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Fishing Out of Pirates Cove Marina 2012 Outer Banks Highlights of Spring-Fall 2011 Fishing Season Outer Banks Highlights of 2012 Winter Sailfish Season FISHING OUT OF PIRATES COVE MARINA IN 2012 OUTER BANKS
Deckhand Richard Wright, who did a great job fishing the 2009 - 2011 North Carolina fishing season's, is back for the 2012 season on the OBSESSION and fishing is already in full swing. We have fished around 20 days since we got back from Mexico, and have boated several limits of yellowfin tuna, a few bigeyes, nice catches of gaffer & school dolphin, and released a 400lb blue marlin. FISHING LICENSES are not needed. All licensed NC charter boats have blanket licenses to cover our customers. All you need to bring is your food and beverages in coolers. Pirate's Cove has a fish cleaning service available, and vacuum packing your fillets is an option if you are staying overnight. You can reserve dates by email (captjeff@mindspring.com) or phone: (H) 252-480-0094. The FISHING CALENDAR section of my website provides detailed information on what is biting when you plan on going fishing or when to go fishing for a particular species. Be sure to check out my frequently updated FISHING REPORTS section where you can see photos of recent catches . HIGHLIGHTS OF SPRING-FALL 2011 FISHING SEASON OUTER BANKS
In early April, Jim Thornboro's group caught 10 bluefin in the 180-300 lb class range. In late April, Jim Kennedy's family boated a limit of tilefish, 14 'gaffer' dolphin, a 130 lb mako shark and 13 year old Daniel Kennedy released a 250 bluefin tuna.
In early May, Dao NgUyen's crew boated 51 dolphin, including a 41lb bull landed by Ian Thomas, and a sailfish released by Andrew Chambers.  In mid-May, on a makeup group I put together, Chris Cunningham boated a 160 lb bigeye tuna, the group boated 25 gaffers &Gary Coffman released a 700 lb blue marlin.
Dolphin fishing was outstanding in June, with yellowfins mixed in most days. Jason McAbee & crew boated 60 dolphin including three 33 - 35 pound citation earning fish. Tommy Shelton's crew had 60 dolphin, 4 yellowfin and 2 sailfish.
Jim Feldman's group only caught 3 fish but they were all whoppers.... Evan Feldman, released a 250 lb blue marlin, James Dooley, boated a 172 lb bigeye tuna, and after a hour and 20 minute "slugfest", Ben Ruedasill boated a 197 lb bigeye tuna.  July thru early August was a mixed bag of everything, Preacher Kenneth Cutre told me his son Jeffrey dreamed of catching a sailfish, I told him when to be at the boat and to bring good luck, as sailfishing had been a hit or miss proposition...he told me he had something better than luck on his side....he was right. They each caught 2 sailfish, 2 wahoo, a blackfin tuna, and 10 dolphin ...The good Lord definitely was shining on them!!  Kevin Tucker boated the OBSESSION's seasons largest 70 lb wahoo.  Steve Goodling & family boated three nice yellowfin in the 40-45 lb class range, two wahoo, one boated by Bradford Hastwhich, weighted 41 lbs earning Bradford a citation... and Steve, boated at 186 lbs, a bigeye.  White marlin fishing got going in mid-August. My wife Ruth Ann and friends, along with Richard's Mom & cousin, fished the Alice Kelly Memorial Billfish Tournament. They were sponsored by proprietor, Mark Ballog, of the Lucky 12 Restaurant in Nags Head. Richard's cousin, Ann Reithlingshoiefer, released a 150 lb blue marlin on her first offshore fishing trip and Diane Steyn, from Sam & Omie's restaurant, released a white marlin, and though we did not win, everyone had a blast!
The first day of the Pirate's Cove Billfish Tournament we started off great.... Peter Zeliff released a blue marlin and a sailfish, Larry Waite released a white marlin, and 15 year old Tyler Sudbrink released 2 white marlin to give us 5 billfish for the day, a Grand Slam, and the lead in the tournament after day one. We were one fish shy of another daily prize on day two, releasing 9 white marlin. On Friday, three boats passed us on the leader board, so we ended up tied for fourth place out of 75 boats, with the first place boat catching 20 fish, the second & third place boats catching 18 fish; we caught 17, and we ended up winning the daily prize for day one. My crew of Peter Zeliff, Larry Waite, Larry Waite Jr., Tyler Sudbrink, and mates, Richard Wright and Nathan, did outstanding jobs. Tyler came in second place for top junior angler, as he hooked 2 fish and caught 6 for the tournament.  The next week was the Virginia Beach Billfish Tournament which the directors made into a two day tournament, in view of Hurricane Irene coming this way..... weather was beautiful and fishing was good the first day..... Charles Spangler and crew released 4 White Marlin to put us in the top five boats, but we only caught 3 white marlin day two, which put us in the top ten, but not in the money. September started off with outstanding white marlin fishing. Brent Nase & crew released 12 white marlin, including 2 double headers, and a triple header the second week of September.  The next day, Sandra Hilar, on a personal quest to catch all billfish species in one year, individually caught 11 white marlin with us on a day where we released a total of 13.   The fall tuna season got going in late September and was a nice mixture of yellowfin tuna & blackfin tuna with some wahoo, dolphin and billfish mixed in. Mike Switlick & John Parker each released a sailfish the last week of September and then filled the box with yellowfin & blackfin tuna.  Sportswriter' Rick Burnley, from Virginia Beach, rode along on the OBSESSION in late September and again in mid October, ironically, when Walt Ogden was filling in for Richard, who was in Canada duck hunting, and both trips coincided with Paul Ebert & his crew. walt Rick wrote an interesting article about yellowfin tuna fishing along the mid-Atlantic coast and talked about the days spent fishing with us...this was published in the SALT WATER SPORTSMEN, January 2012, edition.
Tom Lynch & crew boated their limit of Yellowfin by noon in October.  Typically, I run tuna charters at least thru Thanksgiving weekend, but last year we hauled the OBSESSION in early November to spend six weeks painting and refurbishing prior to heading to Mexico. Boats that continued fishing thru early December had good Yellowfin Tuna fishing.
HIGHLIGHTS OF 2012 WINTER SAILFISH SEASON
The marina was only partially full and the fishing grounds were never very crowded. Weather was warm and pleasant the entire season, a hugh improvement from last years unusually cool weather. Once again, fishing was spectacular virtually the entire time we were there. This year was a nice mixture of fishing around "balls of bait" corralled by sailfish swimming around and underneath them, with frigate birds hovering and diving over them, and just straight trolling in areas where we see sailfish 'free jumping' or just mark areas of bait or sailfish.
Richard jumped in the water and swam with the sailfish and got an hour of good underwater video which he has posted on You-Tube. Mate Richard Wright swimming with Sailfish January 2011 After two boats in a 2 week period reported seeing a 600 lb mako shark eating sailfish, for some reason I could not get Richard to get any more underwater photography for us. We have also added a good video of Jim Kelly and Nathan Curtis' trip this January and Rob White's groups sailfishing trip several years ago. Contrary to reports in the newspapers of murders, hijackings & travelers advisories in Mexico, our trip to Isla again this year, as has been the case for the last 7 years, was totally hassle free for myself, my crew, my dock partners and all our fishermen. No one had any travel problems or other issues. As always, islanders are extremely friendly and helpful, and the local federalies, while present never confronted anyone. My wife and her friends traveled around the island by day or nite without hesitation and felt safer than in many places back here in the USA. OUTER BANKS FISHING SPRING THRU FALL 2011
Last year, bluefins stayed nearly the entire month of April. As we got into May, more yellowfins showed up and we caught them pretty good thru early July. bluefinThe big dolphin showed up in mid May and we caught them thru June, after which we caught a mixed bag of gaffer and school dolphin thru September. Had great blue marlin fishing in late May and early June. Bigeye tuna were caught from late May thru September. In mid/late July & early August we had some outstanding action with sailfish, white marlin and dolphin, and from early August thru late September spectacular action for white marlin. From mid-September thru Christmas we had excellent blackfin tuna fishing, along with some good yellowfin tuna and wahoo fishing . The FISHING CALENDAR section of my website provides detailed information on what is biting when you plan on going fishing or when to go fishing for a particular species. Check out my frequently updated FISHING REPORTS section where you can see photos of recent catches and place comments simply by clicking on the word 'Comments' underneath the reports title. The OBSESSION is available for charter out of Pirates Cove thru the first week of December. We leave the dock at 5 AM and return around 5 PM. We head out of Oregon Inlet; the run offshore takes around 2 hours. The cost of chartering the OBSESSION, and all offshore full day charter boats fishing out of Pirates Cove Marina in 2011, is $1750 for 1- 6 people and this includes all bait, tackle, and ice for your fish. A tip for the mate (15%-20%) is customary if service is satisfactory. FISHING LICENSES are not needed as charterboats have blanket licenses to cover our customers. All you need to bring is your food and beverages in coolers. Pirates Cove has a fish cleaning service available, and vacuum packing your fillets is an option if you are staying overnite. You can reserve a date(s) by email captjeff@mindspring.com or phone: (H) 252-480-0094. A $400 deposit is required to secure your dates... this deposit is fully refundable: 1) with notification of cancelllation of your trip two or more weeks prior to your scheduled date or; 2) due to bad weather. The deposit can be sent to: Captain Jeff Ross 3102 S. Ocean View Ct. Nags Head, NC 27959 WANT TO GO FISHING BUT NEED A FEW MORE TO SHARE COSTS???Need a few more to fill out your group or want to join a group to share costs for a charter, please email captjeff@mindspring.com or call me (252-480-0094) and I will discuss several options with you and hopefully hook you up with a full group. Most years I put 4-6 'makeup' groups together composed of folks that did not have enough people to book the whole boat.
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The OBSESSION is available for charter out of Pirate's Cove mid March through at least Thanksgiving weekend. We leave the dock at or before 5 AM and return around 5 PM. You can book trips by calling me (252-480-0094) or by email 
Deckhand Richard Wright and I headed down to Isla Mujeres, Mexico Sunday, January 2, and after a frigid December in the boat yard, we were ready for some warm weather. Like last year, getting out of North Carolina was the toughest part of our trip.....travelling with Big Al on the F/V Country Girl, we ran into thick fog a mile south of Pirates Cove Marina.....took 3 hours to go what should have taken 30 minutes, but once we got into Pamlico Sound, we were able to run our regular cruise though we could not see more than a hundred yards till we got to the Nuese River, then things cleared up and we got to our planned destination of Southport at sunset....from then on, we hauled ass as we needed to get to Key West by Wednesday afternoon for a 24 hour period of forecast calm weather. Got to Ft Pierce, FL Tuesday afternoon and stayed just long enough to take on fuel, bait, a turbo charger for Anthony's boat in Mexico, and get Big Al's generator overheating problem fixed. At 9 PM we left for Key West.... got there at noon, took on fuel at a commercial dock where we get cheaper fuel, and 3 lbs of Stone Crabs and headed for Mexico.....finished the stone crabs by the time we got in sight of Cuba....had beautiful calm weather the whole way and got to Mexico Thursday morning at 10 AM.....made the trip in 4 days which is a record for us. Weather was sunny, temperture was 82 degrees.
Local mate Raoul again joined Richard in the cockpit and as so many who fished with me commented at the end of the day, these guys worked great together, in total synch without having to say a word, things get done super fast....made life easy for me. Our first day of fishing was January 11, a warm up day with the crew off another boat..... in half a day we had 29 bites and caught 21 sailfish....a decent start! Nathan Curtis and his crew fished a few days later and caught 21 their first day and 38 the next day.....and fishing stayed that good for the next 6 weeks! Tom Noonan's crew fished 4 days the third week in January and released 126 sailfish, including 37 & 40 in successive days. The next week Craig Sudbrink's crew fished 3 days with us and released 121 sailfish. We averaged 31 sailfish/day for the month of January! That is ACTION!!
Dan Homa and his crew released 43 sailfish in one day the first week in Febuary, Les Matthew's group caught 42 fish in one day the second week in February, and Peter Zeliff, Larry Waite & crew released 45 in one day the third week in February. Fishing slowed up the last week in February and beginning of March. We ended up averaging 22 fish /day in February, but 27 fish/day the first three weeks of February. After we left, fishing picked back up in mid-March with catches of 15-30 sailfish/boat/day. The bottom line is every year is a bit different. In 2011, February, especially latter Februray, was better than January, so you never know....We ended up catching 916 sailfish, our second best year ever, but averaged better than 25 fish/day overall, the best we have done to date......From year to year it almost seems like fishing is getting better and more consistent down there, with conservation measures and the use of circle hooks probably attributing to the better fishing.
Deckhand Richard Wright, who did a great job fishing the 2009 & 2010 North Carolina fishing seasons with me, is back for the 2011 season on the OBSESSION. We have already fished a few days out of Oregon Inlet since returning from Mexico and have been catching 150-300 lb bluefin tuna.
TOURNAMENTS IN 2011