How about this for sushi?

Caught on the Dragin Fly this week. Conservative length/girth estimates it to be well over 200 pounds.

Cobia on cloudy days

You don't need clear skies and calm seas to catch 'em, but it helps. I had a customer who found this on youtube.com from a cloudy day last May. I'm ready!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqNRAql9E9k

It's about time for some pics

Just got these from Tim Thompson and his recent trip to Costa Rica. That is a huge sailfish caught on The Bite and a nice rooster with Enrique's son Michael.

I need to get out on the water.....

......but rainy days in the office have been productive. Response from our Spring Newsletter has been really good. I strongly encourage you to book your drum trips now!!!! I'm geared up for the Roanoke River, but will be making a quick trip down to Costa Rica to solidify a lot of reservations for 2012. That's right, 2012. To get on the Dragin Fly or any of the Fly Boats during the peak of the season, I encourage you to let us start building you a custom Costa Rica package soon. During the Green Season in Costa Rica, May through the November, there are plenty of openings and plenty of deals. It's a great place for a family summer vacation. I do have a few openings for Argentina duck and dove hunting in July and Costa Rica tarpon fishing in October. If you have any questions or need any additional info, I'll be around all week.......looks like it's going to rain again tomorrow......I think that I'm about due for a day of fishing in the rain.

Report from the Neuse

Capt. Gary and Capt. Brian report good catches of stripers on the Neuse today, also a few trout.

From Capt. Brian..."We ended up catching 34 stripers, 1 trout for the
day.............they were very pleased. B."

Capt. Greg reports

good catches of shad on the Roanoke, best bite was on the fly, a 100+ fish day

FYI from Capt. Gary Dubiel

"catching and tagging specks at will with fish up to 25 1/2 inches, catching pups to 25 inches and a few flounder all out of Oriental. New Bern remains good for stripers and a variety of fresh water fishes."

---Gary

He just updated his calendar with us. Drop us a line and we'll get you out on the water.

Capt. Joe Ward says.....

......"Shad fishing is for those people who can't catch trout.".

After a few warm days, the water temps are rising and recent reports from Joe and Capt. Gary Dubiel indicate that a lot of trout made it through the freeze. Good news!

If you're tough enough to fish with the animal.....

From Capt. Brian on the Run Off:

"25-30 NE was what it blew on us yesterday offshore. 8-12 ft about every 6 seconds................Yellowfins, blackfins and wahoo made
the trip back to the dock with us. They are arriving. "

cobia

rumors of cobia catches are coming in from the nearshore wrecks, it's time for them to start showing up there. These warm temps could make it happen early again this year. If the weather is nice and you can get out a few miles there is no telling what you could get into.



Offhsore the guys are doing good with the tunas and a few dolphin and wahoo.



These warm temps are getting things cranked up at the Roanoke, stripers are in the river and making their way up to Weldon.....

Why is the fishing so good......

.....when I leave town? Caught 15 sails and 3 big tuna up to 100+ pounds yesterday

meanwhile in Costa Rica

The guys caught 25 sails yesterday.

Offshore fishing firing off in MHC

Yellowfin, blackfin, wahoo and dolphin were part of a day's catch on the Bill Collector last week. Capt. Brian Harrington on the Run Off is gearing up for the spring offshore season and passed along some last minute openings. Give us a ring to set you up with either one of these great North Carolina offshore boats.

Killing me.....

.......sounds like the sailfishing is really firing off, 18 sails and a dorado today.

cool, wet and grey

That's what I'm greeted with? At least it's not too cold......although I do have the heat on.

Sounds like striper/shad fishing is pretty good. My dad's even catching them out of his own boat.....

Anna and I are working on the next newsletter that should be out soon.

Check us out this weekend at the Cape Fear Wildlife Expo and NC Sportsman Magazine Fishing School in Wilmington.

From Capt. James:
"8 sailfish and 3 mahi today boss it hard to belive that we didnt catch any meat fish with your guys"

I was looking for some fresh fish before leaving Costa Rica, but all we caught were billfish the last 3 days!!!!

Seems like we're averaging about 10/day.

Fishing here

Few pics from the past week, fishing has been good and consistent, plenty of double digit days, sometimes they're biting better than others.

Dad's sailfish on the fly:

Luis' bull

Costa Rica Inshore Billfish:

Fishing at home

Capt. Gary Dubiel has been pretty busy this winter with good fishing in the upper parts of the Neuse/Trent and around Oriental. A lot of this fishing is technique-oriented on artificial baits, but he's been getting enough bites that the customers are learning a lot and they're catching fish.
4 hour half day trips are $350 and full days are $600, drop us a line and we'll put you together.

In addition to the hickory shad, a few white shad are showing up on the Neuse and Roanoke Rivers. We have shad trips available in both locations for these prices.

From April 18-May 15 striped bass trips are available on the Roanoke River. Long half days (5-6 hours) are $500 including bait. Full days (8-10 hours) are $700 including bait. Dicsounts available for fly fishing only trips. Space is limited and advance booking is recommended.

Double header pups. These guys are going to really start growing fast when the water warms up a little, putting on an inch a month through the summer. In addition to pups, Gary is reporting decent catches of specks. It's good to know that they didn't all get hit by the freeze.

Capt. Dave Stewart is also running these light tackle trips and I may be joining these guys to help out on the river over the next few weeks.

Los Suenos Sunset

last Day Report

Our average went up, 12 for 15 bites today.

All day long we had sails swimming around the boat, but they never turned on. Bet we saw 100 fish today paddling along and sunbathing.We learned a lot about feeding finicky sailfish over the past three days.......

..... but the most important thing that we learned is not to let a tournament get in the way of having fun......and we had fun.

Ended up catching over 40 sails in 4 days, including the half day practice day, all hooked on our own.Good fishing.
There are a lot of fish around and fishing should be good for a while.

And a congratulations to the Game On, Gotcha and the Big Oh, you guys were battling it out all day, impressive work, the Game On had 57 sailfish and one marlin over 3 days. Gotcha and Big Oh, right on their heels with 55 sails and a marlin, Gotcha won "on time" catching their last fish first.

A little better today...

16 for 24 bites today, we moved up the hill a little and were in the hunt for a "daily" most of the day. One more day.......

shad report

From Capt. Greg Voliva who is running some shad and striper trips this season for Down East up on the Roanoke River and in the Neuse:

"Hey, Its going off on the shad 50-60 fish days.Pitch Kettle. Waters extremely low so the main body of fish are staying in the river. I'll be back Sunday. "
Greg

got a little work to do.....

They seemed a bit "finicky" today, we had 21 bites and caught 9. Deep into the middle of the field. Congrats to the Game On who released 28 sails and is sitting in 1st place.

It's going to be interesting

Fishing has been good and steady. A lot of sailfish scattered over a large area. Tomorrow is Day1 of the 2nd leg of the Los Suenos Billfish series.

Wish us luck.