The fish then meandered their way toward the deeper rip area while I rigged my larger lure casting rod.  I managed one other hookup that pulled off before I had to set back for the house.  Nothing landed, but what an exciting morning.  I think I’ll have to do this kayak thing more often!

The evening before, I had some action on small blues gorging on glass minnows and a few small flounder hanging out along the rip.  The paddle back under the setting sun featured frolicking dolphins and breaching Spanish mackerel.  The fishing may have only been fair, but the experiences were priceless.  I’m amazed that after so many years of surf casting, I almost always experience something new on my trips an the kayak opens up a whole other dimension.

The surf produced about the same action as earlier in the week, with slow but steady action on big bluefish.  I landed a 36.5″, 10.5# fish Friday morning – according to length x weight charts, this would have been a 17+ pound fish in the fall!  If you put your time in soaking bait in the suds, you will be rewarded with one or more big blues per day – they seem to come through in brief, widely-spaced spurts.  Otherwise, a few smaller blues, small flounder, and a few sea mullet rounded out the surf catches.  I heard of a couple pompano, puppy drum, and Spanish, but they were widely scattered.

36.5 inch bluefish

Great rip on the outgoing current

Sunset

Hatteras Inlet (Ocracoke side) spit from the ferry

Buxton beach on Saturday afternoon – perfect for fishing and swimming

Stumbled upon the grand opening for the new Jennette’s Pier

Awesome soft shelled crab sandwich from Sam and Omie’s

Unscaled filet of black drum marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper and grilled

Days 4 and 5 Ocracoke

Two great days weather wise.  Each morning starts out a bit overcast, but by afternoon we have full sun.  As typical, the wind picks up throughout the day, but the strongest wind of the week has probably been a hair over 15.  Today we had some SE, but mostly its been SW.

The fishing continues to lag behind the weather, but there is some action.  Goes without saying that big bluefish are the name of the game.  They are joined by a few small flounder, scattered small bluefish, very few sea mullet and today, I caught a 10 pound black drum.  I’ve also been finding small flounder and small gray trout in the sound.  This afternoon, I kayaked out to Hatteras Inlet and found small blues crashing glass minnows at the rip.  I was able to entice a few with a yo-zuri swimmer and a lead head grub.  I also saw a few Spanish jump but didn’t hook any.

Days 2 and 3 Ocracoke

The weather continues to be nice and the surf continues to calm down although it is still a bit choppy with some residual upcurrent.  The past two days featured alternating warm sun and cool overcast conditions when thunderstorms formed over the ocean.  We’ve only been hit with some very light drizzle, with the heavy rain falling well offshore.  The wind continues to be moderate from the southwest at 10-15 kt, favorable for spring fishing.

Monday’s fishing was relatively good, with quite a few big blues caught all along the beach.  Dad had two (along with a decent sea mullet) and a guy down the beach had five.  I joined the party late and lost another one before they slacked off for the rest of the afternoon.  I had caught four short flounder at a soundside spot earlier in the day.

Tuesday was especially nice and the surf conditions seemed ideal, but the catching was quite disappointing.  I only landed two dogfish today; had a few other hits but nothing dramatic.  I fished a nice hole mid-island and a sweet cut south of Ramp 72.  The surf mid-island had mostly cleared up but still had a little turbidity mixed in with the green.  Down south, the surf was beautiful, clean and green.  Did see a few Spanish jump just outside the breakers, but it would have been at the end of a very long cast.

Day 1 Ocracoke

Pretty nice day today, after lots of humidity and a little rain last night.  Partly sunny with a 10-15 kt SW wind and a bit of a swell and strong upcurrent in the surf.  I slept in and hit the road just before low tide to scout the beaches from ramp 59 at the north end all the way down the island.  Found some good holes, points and sloughs and plenty of pretty green water.

Dad and I fished one of the better mid-island holes for the heart of the rising tide.  Rather slow and somewhat difficult to fish with the hard upcurrent, but we did have a nice flurry of big blues and a few scattered dogfish and flounder.  Dad landed a 10# blue and I lost two big blues due to dreaded equipment malfunctions – broken line first, and a busted snap second…total rookie mistakes.  I did land a smaller blue, a couple flounder (one just about 15″, but released) and a small dogfish and Dad landed another bigger dogfish and had another big blue bust off.  Not a bad afternoon given the rough surf.  Conditions should be better tomorrow.

Weekly report – May 10, 2011

Water temperatures are up to the low-mid 60s north of Oregon Inlet to the low 70s further south.  Pretty good weather and a very good week of fishing all along the North Carolina coast.

Up north, speckled trout were reported in the Bodie Island surf some mornings – keepers, if the season weren’t closed.  Some good specks have been caught off the Little Bridge between Manteo and Nag’s Head as well.  Bluefish are hitting hard off the piers, along with good runs of bottom fish when the water is kicked up a bit.  The first Spanish of the year are starting to mix with blues off the northern OBX piers.

Fishing has been very good from Hatteras Island south down along the rest of the NC coast.  Flounder are still being caught along the Hatteras Island south beaches, and big skinny bluefish have been abundant in the surf along the entire coast.  Lots and lots of 1-4 pound blues are being caught all over, with plenty of nice Spanish too.  Some of the best reports have been coming from Topsail Island, with lots of big blues in the surf mixed with some nice red and black drum, abundant small blues and Spanish off the piers, and the kicker – a 30 pound king mackerel caught shark fishing a live spot along the beach a couple days ago.  Rounding things off, striper spawning and fishing is peaking on the Roanoke now.

Weekly report – May 3, 2011

Water temps are up to the mid-50s far north, to about 60 along the north beaches of Hatteras and lower Bodie Islands and peeking into the low 70s south.  The weather has been pretty favorable lately, with the winds finally settling down, and the fishing has been quite good.

Flounder continue to be caught at the Outer Banks, with the Buxton jetties getting most of the attention with the Point and Hatteras Inlet closed. However, the big news is the explosion of bluefish on the scene.  There have been regular every-cast bites of nice fish up to 4 pounds off the piers and a rapidly increasing number of big, skinny blues hitting live baits off the piers and cut bait in the surf.  The south beaches of Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands have been particularly good, but the other beaches south of the Outer Banks are also getting into the spring choppers and lots of tailor sized blues.

In other news, cobia action continues to heat up, mostly for small boaters, but a few should be also landed off the beach in the coming weeks.  Spanish are slowly working their way north – at about Lookout now and should be up to Cape Hatteras in a week or two, weather willing.  Red drum are hitting in the surf, but with the better spots closed, the catches are much lower than they could be.   In the rivers, striper action is peaking and should continue at a good pace for another couple weeks or so.

Weekly report – April 26, 2011

Late April…definitely a peak time for spring surf fishing.

Along the northern Outer Banks where the water temperatures are still in the low-mid 50s, its still early spring, with strong catches of bottom fish like sea mullet and blowtoads, and a few small bluefish just starting to show.  Speckled trout are being caught off the Little Bridge between Manteo and Nag’s Head, but those fish can’t be kept till June 15th this year to help the population recover after severe winter freezes.

South of Cape Hatteras, water temperatures are in the mid-upper 60s and spring fishing is in full swing.  We are even starting to see some summertime fish:  a few nice pompano and Spanish mackerel are being reported from the beaches and piers along the southeast North Carolina coast.  The hot flounder bite of the past couple weeks has slowed…plus the premier spot in the hook south of Cape Point in Buxton has been closed.  More bigger blues are starting to show up in the surf.

For boaters just off the beach, bonito are in from Morehead down to Wrightsville.  These fish don’t stay in the area very long, but they are a lot of fun while they are here, with similar patterns as false albacore (which are also in the area along with some kings), but much better eating.  The first cobia of the year are beginning to show around Cape Lookout.  Their numbers should continue to increase over the next few weeks.  The last few years have featured excellent action for big cobia, and I expect the same this spring.