Twister Charters - Fishing Reports

Had a 3/4 trip with a couple boys from the Lexington, N.C. area.  We had a great trip fishing in the 35 mile range.  Once we we were anchored on the rock, we had steady action of nice 3-4 pound, green head Black Bass.  Mixed in with the bass were B-liners and Grunts.  The action was so hot that I forgot to put out a light line.  Once I figured out something was missing and got a cigar minnow in the water, it didn’t take long to snag several King Mackeral and loose a couple more.  

One of the boys caught a b-liner and I decided to put it down on the bottom.  About 3 minutes later the Penn 70 International on a bent butt rod was bowed over touching the water, the fight was on.  Vince grabbed the rod and begin to pump the big fish toward the surface.  At first I couldn’t tell who was winning, but after a few minutes a nice 40 pound Amberjack was in the boat.     

With the warming weather all types of fish, including grouper and cobia are starting to migrate in to the 80-100 foot depths.  These awesome fighting and eating fish are a blast to catch.  I’m going to post two pics from a 07 spring trip.  I was fishing with two great friends Toby Fulford and Randy Robinson.  We loaded up on the Cobia and Scamp Grouper, you can tell by all the brown in the pic.  One of the Scamps would be a state record in South Carolina and Georgia.  North Carolina doesn’t recognize it as of yet, and I didn’t know that we could have set the bar, maybe next time.  The fish are biting, come  on down to the coast and lets go fishing. 

The weather patterns are finally turning around and giving the Twister more opportunities to go fishing.  The past few trips we have been targeting King Mackeral and Black Bass.  The kings have been very plentiful inshore of Frying Pan Tower.  Cigar Minnows have been thick on all the inshore ledges, thus giving the kings plenty to snack on. Most of the fish are teenagers, but still fun to catch.  Also large to jumbo size Black Bass have been very willing to take squid and cut bait on bottom rigs.  Most of these fish are around the same areas as the Kings. 

In the Gulf Stream there has been a pretty good wahoo bite, if you can ever locate the fish.  Most of the fish have been around 40 pounds, with 60 pounders not uncommon.  The Yellowfin bite has been rather slow from the Same Ole Hole South.  Several boats out of Wilmington have had decient catches North around the Swansboro Hole.  Within the next two weeks the Yellowfins should migrate down around the Steeples, BlackJack, and 100/400. 

If you would like to catch the fish of a lifetime or enough for a good ole fashing fish fry give me call and lets go fishing!!

Just got back in town from fishing the first leg of the 2008 Yamaha Professional Kingfish Tour in Key West, Florida.  The majority of the time this is a great time of year to visit Key West because of warm temperatures and calm seas, but this year was a little different.  Due to a cold front racing across the country the weather was down right nasty.  We got to do  a little pre-fishing on Tuesday before the bad weather hit and caught several nice fish.  Most of the fish were in the 25-30 pound range, but caught one fish that we estimated was close to 40.  Fishing Wednesday and Thursday were out of the question due to the 30 knot winds whipping over the keys.  Friday, the first day of the tournament was not much better, with 15-20 knot winds all day.  We couldn’t even muster a weighable fish on day one and went home with our tails tucked between our legs like a beat dog.  Day two was a little better, and managed to scale a 20 pound fish, not a monster but at least its something.  This year the fishing was not up to typical standards, but at least we got a early jump on our summer tan. 

The fishing around home should pick up any day now.  If there is a weather opportunity, the fish will surely be waiting.  I know there has been a steady wahoo and blackfin bite on the break.  With the increasing daylight and warming temps, the spring run of yellowfin shouldn’t be two far away.  Red grouper and king mackeral have been biting pretty steady around the tower and catching a mess of sea bass around the Horseshoe and 24 mile rock has been fairly easy. 

If you would like to get out of the house for some spring action give me a call and lets go fishing!!

I know its been awhile since I’ve written a post, but now I’m back online and ready to go fishing.  The last post I wrote was back in August.  The fishing was great during the fall if the weather permitted.  I had several days of good grouper fishing, not the big one’s we found during the summer, but good quality fish.  Most of the gags and scamp averaged 15-20 pounds.  

The bluefin season was not all that great off of Holden Beach this year.  There were only a few fish brought back to Brunswick County docks, and I was lucky enough to catch one of these.  The alive weight was estimated to be between 350 and 375 pounds.  To be sold the fish has to be gutted and head and tail removed.  That weight was 290 pounds.  I’ll post a picture of the fish swimming beside the boat and also at the dock. 

The weather down here at Holden Beach this winter has been horrable.  I would guess that since December there has only been a handfull of days where the ocean was less than 4 feet.  I might would try it out during the summer, but when the air temperature is 30 degrees and the water is between 40 and 50 degrees,  something in my mind tells me to leave it alone.  

The spring run of Tuna, Mahi, and Wahoo is quickly approaching.  March through May should be the best time to hook up with these awesome fish.  If you want to get in on some of this action, give me a call or email and lets go Fishing. 

Over the last week the weather has been absolutely beautiful and I have been fishing everyday.  Most of my trips were spent on the beach trolling for spanish in the early mornings and shark fishing later in the day.  The spanish bite has been killer, but most of the fish have been undersized.  I did manage to find a nice school of keeper fish one afternoon thanks to the “Get Reel”.  We ended up with a dozen of nice 1-2 pound Spanish. 

Even though we caught several sharks behind the shrimp boats, over all the shark bite has been off.  Most of the shrimp boats have only been making one tow, so once they pull nets up and head for home the sharks leave too.   

On Monday I took my brother Alex, Bruce, and Justin offshore to test our luck on catching some grouper.  The weather was nice, the seas were slick, and the fish bit like bulldogs.  We ended the day with 33 grouper, the biggest around 15 pounds, several monster AJ’s, and one spiny lobster.  Not to mention the mess of grunts, bass, beeliners, and pinky’s. 

I got back offshore on Thursday, with Mike, Barry, and Cain.  We had a good day, even though the seas were rough.  All total we had 21 grouper, a mess of grunts, and one nice hognose snapper. 

The fish are definately biting, so book a trip while there are still openings.  Tight Lines!!

Over the past few weeks the temperature as been hot and so have the fishing.  On the inshore scene the sharks have been the most dependable daily bite.  Most of the fish are in the 20-50 pounds range with a few over 100 pounds being mixed in.  The last week there has been an awesome spanish bite.  Most our boats were catching their limit of fish ranging between 14 inches to 3 pounds.  We have been pulling silver and gold 00 clark spoons behind #2 planers.  If the fish are jumping and feeding hard a spinning reel with a gotcha plug or silver casting spoon is hard to beat. 

On the offshore side the grouper and kings have been the most dependable bite.  The hard part is catching enough live bait to fish a full day.  If we can catch a live well full of pogies, cigar minnows, and sardines,  the kings and grouper would soon follow.  Most of our fish have been in the small to medium size range.  The biggest king of the week was 18 pounds, good enough to get 28th in the Greater Wilmington King Classic.  The grouper are averaging around 8 pounds with a few 10-15 pound red’s mixed in.  Bring plenty of cold water and lets go fishing.   

The fish are definately biting.  I have been running  1/2 day and full day trips for the past few weeks.  On the 1/2 day trips we have had great success on spanish, king mackeral, and sharks.  Some of the sharks have been in the 100 pound range.   On the full day trips I have been running out 30-45 miles.  The king mackeral and mahi mahi have been biting like bull dogs.  I haven’t caught many big fish, most of them are peanuts with a few gaffers mixed in.  The grouper on the other hand have been pretty big.  I haven’t broken 50 pounds yet, but have caught several that weighed 48.7 pounds.  Whether you want to stay close to beach or run offshore, I can put you on the trip of your lifetime.  Feel free to give me a call or send an email.  Tight lines!!

The weather was very nice for this tournament, which meant lots of boats.  We started out the morning at 6:30, and no sooner than Derek and I got the lines set, we had multiple fish on.  We would catch fish as hard as we could at each spot for 15-30 minutes and then the bite would completely shut off.  We did this all day until 3pm, which was our deadline to make it to Swansboro for weigh-in.  We decided not to weigh the 15 pounder due to the long run and that decision came back to haunt us.  The 15 pounder would have placed us in the money and third place high rollers, talk about a bad decision.  I learned that any fish in the Swansboro could be a placing fish. 

The pogies have been thick along the beach from Ocean Isle all the way east to Bald Head.  Most of the pogies are small to medium ranging from 4″-6″.  Some of the schools are not poping as much as usual summer pogies; but the gannets, pelicans, and brown mud balls still give them away.   

Over the past few days I have been concentrating on an awesome grouper and cobia bite.  The live pogies have been a key in getting the big bites that it takes to have a successful day.  Most of the rocks we checked today were home to several cobia’s.  The cobia, usually two at a time would mysteriously appear under the props.  Usually one pogie tossed in unhooked would be all it took to get them into feeding mode.  We ended up the day with cobia ranging from 45, 40, and several in the 30’s.

Cobia were not the only one’s biting.  The grouper were also making a good showing.  We stumbled across a good school of scamp and within 20 minutes had 5 all over 18 pounds, one pushing 25.   We ended the day with a limit of Cobia, Scamp and Gags, several kings, Mahi,  and a basket of jumbo bass. 

After hearing good reports of grouper and cobia southwest of Frying Pan Tower I had to give it a try.  I fished today with Chris Hutchenson and Rob Campbell.  I had heard that many fisherman were catching pogies around the hot hole, and they were definately there.  Most of the pogies were around 5″, perfect size for the groupers.  After catching a livewell full, we headed the Twister at 150 degrees toward the ledges south west of the tower.  At our first stop we caught several nice cobia, red grouper, and a african pompano.  Once the bite ended there, we checked several more ledges and ended the day with several more  cobia, grouper, and a cooler full of nice 3-5 pound black bass.  If you interested in catching a bunch of fish, now is the time.  Give me an email and we can book the charter of your life.