Room for a single in Costa Rica

I have 1, maybe 2 openings available for a revenge trip to Silver King Lodge Oct. 13-18.

Also, I just spoke with Capt. Brian Horsley who is hosting a fly fishing school/trip with his wife Capt. Sarah Gardner. They have 1 space available on their Pacific Sailfish trip to Costa Rica on March 4-10.

We are finalizing dates and details for the Jan.-March Costa Rica trips. Things are going to be very busy. Let me know if you have an interest in any of these trips.

speks, sight casting, bad weather, good fishing


I've been returning favors to Greg the past few days, catching the big ones pretty good, that is until yesterday. Greg outfished me 10 to 1 on 2-3 pound speks. The worst part is that the boats were tied together.

He later gave me a demonstration on sight casting the big drum. Conditions were perfect and like a dummy, I went looking for silver. Should've stayed with the drum.

This "tropical low" from the south should turn the drum bite on fire. If you can stand up in the boat, we're fishing.

burning the candle at both ends

Fishing has been very, very good and consistent. We've been averaging double digit catches of citation drum, all before dark. Mornings and afternoons have both been very good. Openings for the next two weeks: Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, 5, 6. full or half days available.

Thanks Morehead Marine....Greg is beating up on me

A big thanks to Richard, Kim, Herb and all of the gang at Morehead Marine. They got Greg's boat running in record time. I felt like I was dealing with a professional NASCAR pit crew.

It's been a great week of drumming. I've been a little slack, chasing silver, meanwhile Greg has been beating up on me. I've caught 50+ citations in the past 7 days, Greg has easily doubled that.

more pics

photos from this week, tarpon are still here










The tarpon made another appearance this week and Capt. Phil didn't waste anytime putting one in the air. Congrats to Donald Willis of Custom Marine who caught him on 20 pound test.

good fishing, bad luck

Greg had an unforeseen day off today, he found some Neuse River hard bottom yesterday, probably an old sunken trawler in 10 feet of water near Lighthouse Shoal. The result is that we are overnighting a new lower unit to Morehead Marine. They should have the boat running by mid-week. In the meantime, he'll be running the "Tag-A-Long", a 23 Parker. No trip cancellations, all is on go.

Meanwhile, Ray and I caught 8 big ones each and some pups today. I hope to post some pics next week. Fishing is very good and consistent.

daylight drummies

Don't get confused into thinking that the only time to catch the big drum is during the afternoons and at night. Greg is working on them pretty good right now and it's just 10:30 am. I'm signing out of the office to go give him some help.

consistent bite

Ray and Greg have been getting the big ones pretty good this week, catching 2-6 every afternoon, returning to Oriental in time for dinner.

It's a little frustrating when other boats see the tower and assume that they can catch fish if they just get close to it. Tuesday afternoon I had a pontoon boat get within 150 yards of me, fortunately, it was before the bite. He watched us catch two double headers before he got frustrated, picked up the anchor, made a big circle around us and went to another spot. Needless to say, he was clueless and killed the bite for us.

Same thing happened to Ray last night, guy sees the tower boat, pulls up within a 100 yards, drags anchor, repositions the boat, chunks the anchor out again and effectively shuts the bite down.

Sat/Sun report, Tuesday opening

Greg and Ray each caught a dozen citations on Saturday by noon. Today, Greg checked out a new spot and caught 5 by himself. Our openings this week are:
Tuesday full or half, Wed. am, Thurs am, Sat. am, Sun full or half

Yearling and Old Drum Rigs

I'm pretty much over the tarpon fishing. Sure, there are still plenty around, but I'm not going too far out of my way to look for them. I fished hard on Thursday, for 14 hours. Strikeless.

I had an unexpected cancellation on Friday. Allen Robbins and I slipped out on the water for some fun fishing and hooked these two within 10 minutes of dropping the anchor. We were looking for a puppy drum for lunch, using the yearling rig described bleow. Just like the old drum rig, pictures attached. Both rigs work well with low incidences of deep hooking, just keep the line tight and reel.





The old drum rig: short leader, less than 6 inches, fixed 3 oz. egg sinker, 14/0 Mustad circle hook



The yearling rig: same short leader but a 7/0 Eagle Claw circle hook, 2 oz. egg sinker



P.S. I just got off the phone with Greg, he caught 7 big drum this morning.

puppy drum fishing bycatch



Thank God for the drum. Capt. Greg rode along with me this morning to teach me how to catch the puppies and yearlings. We caught 17 in a couple of hours. For my afternoon trip, I managed to beat down 1 puppy drum and this pig, a nice surprise. After catching a big drum, the puppies weren't the same, so we fished the sunset bite.....strikeless. I made a move and it payed off, 3 more citations and a 38 incher. Beautiful sunset and moonrise.

tarpon fishing bycatch



I'm glad that these jokers have showed up to help save the day. Greg had a day time drum trip yesterday and caught 25 pups and yearlings, also one of these big 'uns.

We just had a cancellation for Thursday afternoon.

Drum fishing clinic by Capt. Greg and Capt. Ray

A drum fishing clinic is what I got today from Ray and Greg. I was a little hard headed and went tarpon fishing for most of the day, but Ray put it to me this afternoon.

Greg caught 3 old drum last night, 1 this morning and a mix of 25 puppies and yearlings.

Ray caught 22 puppies and yearlings right beside me this afternoon, I caught 5. We split up to go fishing for the old drum and I should have followed him. he caught 6 citations and I was strkeless.

We did have some for dinner. Speaking of dinner, Capt. Ray and his two customers gigged 16 nice flounder two nights ago.

All for now....

drum, drum, drum

They're here. Well, actually they've been here, we just havent' been fishing for them. Over the weekend some of the tarpon fishermen caught them at Minnessott Beach, Greg has been sight casting a few on the Pamlico River. Good reports from a couple of other locations. It's well before dark now and Greg has already caught his first one this evening.

On the tarpon report, they are acting very much like tarpon. Since the tournament, thye have pulled a Houdini on us. The good news is that when they reappear, they'll be hungry.

Short term openings are Monday and Wednesday mornings, Aug. 7 and 9. We'll leave early and get the best of the bite.

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