Spanish Mackeral, Spiny Lobster, and Red Grouper
August 6th, 2007 by Michael SavageOver 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!!
Great Catches
August 6th, 2007 by Michael SavageOver 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.
Big Grouper
June 30th, 2007 by Michael SavageThe 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!!
May 11, 2006
May 16th, 2007 by Michael SavageAfter 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.
Jensen Beach SKA Pro Tourney
May 8th, 2007 by Michael SavageIts bad when a trip starts unlucky, but this one surely did. Alan, Jeff, and Shane left Holden Beach on Sunday in hopes of getting to Florida several days early to do some prefishing. These plans were drastically changed when the truck decided that Walterboro, S.C. was where it wanted to stay for a few days. I met the guys in Florence, S.C. with another truck, and they proceeded south. They were two days behind schedule, but at least they were underway. I arrived early Thursday morning thanks to the crew of the “Watch This” and with three hours of sleep was up for the final day of prefishing. We didn’t catch much Thursday that would increase our confidence, but heard some good information and was baited up for Friday.
Friday was a beautiful day with light winds and calm seas. This allowed for a great start and some easy running. Its awesome to see 100 boats blast off in a shotgun start, all heading in the same general direction. The first day we caught plenty of fish, but not the big daddy that we were looking for. We ended up the day with a 26 pounder, not a great fish but good enough to keep us in the running for day two. Our good friends on the “Mining My Business” were sitting in the drivers seat at the end of Friday’s competition, with a 61 pound king.
The weather forecasters called for some wind and seas on Saturday, but they were dead wrong, and we again had a great seas for running. Thanks to Alan and some good driving we were one of the first boats to the spot. We had the long line already out, and was working on setting the other lines when the way back got smoked. Right off the batt I knew that this was a good fish, when she almost dumped a Diawa Saltist. Within fifteen minutes we were on top of the fish and Jeff made a good gaff to bring her to the boat. We didn’t take any chances and let Alan stick her with another gaff for some security. Once in the boat the crew knew it was a good fish but wasn’t sure how good, we called it 42 pounds and stuck her in the bag. Well the action didn’t stop there, within five minutes after redeploying the lines we had another good fish on. Jeff was on the rod and had her to the boat rather quickly. I got a good look at the fish and and first thought it might be bigger than the first so I stuck her too. Lying the fish side by side we could tell that my fish was a little bigger, but it wasn’t by much. With two good fish in the boat, our nerves subsided and we could enjoy the rest of the day.
We were one of the first boats to weigh in and weighmaster called the fish 49.23 pounds, my biggest king to date. The other fish ended up weighing 45 pounds. The 26 from Friday and the 49 from Saturday held on for 4th place, our best finish in a pro event. The crew of the “Mining My Business” caught a 38 on Saturday clinching them the win and a awesome payday. Congratulations to them on a hard earned win. We will be fishing the third leg of the SKA Pro division in Fourchon, Louisiana June 14-16.
Back at Holden Beach the weather has been terrible and very few people have ventured out. Maybe by the weekend the seas will have laid down some and I will have some local reports to tell.
April Fishing
May 7th, 2007 by Michael SavageAfter a slow winter, fishing drastically picked up during the month of April. The groupers were the fish that started the month off. We went several days and had limits of Red and Gag Grouper. Most of our fish were averaging around 8 pounds, but had several that pushed 18 pounds. While grouper fishing the fleet found the king mackeral.
They were very late arriving in their normal spring areas, east of Frying Pan Tower. The Twister had several days when the bite was constant most of the day, allowing for good catches. This past week the king bite slowed down alittle. We could only round up a couple fish on Sunday, making it for a slow day.
Have been hearing good reports of the mahi showing up around the 100/400 area. These fish are averaging around 20 pounds, with a few stragler wahoo in with the mix.
I will be in Florida the remainder of the week fishing the second leg of the SKA Professional Kingfish Tour in Jensen Beach, Florida. When I return I plan on fishing several days and hopefully having some good reports.
Swansboro Tournament
May 18th, 2012 by Michael SavageThe 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.