By James Friend Dickerson
Fishing out of Wanchese, our party landed 3 nice yellowfins last week. We had more on, but unfortunately the sharks got the rest.
We were fishing with Capt. Britton Shackelford aboard The Doghouse. Capt. Shackelford is from Virginia and graduated from UVA, so he has ties to Charlottesville. The mate with the fish on gaff is Cain Livesay.
Britton and Cain are first rate. This was our 7th trip with them and we’ve never had a bad one. The Doghouse, by the way, is one of the boats featured on National Geographic’s “Wicked Tuna”.
Wanchese is an old-world port on Roanoke Island, southwest of Nags Head near Manteo. To book a great trip out of Wanchese, contact brittonshack@gmail.com or visit doghousesportfishing.com
Eastern Shore
Chris Bait & Tackle reports:
Black Drum – Buoy 13 and Nine Foot Shoals have been seeing good catches.
Red Drum – Nautilus Shoals and the shoals at Fisherman’s Island have produced good catches with some anglers catching up to 10 fish a night.
Croakers – No signs yet on the lower Eastern Shore.
Sea Mullet – Good numbers are showing around the Cabbage Patch and near Plantation Light
Spadefish – Chesapeake Light Tower has been holding good numbers of fish, should be starting soon near 4th island of bridge tunnel.
Virginia Saltwater
Dr. Ken Neill, III
Spanish mackerel have arrived and are being caught along the oceanfront and in the lower bay. Billfish have been caught in our offshore waters. All of our summer fisheries are underway except for the Eastern Shore tarpon bite. Those guys are worse than speckled trout anglers. Tarpon could be rolling all over the place and we would not hear a word about this hush-hush fishery. The tarpon should be there by late June.
Cobia are in Virginia waters in very good numbers and size. Prior to the June 1 season opening, some impressive fish were caught and released. With the opening of the season, cobia fishing will take center stage. Red drum fishing continues to be very good for big red drum on the shoals and for puppy drum on the flats and up in the rivers. Some black drum continue to be caught, but that fishery is winding down.
Big sheepshead are being caught at the CBBT and as a by-catch in the drum fisheries. Spadefish are at the Chesapeake Light Tower, over the coastal wrecks and on structures inside the bay. It isn’t anything like the glory days when multiple citation-sized fish per trip were a common occurrence, but the size of the spadefish appears to be better than they have been the past several years. Flounder are available and their numbers seem to be better this year, with a lot of small flounder in the bay. Some nicer flatfish are being caught with fish to over 6 pounds weighed in this week.
The spring striper season is still open and keeper striped bass are being found in the James and York Rivers. Some are being caught by anglers targeting speckled trout around Goodwin Island, on Poquoson Flats and in the Mobjack Bay area. Speckled trout are also being caught with some nice trout in the mix.
Sea bass are on all of the coastal wrecks and some triggerfish have shown. Offshore bottom fishermen are catching blueline tilefish and sea bass at about 50 fathoms. Golden tilefish are cooperative on deeper bottoms. Dolphin and tuna can be found in the water east of the Cigar and there have been both blue and white marlin encounters in this same water. There are a good number of Mako sharks around.
Nags Head
OBX Bait & Tackle reports on Wednesday:
Water temp is 63 degrees and the NW wind is 13 mph.
Sound: Small Trout, Black Drum, Puppy Drum, Spot
Avalon: Small Trout
Nags Head: Sea Mullet, Bluefish
Jennette’s: Small Puppy Drum, Sea Mullet, Stripers
Local Surf: Puppy Drum on lures, Bluefish
Inshore/Nearshore: Spanish, Puppy Drum, Cobia, Shark, Sea Mullet, Croakers, Spot, Puffers, Pins and Pigs
Oregon Inlet
The last day of May didn’t disappoint. The near-shore fleet pulled in quite a few pounds of Spanish Macs, some of the best Spanish fishing this season. Anglers near-shore and in-shore also boated Bonita and puppy drum, along with some sharks and cobia.
Offshore anglers landed some nice yellow-fin tuna, big-eye tuna, wahoo, and some tilefish.
Anglers on morning and afternoon trips on the Miss Oregon Inlet enjoyed some beautiful weather and some good action. Catches include sea mullet, croakers, pigs, pins, spot, and puffers.
Hatteras Surf
Red Drum reports:
On Tuesday, an 80-pound Cobia was beached in the morning. A 35-pound Cobia and a 36-inch cobia were caught that afternoon. There were Sea Mullet landed up and down the Beaches. Avon Pier had a Cobia and some Jacks.
The fishing was a little slow Wednesday, but the water was pretty. There were some Sea Mullet scattered up and down the beaches. Ramp 55 had one or two Puppy Drum.
Hatteras Offshore
It was an overcast day in Hatteras on Wednesday, but the rain held off long enough for some good fishing. Inshore anglers were busy all day with limits of Spanish mackerel, large Drum releases, keeper Puppy Drum, and some nice, big Cobia. Fishing was scrappy offshore today. One Blue Marlin, at 110-inches, was released by the Good Times. Both gaffer and bailer Dolphin were caught. Triggerfish were hitting above the wrecks.
