By Capt. Reese Stecher
There has not been much in the way of striper fishing in the sound for the past couple weeks. I did take two clients out for a couple of hours on New Year’s Day afternoon. We hit a wreck for Tautog. The boys weeded through a couple of throwbacks and landed four fish for dinner. Henry did something that I haven’t seen in 20 years of charter fishing. He landed a Sheepshead in 54-degree water on January 1st. The latest that I have ever seen a Sheepshead on the boat was at the end of October. And just when you thought you had seen everything.
I agreed to one shark drift after we left the wreck. We were hoping for a thresher shark, as they have been around, but we did not get a bite on our big bait. The dog sharks liked our small baits. They each landed one and we got out of there.
In general, there have been loads of Dog Sharks just outside Oregon Inlet for those that want to just catch fish. There have also been Sea Bass on the wrecks off the beach and there are some Tautogs as well. The puppy drum are still around the Inlet, but they are here one day and gone the next. Striper fishing, as mentioned, has dropped off the past few weeks. We are planning on a special Thresher Shark trip the next time we go. The boys want to catch one while they are around.
Ed. Note:
If in Nags Head and you want a good skipper, contact Capt. Reese Stecher at www.beachbumfishing.com
Office: (252) 449-0232
Outer Banks
TW’s reports that surf fishing continues to be slow. Good catches of Sea Mullet, some keeper Trout and Black Drum were scattered along the beaches and some nice Puffers as well. Conditions were good Wednesday and fish should be caught. News is scarce this time of the year for the lack of fishermen.
There have been no reports of anglers fishing offshore out of Oregon Inlet.
Hatteras
Red Drum notes that fishing was pretty good Wednesday. There were plenty of sea mullet, small trout and keeper trout. Jennifer just came in with a pretty Black Drum caught around the jetties. We weighed a 1-10 Sea Mullet caught from Ramp 43. There have also been some pretty Puffers caught. We haven’t heard of any Puppy Drum but there were a few caught.
No boats have sailed offshore out of Hatteras recently due to choppy seas.