Outer Banks Fishing Report

The Outer Banks Fishing Report is provided by David Wilson, captain of The Godspeed -- a custom 57' deep-sea fishing charter that is a pure fishing monster!

Visit GodspeedCharters.com for more information, and to read Dave's complete Outer Banks Fishing Report!

Tuesday, May 06, 2008: 5/6 Offshore Report

Things slowed down a bit for the majority of the fleet, but we managed to put together a catch and satisfy our people just the same!

I spent most of the day over the hundred, in hopes of some more marlin action. Fortunately, a couple different schools of gaffer dolphin found us, giving us some action and some meat in the box. There were a few blue marlin seen and hooked, but we never raised one. I did drop down for some groupers and tiles for a little bit, just to give them some assortment (hard to beat fresh grouper). There was a scattered wahoo bite in a little shallower, and a few kings.

Monday, May 05, 2008: Assorted Action

Some guys had it better than others today, but I think we had just about as much variety as you could ask for.

First thing this morning we caught a nice wahoo, which I was sure would make the 40 pound citation mark, but was just shy. Next we caught a 20 pound king mackerel. We started off our dolphin action with a nice 25 pound gaffer, and got struck by the gaffers a couple other times during the day, giving us a nice catch of dolphin. Somewhere in the middle, we found time to hook, battle, and release our first blue marlin of the year, which I wasn't able to snap a shot of, but was a 300 pounder. Just to give us a little afternoon action, we broke out the jigging poles and hit the amberjacks for a few minutes. All smiles today, especially me!

Saturday, May 03, 2008: Better Yet

Another great day of marlin action, complimented with gaffers and other quality meat fish bites.

We hit the current edge in a pretty good spot this morning, about 180 fathoms, and caught some nice dolphin on it right away. We hit the gaffers three times, but the radio was coming to life with reports of blue marlin hook-ups, so we threw out a couple additional big baits and went looking. The moment we were waiting for finally came, but it didn't last long. A blue marlin came in and crashed a flatline, but no hook up, and he paddled out, never to be seen again. We saw two others free jump close to the boat, but that was it for us. There was a scattered yellowfin and blackfin back inshore, and a few wahoos caught as well.

Saturday, May 03, 2008: Marlin Action

The blue marlin made a good showing today.

It's hard on my pride to give a report about something that I wasn't successful at, but that's marlin fishing. Sometimes you're hot, sometimes you're not. We caught a couple nice dolphin this morning, working down the break, but once there was a couple blue marlin seen offshore of me, I headed that way. My group was pretty pumped up over the prospect of catching one, so I committed to spending the bulk of the day in pursuit. There were a couple caught, but probably 15 seen. We never saw one though, and by 1:30, my bubble had pretty much been popped. I gave up and worked back in, hoping for anything to save the afternoon. We had a couple quality bites, one of which I guessed to be a BIG wahoo, but they all got away too. Sometimes you're the windshield, .....

Thursday, May 01, 2008: You'll Smile With Tile

A picture perfect day made complete with some of the best table fare in the ocean.

I went south today, and covered a lot of ground with little action. We found a board with a handful of dolphin around it, and managed to capture four of them. There had been a couple marlin seen, so I was hoping to get a shot today, but after trolling up the hundred seven or eight miles, I decided to take advantage of the trickle of current that we had, and drop to the bottom. We caught a pretty nice mess of tilefish and a few groupers as well. Overall, there was a scattered dolphin bite here and there, a very occasional wahoo bite, and a few tunas caught.

Sunday, April 27, 2008: Gorgeous Day

My group for tomorrow was able to squeeze in for today, and with the weather looking sorta crappy, I think we made the right call.

It was just about slick calm today, and it was just a pleasure being out in the blue water on such a fine day. We caught a handful of dolphin this morning, including one pretty nice gaffer. I searched pretty hard for a tuna bite, up to the east, but never found one. There were a handful of blackfins and a couple yellowfins caught back to the southwest of where I was. I decided to give my group a chance with the jiggin' poles, and I think they liked it! We caught our limit of amberjacks, and threw several more back. The bonus was a citation size, 35 pound king mackerel on the jig. It was a lot of fun!

Saturday, April 26, 2008: Gaffers And Bailers

We had a pretty good dose of good luck today. Nothing like calm seas and good fishing.

I headed up to the east of most of the fleet, and it turned out to be a good decision because I found a grass line / color change that had a pretty good sign of dolphin along it. Since it was a Saturday, and nice weather, there were a lot of boats out, and a lot of boats fished on the same condition, but we wound up east of the majority of boats. We wound up catching our limit of dolphin, half bailers, and half small gaffers, 6-15 pounders. We worked offshore in the afternoon and caught one yellowfin and one blackfin tuna. It sounded like overall, fishing wasn't quite as good as yesterday, we just happened to hit it right.

Friday, April 25, 2008: Still Looking Good

Today was as pretty as it gets, and I still think that things are straightening out in the fishing department.

This morning everybody beelined straight for where the fishing was best yesterday. I spent a couple of miles working down the break, but the 30+ boats took their toll on me early. While boats had a scattered wahoo bite on the break, I worked offshore and found a rip to fish along, out near 100 fathoms. We caught a dozen dolphin around a couple of boards floating, and the two or three blue marlin sightings had me anxious. We did release a spearfish, unfortunately we weren't able to get him in the boat for a picture. I worked back in to the break, ten miles above where I started in the morning, after hearing about a couple tuna bites. Once I got in to the break, three or four boats got struck by the yellowfins, and I saw them busting a couple of times, but never got hit. Towards the end of the day, we had a couple bites that may have been tunas, but we missed them. There were also a few more marlin seen. I'd say a better sign of everything, eventhough we didn't catch a lot, still better fishing overall.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008: Keep Your Fingers Crossed

A handful of boats tried it today, and I heard of some pretty nice catches.

I didn't have a trip, but I heard of some nice yellowfins, wahoos, king mackerels, and dolphins, bailers and gaffers, caught today. I'm holding my breath, but I think this is gonna be it. Keep checking in!

Saturday, April 19, 2008: Random

I think fishing is getting a little better each day.

The tuna bites were still a little random today, but offshore, and to the south, there was some grass patches that had formed, and were holding dolphin. There were a couple boats that even had their limit of bailers. I spent most of the day in one general area, because it looked pretty good, and the crowd wasn't so bad as it was other places. We caught a very few dolphin, but I was getting impatient waiting for the tunas to bite. We went with the same plan as yesterday afternoon, and everybody had a ball bottom fishing, and jigging. We caught B-liners again today, with a couple of triggers, and a sand tile off the bottom. On the jigs, we caught a citation spanish mackerel, and several amberjacks. Wouldn't you know that a couple boats trolled through the area I had been previously, and hit the tunas. Right place, wrong time. Oh well. There were a few wahoo bites to the south as well.