The days are getting longer and before you know it it will be getting warm and will be time to go kayak fishing again. Now is the time to start getting ready. We can help you with all your needs whether its booking a guided kayak fishing trip, buying a kayak, or rigging up a kayak, and now is the time to get it all taken care of so you can be ready and prepared to enjoy the Outer Banks kayak fishing experience.
Sorry I haven’t been updating my website recently. I know there are some people out there who look forward to my adventures and reports. I have done no kayak fishing since August. I quite a few trips booked for September but canceled every one of them because of the weather. I have filled my time with some commercial fishing and even traveled sown to Florida the week before Christmas to fish for mullet. That was hard work but a very rewarding experience. I am looking forward to doing it again next winter if I get the opportunity to do it. I also want to give you the information on the new National Saltwater Registry that started this year. It is free to register this year and you can register and get all the information at their website below.
Sorry folks for not updating the reports for the month of august. Someone (me) spilled coffee on my laptop and some of the keys dont work so I have been unable to type a report. The fishing has still been spotty. Its been better further away from the rainy days, which isnt many. Nags Head recorded almost 14″ of rain for the month of August. The rain, thunderstorms, and wind kept us at the dock quite a few days. We fished a morning trip on 8-4 with Jim and Lauren and caught a big stingray, some sea robins, and some flounders with 4 of them being keepers. On the 5th we cancelled the AM trip due to the weather but Dan is a trooper and wanted to go in the PM. We left the dock in a 20-25 SW wind with whitecaps everywhere. It looked like the deadliest catch Pamlico edition out there. We fished a spot that looked fishy and caught a couple fish before marine police came to check our licenses. We caught 2 trout and 1 flounder in the 20 minutes before they got there and just 1 small drum and a couple sea robins in the 3 hours after they left. On the 10th we fished with Vince, James, and Jim on an all day trip. They caught lots of flounders and even got 6 keepers including two real nice ones at 22″ and 23″. James also caught a nice drum. Now September is here and we are already getting the fall weather pattern so we will see what it brings us. Hopefully we get some decent days and can even launch in the ocean some.
We have had some weather this last week with hard winds and thunderstorms so I have had to cancel a couple trips. I have fished by myself a few times this week though and had pretty good luck. The first day I caught 4 speckled trout, 4 flounder, and 1 drum for a SLAM. The second day I caught 1 trout, 1 20″ striper, and a 23″ drum for a SLAM. Then on the 3rd day I caught 4 flounder, 4 drum, and 1 trout for a SLAM. Thats not bad, 3 SLAMS in 3 days. Yesterday I only caught 3 flounder. There are a couple of tournaments coming up. The first I am going to mention is this coming weekend here on the OBX. This is a sound tournament and you can use a kayak, boat, or wade fish in the sound if you want. This is a sslam tournament with drum, trout, bluefish, and flounder for the eligible species. Cost is $100 per person and it will be a good tournament with some great door prizes. Go to HATTERAS JACK’S for more deatils and rules. The second is coming up September 26 and will be based out of Norfolk, VA. This is the Tidewater Kayak Anglers Association’s 5th annual “fishing for charity” tournament benifiting Project Healing Waters and Heros on the Water. This should be a big tournament. The entry is $60 per person and the first 100 entrants get a complimentary “captain’s bag” full of goodies. For more information on this tournamnet go to the TKAA TOURNAMENT PAGE.
Fished on wednesday with Dave, Connor, and Joey. they caught 15-20 throwback flounder and 3 trout up to 21″. The tide was ripping and we ended the trip a little early to avoid some weather and keep everyone on schedule. I forgot my camera so no pics of this one, sorry.
Had a few trips last week. The weather was forcasted to be unfavorable all 3 days but we went anyways and had some good trips despite the threatening weather. The fishing was slower in the beginning of the week but picked up a little towards the end of the week. On monday with Anthony we caught a couple flounders. On tuesday night I went on a solo scouting trip for just a couple hours and managed to catch 2 trout, 3 (I think) flounders, and a pupy drum for a SLAM. On wednesday with Carl we caught a few flounders, a trout, and a small puppy drum to give my client a SLAM and we even had a bonus drag peeling 3.5 foot houndfish that gave us a good ariel show before we landed it. I forgot my camera both of those days. On friday with Brian and Greg we caught “flukes” and a nice puppy drum with a few bait thieving sea robins. All in all it was a good week.
Yesterday I had the day to myself and was going fishing. I was called out on the water by a friend and when I got there the water was gin clear and there were puppy drum scattered all over the place. I stood up and made one pass along an area of a flat and saw 15-20 drum! They wouldnt eat anything I threw at them though. Still very exciting. I couldnt make casts fast fast enough. I would see a pod of 3, then a pod of 5, then a single, then a double. After I made my pass the seem to have just dissapeared off that part of the flat. I went to another part and saw one and caught it, 19″. Went to another area and caught another, 21″. then I came across a school of stripers and caught 2 sightcasting! One was about 20″ and the other was a couple inches longer. That was 2 drum and 2 stripers sightcasted to! Right now there is a closed season for stripers in the sound but if it was open they would have both made great meals. Then I met up with another person and the wind picked up a little and the tide was moving hard so it was time to stop sightcasting and start fishing in some shallow water holes. I managed to catch 6 throwback flounder and 6 trout between 14-18″ and were released and the guy beside me caught 10 flounder with 4 keepers. That is a lot of excitement and a lot of fish for less than 5 hours of fishing. A couple times We even had double headers on. My final tally was 2 drum (sightcasted), 2 stripers (sightcasted), 6 trout, and 6 flounder for a DOUBLE SUPER SLAM! I wish I could have taken more photos but its hard to take pictures when you are standing in a kayak and holding a pole in one hand a paddle in another and fighting a fish at the same time.
On Wednesday we had a good trip with a great client. The trips are always a success when you are just going fishing to have a good time and not as worried about what your gonna catch. The water didnt look to good and was pretty dingy because of the rain a couple days earlier. We got to the first spot and I baited my clients hook and before I even had a bait on mine I hear his drag singing. He reeled in a throwback flounder. I go put another bait on his line and I got a bait on mine but before I even had enough time to cast my line I hear his drag singing again. This time he reels in a nice speckled trout. He had a line in the water for about 30 seconds and had 2 fish. the fishing slacked off a little after that. We started to get molested by some bait stealing croakers and what I think were blues. some of out baits didnt hit the bottom before they were gone. We managed a few more and then moved to another spot where my client managed another flounder and a striper to complete a SLAM! Again we didnt catch any real big fish but there was a lot of variety with my client getting a SLAM by catching 2 flounders, 2 trout, 1 striped bass, and a few croakers. I managed a few trout with one really nice one around 21-22″ and 3 lbs.
Sorry I dont have any pics yet for this report. I have had a couple good days this week fishing the sound. I have done a little bit of night time fishing and on my best night I caught 2 speckled trout, a puppy drum, a 23″ striper, and a few flounder up to 19″ for the super slam. I did all that in an hour and a half! at one point I made 5 casts and got 4 different species of fish! I fished today and caught 5 flounder, 1 speckled trout, and 2 puppy drum for a slam.
Fished a few solo missions this week and had a half day trip today. There is a good variety out there to catch but the fishing is still a little off from what I have been expecting. We have been seeing some puppy drum which is good news and I am excited about some drum sightcasting opportunities coming up. Today the fishing was tough but Shari caught flounder, croakers, sea robins, and speckled trout today. Thats 4 different species of fish in a 4 hour trip. We could have had 5 but I missed a drum.
Oregon Inlet Marina, NC