Beaufort Off Shore June 20

willy, try the mahi sandwich at hooters. not as good as fresh but, some fine eating none the less

see, thats why my one and only would be dolphin. the bigguns fight like mothers and make a good sammich.

[chesapeake724]

Frank,

My in-laws are from down there (Swansboro) and sometimes we all get a beach house for a week in Emerald Isle. In fact I just got back from there. I'm not big on trolling all day. Can you make an offshore run, say, less than 20 miles and find dolphin that might take to live chumming/chunking? It doesn't even have to be for the bulls. I'd be happy with fast action with peanut/bailer-size. I love that technique where you keep a fish hooked and then fish the ones that are attracted to it. I was wondering if the charters down there do that sort of thing or if it was possible in a small, but seaworthy boat.

Thanks for any advice,
Will

Will: I'm with ya, I HATE trolling but its the only way I know to hook up with Mahi. Most of the charter guys go way out because they get a chance at Mahi, Kings and Wahoo on the same baits and clients want to catch fish. On the other hand you can get into them with a V-20 a few miles out of bogue inlet in a couple of weeks or so as they will come in close but they will not be big fish. I dont know much about emerald isle itself but there is an area just before you go out of the inlet called the sandbags on the left (you cant miss it) which used to be an old deep water pier and early in the morning and in the evening they catch some big gator trout and puppy drum drifting from the inlet to the sandbags and out again depending on the tide of course . Try to stay close to the beach in about 14 feet of water where it drops off . I caught several 5lb plus trout there last august just at dark . A 3/8 ounce red jig head with a berkley gulp shrimp bounced on the bottom will do the trick and there are some HUGE black drum in that area also. If it kicks up and is too rough to go out put on some flounder rigs with 2 oz sinkers and drift berkley gulp shrimp or big minnows starting from the causeway bridge seperating Cape Carteret from Emerald Islle as there are some honker flounder in the channel and big puppy drum. I don't do fishing reports any more because someone opined that they were boring and not up to the high standards of other more talented and creative anglers on this board but I went out wednesday and caught 9 mahi and 2 snake kings. Most of the Mahi were small but one was 13Lbs. I caught everything on small home made 1/2oz pink and white sea witches with berkleys gulp shrimp on the hook and I was running around 1100 rpm with a 5 squid pink teaser right at the boat wake..IF you want to do the off shore thing call Dudleys Marina 252-393-2204 in Swansboro. From time to time they have both inshore and offshore captains available but I dont know any of them personally ..Frank