Late July/Early August Fishing Report
Fishing continues to be productive around the island. You can take a seat around 4 o’clock at the docks of Anchorage Marina, order up food and drinks at SmacNally’s Bar and Grill, and watch the charter boats roll in with the day’s catch. The fish are displayed right there at the foot of the docks so you can take pictures, ask questions about fish species, and marvel at the skills Brandon Jones exhibits as he cleans and packages hundreds of pounds of fish per day right there in front of you. If you would like to bring it home for the freezer he can have it vacuumed sealed and frozen at Native Seafood Market just up the street for about $1 per pound. This is fresh fish so it’s well worth the cost.
Off-shore trips are still bringing home large wahoo, gaffer dolphin (mahi-mahi,) and amber jack, but with the opening of grouper season last month you will now catch limits of grouper, tile fish, and silver snapper like the family pictured below from Virginia, who proudly displays a Sail Fish Certificate for their spectacular sail fish catch on August 10th aboard Dream Girl with Captain Steve Wilson. (Sail fish are catch and release only.)
Also on August 10th, Captain Ernest Doshier and his first mate Giddy took Don and Leslie Woods, John and Melissa Begun, and Sherif Fouad from Raleigh, N.C and Wilmington, N.C. off-shore and landed a 40.2lbs citation wahoo along with a gaffer sized mahi and a variety of vermillion snapper and trigger fish. (Pictured below.)
Inshore and sound side fishing have also been landing large numbers of blues, Spanish mackerel, flounder, and trout. Miss Kathleen does sound side tours with Captain Ronnie and Ryan O’Neal. They took Mark Langer, Dominic Longacre, Nick Pessagno, Joel Agee, and Matt Wilson from D.C., Annapolis and Boston on a sound side trip and caught 46 blues and Spanish.
Trolling the back of the bar and along the beaches will also produce sizable cero mackerel which are larger than Spanish mackerel and the flesh is whiter and a bit flakier. If the off-shore weather forecast is a little rough you can usually book a half day inshore like Jackson Woodell of Hertford, NC did on August 8th with Captain Marty and First Mate Nick Piland aboard Drumstick Charter (pictured below.)
If Drum fishing is your game, then book an evening trip with any of these charters and bait fish for a school of Red Drum. Rascal Charters with Captain Norman Miller is kind of the “sensei” of drum fishing on the island, but most of the charter fishing teams like Williams Guide Service and Dream Girl, as well as Fish Tale and Drumrunner will do night trips, too. These trips are called night trips but you leave about 5 o’clock and fish while watching the sunset which is well worth the trip by itself. Fish for these in shallow waters, just 2 – 3 feet deep around grass beds just off the channels. It’s a fun couple’s trip. My wife doesn’t care to fish, so she sits at the bow watching the sunset while I bait up at the stern.
It’s relatively easier than trolling or anchoring up in choppy waters near the inlets. Once you find a school they are fun to catch and release. You can take one slot-sized “puppy drum” (between 18 -27 inches) home to fillet and cook on the grill if you scale it and leave the skin on it. If you don’t like the skin, have your captain show you how to skin it and sear it with oil in a pan with your favorite seasoning. Good eatin’!
The forecast looks spectacular for the next week so if you are contemplating a trip to the island you better not hesitate. The water is cooling off a bit and trolling inshore is just starting to yield catches of summer king mackerel and medium sized dolphins just a few miles off the beach. If you are not sure you can stomach an off shore adventure ask the charters about half day tours which will allow you to bottom fish at closer artificial reefs and still troll for Spanish, kings, bailer mahi, and blues on your way back to the inlet. Happy fishing and don’t forget to tip your first mates!
