Last weekend Natural Fly and I hit the East side of the Cape Lookout Shoals. We found acres upon acres of sipping false albacore whom wanted nothing to do with a fly. Though not a bad day, we ended up with a few albies, many bluefish on popper flies and some nice spanish mackerel. This weekend we had a big blow come in Friday and the winds started to die out Saturday night. Sunday was supposed to be pretty, which it was. While heading out of Beaufort Inlet we immediately started looking for birds. Most of the guide fleet seemed to be heading to the east side, so Natty and I stayed west of the shoals not far off of the shipping channel. We hit the bouy seeing a few pods of albies workig bait and coming up and down. Nothing to get excited about. Listening to the radio the fleet on the east side were seeing bait but no fish. Most of the fleet picked up and headed towards Atlantic Beach. We stayed our course and worked slowly back towards Beaufort. We started seeing some more bird activity as fish began to explode on the surface. It was not long before we had a hook-up followed by a few more. We were listening to the radio and from the sounds of things it seemed no one else was having any luck. We looked at each other in disbelief as we were the only boat out there. This hard tail trip was only the beginning to what is hoped to be a spectacular albacore season here in North Carolina. In two weeks Jeremy of Flies And Fins and RA Beattie of Beattie Outdoor Productons are coming down to North Carolina to tangle with these bullets in our hopes to capture our final footage for our Albacore film which should be seen in the Fly Fishing Film Festival. RA Beattie of Beattie Outdoor Productons are coming down to North Carolina to tangle with these bullets in our hopes to capture our final footage for our Albacore film which should be seen in the Fly Fishing Film Festival.
seth — can’t wait to get down there …. i just can’t get enough of the hard tails … so, mine as well chase ’em as far as i can … maybe i will just run my 17′ skiff down there … then again, might just be safer to fly … as i am sure i would encounter some big water along the way:) … need a bit more than 17 feet to get that done .. maybe someday … i love the pic of the albie puking up all the bait … i was reading something the other day about how albies matabolisms are so fast because how much energy they excert while zipping around and smashig bait .. that they have to constantly keep eating because they burn so much energy with their constant running around at high speeds … amazing fish .. rocket ships! … looking forward to hopefully locking horns with a few of the big boys down in NC … and getting a chance to fly fish with you, ra and natural fly .. cya.
Funny how your seasons change from spring, summer, fall and winter to Reds, reds, albacore and stripers. Really look forward to you coming down. It will be too much fun. Got to love the albacore.
RA needs to hurry and get here. Seth has one of Ra’s cameras but we are both too greedy to put our sticks long enough to get some footage. If we get some cooler weather in the next couple of weeks, it should be game on!
How do I book a trip to get in on this action sometime in the upcoming month? Got guides you recommend for this action?
quality. especially like the shocker pose. havent seen that one since my college days. funny, i still know exactly what you are saying.