Offshore Fishing - Outer Banks, NC

[Golfer]

Went on my first trip out to the gulfstream aboard a 57 foot boat called "Godspeed" from Teach's Lair, NC on Hatteras Island.  The bite was slow on the first day but we caught several right off the bat including a nice Tuna, a few gaffer dolphin and I reeled in a nice Wahoo.

Liked it so much the next day we went out on a makeup charter and here's a shot from there.

Not good fishing action, only 7 fish.  1 Tuna, 1 Wahoo and 5 "Gaffer" dolphin (because you need the gaff hook to bring them in the boat)

The seas this day were pretty rough.  8-10 feet with whitecaps aplenty.  Started trolling early and in less than 5 minutes we hooked into a tuna and two dolphin.  I was the 3rd in the rotation and caught my only fish of the day.  Later on as the fishing slowed down we tried something new...Kite Fishing.  This was a trip...Long story short a kite is launched off the back of the boat and on the string (in this case 200lb test fishing line) are attached some clips.  Lines from the fishing rods are looped through these clips and then dangle underneath the kite.  Flying Fish lures are then skipped across the top of the water to entice Tuna to hit them...and damned if it didn't work!  It was such a trip to see 30+ lb yellowfin tuna jumping all the way out of the water hitting these lures.  We had 3 hookups and a ton of hits...all the hookups swam right at the boat however and our less than experienced fishermen got behind the fish and they spit the hook before they could get tension on the line.  Lots of pics to come but here's one from the second day aboard "Carolina Girl"



L to R:

1.) One of a pair of guys vacationing in the OBX for the week.  His buddy is out of the picture getting the car and cleaning up after a losing bout with motion sickness

2.) Uncle John

3.) Red Ohio State hat...yours truly.

4.) Uncle Don

5.) Father

Fishies from top to bottom...

Tuna
Wahoo
My Dolphin(Big fish of the day...28 lbs)
Dolphin
Dolphin
Dolphin
Dolphin

These "Dolphin" are served in resturants as Mahi Mahi...so we're not killing flipper.

[DieAz]

looks like you had a fairly decent trip and a good time. nice lil fishes yall got there.

at least yall did catch something. some go and don't even get a bite.

kite fishing is fun ain't it?  


long story short?  awww come on, more details, when you have time to write it up. please....

[Lizking]

As a kid, we fished the outer banks extensively.  We caught a lot of sails, dolpin and a few wahoo.  The cool thing about fishing there, as opposed to the GOM, is that the rollers were ofen bigger than our boat.  It is an awe inspiring thing to look UP to your baits being trolled behind you, and some of the things I have seen were truly amazing.  Being 12, my favorite position was to lie n the bow of the boat as we trolled and just look down into the scintillating blueness that is the gulfstream.  I have seen ocean sunfish, big as a bed tht were just curious and would swim along about 10' down, laying on their side, staring at me with that big eye.  The colors are unbelievable.  Sharks literally as long as our boat, and pods of dolphin, whales and tuna.  Can you imagine an 800 pound tuna leaping from the sea 10-15 foot in the air and landing without a splash?

I love that place, although sometimes it was some scary **** clearing the inlet.

[Halo]

Nice description, Lizking.  Felt as if I were there.  I enjoyed gorgeous ocean water like that in Hawaii in the mid '70s.  Never get over beauty like that.

[Golfer]

I just got back in not long ago and uploaded 1/2 the pictures (1 memory stick of the 2 I have) onto my cpu and shrunk the good ones down to managable size.  Will post tomorrow and continue writing stories...cause there are plenty!

What a great trip...I'm definately going back!


Safe Weekend.

[Golfer]

Alrighty I've got a few minutes before my 8:30 softball game...


Uploaded these pictures for your viewing pleasure

Day 1 of offshore fishing aboard Godspeed.  We left from Teach's Lair on the south end of Hatteras Island.

Captain Dave Wilson
www.godspeedcharters.com

5 Minutes into the day my uncle hooked into this nice yellowfin tuna.


Not long after I reeled in this nice Dolphin (Mahi Mahi) on pretty light tackle for being 40 miles offshore.  This was a trip...it took in excess of 15 minutes to reel this bad boy in...he kept taking line and the only reason we got him in the boat in a reasonable amount of time was the captain helped out by turning into him slightly so I could gain line on the sucker.  Once these fish get hooked, they'll deploy all their fins (technical term I know) and turn themselves into a big planer board...they'll use physics against you and basically lay against you so you not only have to reel them in, but their weight multiplied by whatever it may be because of the additional leverage they get just by using their body.  Darn fish have PhD's in hydrodynamics!


Here's our mate taking care of business dumping the big honkey into the ice box.


The first day's success laid out on the dock!


Another shot of our victims.  I'll quote our mate, Jon Boy.  "I don't do this for the money, I just like to kill things with fins."


On to the second day aboard "Carolina Girl" again out of Teach's Lair on Hatteras.  Left full size so you can get a good view of the fish.


We've got video that is being made into an .mpg so I will be able to edit the whole trip and put it to music.  I've seen all the footage and it has lots of potential to be a good little video!

That's it for now...I highly suggest that anyone who's interested in this sort of thing or just enjoys fishing give this a try.  It's a real trip and worth every penny!

[DieAz]

lol, I like your mate's attitude already.

your Uncle looks like that made his day.

hope when yall do go back, one of yas catch a blue fin tuna in the 80lbs range. if your Capt. is in the know, he can get it sold for you in the price range of 15,000- 30,000 (depends on market). nice lil prize, will pay for the trip and then some.

I know of one guy that goes just for that reason. he has fun makes a lil money too.

next year NC will have a license you'll need to fish on the coast
more info here NCDMF

yea video would be nice
hopefully you have footage of kite fishing too.

Thanks for sharing. I've been wanting to go on charter boat for a long time just never seem to have the $ to book it. been stuck on surf and piers too long. really wanna go out on a boat.


[chant] more, more, more, more [/chant]
please

[Golfer]

Originally posted by DieAz
lol, I like your mate's attitude already.

your Uncle looks like that made his day.

hope when yall do go back, one of yas catch a blue fin tuna in the 80lbs range. if your Capt. is in the know, he can get it sold for you in the price range of 15,000- 30,000 (depends on market). nice lil prize, will pay for the trip and then some.

I know of one guy that goes just for that reason. he has fun makes a lil money too.

[chant] more, more, more, more [/chant]
please

Uhhh...do tell more!  We're going back in september and maybe  again if the big eye's are running.  How's an 80lb fish go for $15k?

[DieAz]

Japanese markets, like I said if your capt is in the know. I'm not sure how it all works, just what one of the guys that go all the time told me.

[Halo]

Great photos and fun report.  Thanks again, Golfer.

[Golfer]

One note on cost...

The 57' Godspeed is $1200 for a full day.  You're only allowed to have a maximum of 6 paying customers on the boat so the most expensive trip will be $200 per person and I play on a 25% gratuity for the mate because they really do work hard.

As it was, we had a total of 6 people going for this day and we all shared one hotel room so the costs were kept pretty managable for everyone.  You'll spend your money dining out if you so choose...which I prefer to do on vacation.

We even had some marvelous outstanding wonderful Blue Crabs.  The price was a little steep...first time I'd actually paid for Blue crabs in a resturant.  I've forked over for king crab legs and we'd eaten in crab houses before (Spittles crab house in Eldersburg, MD was the best!) but I was less than 10 so the parents footed the bill.  Bless their hearts.

My dad and I each had a dozen and a wonderful time making a mess.  We used to live in Maryland and took for granted having our boat on the chesapeake bay where the access to crabs was as follows...

Golfer's 10 step maryalnd resident guide to having blue crabs.

Step 1.)
Take our 3'x3'x3' (1 cubic yard) crab trap and throw it over the side with chicken necks tied in the middle.

Step 2.)
Wait a while.  Activities that could be done were catching bluefish right next to the marina in the surf, walk the docks with our metal net and catch crabs off the pilings, swim, nap or eat.

Step 3.)
Lift trap out of water, empty freshly caught crabs into giant pot and lock lid.  Collect any scampering hardcases by grabbing onto their backside near the backfin.

Step 4.)
Go Home

Step 5.)
Put crabs into large 8 gallon pot of water on stove.

Step 6.)
Wait some more...again collect stragglers off kitchen floor and throw into pot.

Step 7.)
Put lots and lots and lots of Old Bay seasoning on them.  When you think you've got too much...put on the same amount twice more.

Step 8.)
Lay out paper grocery bags on table.

Step 9.)
Place crabs on pile in front of you...smash them up with your special tools including a crab cracker, mallet and eat with butter (or ketchup in my case)

Step 10.)
Dispose of what will be horrible mess by wadding up paper bags and putting in garbage.

That's the readers digest version of the Maryland boat owner method to making fresh as can be blue crabs.


mmm...yum!

[Lizking]

You left a zero off the tuna-an 800# tuna is worth 15,000$, an 80 pounder is worth a couple of hundred, tops.