It's mid winter and we'd thought we'd share with everyone what's been biting over the last few week as well as what we are looking forward to over the next month or so. If you are wondering why you don't get more frequent emails like this, it isn't because we aren't fishing, it's because we are posting all our reports on our Facebook Fan Page and our Web-Site, allowing people to get the reports when they want them. From time to time, we will continue to put out reports like this, but most people have indicated they'd prefer fewer emails. So we'd encourage you to join our Facebook Page to keep more up to date with all the great fishing we have going on.
Hatteras, NC - Bluefin Tuna Time!
Winter fishing is heating up here in Hatteras. On Saturday, catches out of Hatteras included bluefin tuna, wahoo, blackfin tuna, yellowfin tuna, dolphin and a boat out of Ocracoke even caught a Blue Marlin! We have cool water to the northeast holding bait and the Bluefin, with warmer water to the south holding the wahoo and blackfin. The weather has been nice and warm lately, hopefully this great winter fishing continues. Some of the first bluefin of the season docked were trophy fish 320 pounds plus. The wahoo have been in the 20-30 lb range and there have been some nice 50 pounds yellowfin caught as well. We will be hard at it starting this weekend, targeting the Bluefin Tuna and are set-up to Troll, Jig, Chunk, or cast Poppers at them, whatever your preference. The bluefin bite should remain strong through the first week of March. Our Open Boat list is listed below, and additionally, we have the following days open in February: 13-14, 21-22, 27-29th. The bite was off the hook last February and we are looking forward to another great bluefin season. Tight Lines, Capt. Darrin Callahan
Feb. 2, 2012 - Wow, what a day. We had the OVER UNDER, our 54' Bertram out for a day of live-bait sailfishing off Miami yesterday and boy were the fish there. We only ventured about 5 miles south of Government Cut and ended up right out front by the end of the day. Capt. Joe reported pretty much non-stop action after they secured enough live-baits for the day. We are kite fishing with Goggle Eyes and Threadfin Herring. In total, about 25 fish were seen in the baits, with 16 hooked up, and eventually 8 released boat-side. Doubles and triples were the norm, making for a lot of chaos and excitement. I think we pretty much spoiled our guests for the day, with several first timers on board.Â
Seems the fishing may be really good for a couple weeks, as the fish begin to push through to the south finally. Come on down and get in on the action! We will be here till March and have plenty of good opportunities to get out. OU is set-up to stay aboard, avoiding extra costly hotel expenses and we have both charters and single spot opportunities. We will also be making some shorter 2-3 day runs over to the Bahamas, before heading there for good in early March. First stop Paradise Island for a couple weeks, then down to Cat Island for 2-3 months.
Tight Lines, Capt. Joe Trainor
Sample Rate: Single Spot on Live Bait Sailfish Trip $300
The first part of the year has seen some awesome fishing here in Key West. Offshore, our sailfish, blackfin tuna and wahoo fishing has been very consistent. When we've been getting the east winds, we've started to see sails and tuna tailing downsea off the reef edge, providing for some fantastic sight fishing. We've also had a surprising late-season run of dolphin to 20 pounds and calmer nights will see us chasing swordfish in the Florida Straights for those interested in the ultimate bluewater thrill!
But that's not all that's going on! Our gulf of Mexico fishing has been great as well. Cobia have taken up residence on our shallow wrecks, along with a few permit and the bottom bite for yellowtail, mutton and grey snapper has been great as well.
During the third week of February, we hosted a group of outdoor writers and tackle designers from Zebco/Quantum/Fin-Nor and saw some of the best fishing so far this year. Field testing some of their new EXO and Smoke baitcasting gear, the group caught grouper (which must be released until April 1) to 15 pounds as well as taking home nearly 100 pounds of snapper fillets including yellowtail to 4 pounds, lane snapper to 3 pounds and greys to 5 pounds. One of the highlights for the trip was tackle designer Kevin Martin (formerly of Penn Reels) landing a 44-pound, 2-ounce king mackerel on an EXO baitcaster. Why the big deal? The whole outfit weighed less (7 ounces) than the bait that fish was caught on.
The Philly father/son team of Stephen and Mike Scherf came down in late January to collect the honors for their multiple-division victories in the Key West Fishing Tournament and were able to get out for a couple of days as well. We had some good shark fishing as well as some great bottom fishing (again, the grouper are everywhere, but have to be released.). I'm just getting ready to put 50 pounds of fillets in Fed Ex for them. And right around the corner, our tarpon fishing is about to get in full swing, both in the channels from skiffs and in Key West Harbor from our center console light tackle boat.
Whether you want to fill the freezer, tangle with offshore pelagics or joust with the silver king, there is no time like the present. Capt. Ted Lund
Well itâs that time of year again and the hooâs are snapping in the islands . Itâs hard to believe that wahoo fishing has been as good as it has this year with the lack of cold fronts, but fish over 100 pounds have been reported from Cat and San Salvador. With the warmer than normal weather dolphin have already started to show in the past few weeks with probably some shots of billfish by the beginning of March . We are going to concentrate our fishing in the Paradise Island , Nassau area in March before heading to Cat Island for the remainder of the season. Out of Nassau we will do live-aboard trips to some of the best fishing locations such as hole in the wall, Chub, Eleuthera, and the Exumas. Further south, Cat island offers some of the very best fishing in the islands and is one of my personal favorites to fish.  Cat is also hosting a great new tournament, âHang em High,â which is for wahoo, tuna and dolphin, on April 23rd-25th. Let us know if you'd like to fish, we are putting together a team to take the money! There are plenty of options and Cat is also a great place for a live-aboard trip with such unique islands such as San Salvador and Conception Island well within reach. Look forward to hearing from you soon! Capt. Joe Trainor
Sample Rate: Full Week Shared Charter - $2500 per person
We're in the middle of what's been an unseasonably warm winter here in the North East (not that I'm complaining), but yet there seems to be no end to the tuna fishing. We've taken the last couple months off, but will be getting back at it shortly. Reports from commercial boats have continued to work their way back to the dock of Bluefin in the Canyons. If the weather permits, we will make runs for the tuna, and also begin to do some Cod Fishing on the offshore wrecks. The Striped Bass run will begin in late March and we will start fishing for them March 31this year. We had a great early season bite the first week of April last year. Capt. Trey Rhyne
Sample Rate: 5 Hour Striped Bass/Drum Trip $850 (up to 6 people) April & May,
at 866-682-8862 to book your next fishing trip!