Fishing Report 10-14

So the Hatter fleet got out there, and I told you yesterday what we had, what we probably will get, and what we're having immediately.

And, uh, you know, when the water changes as much as it did, and when I say that, we, we know for, uh, the people that live here about the Gulf Stream and how it affects all the eddies, the currents, the upwellings.

Where that Gulf Stream crosses, uh, different ledges can be really good, but it's really technical.

And, um, it takes a while after a big blow like the one we've had for the guys to get their bearings, and then you gotta...

That's complicated by the Gulf Stream really is, uh, a conveyor belt.

So you go out there and whatever you got squared away with today after the big blow, then it might not be there tomorrow.

So you gotta, you gotta worry about stuff like that, and it's just a challenge.

And just a degree of water temperature, or are you fishing in the true hot blue Gulf Stream, or are you fishing in the water just inside of it, the shoulder waters? Blended water is really where more fish are caught than in the actual Gulf Stream itself.

Are you fishing on a grass line? Is the grass line lined up enough to catch stuff? Well, they have to figure all that out on the first day out after a big blow.

And the Hatters, it was kind of slow fishing.

They had a few mahi and a few wahoo and just a very few blackfin tuna, uh, is all I heard there.

In the Oregon Inlet, they had a few tuna, mostly blackfins, and they were big blackfins, 20 to 25 pounders, but I did not see the six or eight big yellowfins, uh, like we had before the blow.

And this is the peak of the yellowfin tuna season, so that's a little bit disappointing.

I did not see any mahi in their catches.

I saw a few king mackerel, uh, which tells me it was plan B fishing for a little while.

Um, but they ended up, I'd say, uh, the average boat had six to 12 blackfin tuna, something like that.

And, uh, I'd almost bet you money that today it will be a lot better.

Now, one thing that was really good, both of the fleets around the inlet had very good blue fishing and still quite a few Spanish mackerel, and they were big Spanish mackerel.

So they're hanging around.

The Spanish or the bluefish will hang around even later.

But the Spanish mackerel bite is, uh, been really good for the last month or so, and they're still here.

Of course, the weather's still warm.

All that is getting ready to change on Friday night.

And if you're a deer hunter, it's opening day of the gun season in North Carolina on Saturday, at least on eastern North Carolina, so everybody's very, very excited about that.

Um, so you got things to look forward to there.