Had Otter, Don, Mark Voodoo and his son Hunter fishing with me today...we had wheels up from my house at 0300..everybody on time and not hungover, which is always a good thing....we make it down to OIFC at approximately 0450 and go grab a couple more bags of ice as it's supposed to be a nice, calm hot day out in the gulf stream..as we get down to the Kitty Hawk area coudn't help but notice that all the flag (big flags) were standing straight out flapping in the light and variable (read 15 - 20) knott wind....Hum, must be a short onshore breeze.....well we get to the ramp and people are discussing the weather...but everybody had driven from somewhere out of town so we all decided to hit it....got in line with the fleet at approximately 0530 and made a quick run out to the stream....started at the 650 line in 71 degree water, nice break with two tones all over the place....I followed those two tones most of the morning with the only thing getting hit was the planer getting bumped by one of the many dolphin swimming around the boat...got down around the 560 line (south of the point) and get our first Mahi...little bailer out of the blue and Mark Voodoo make short work on him....get lines back out and something hammers my TIki bar which is riding on a 6/0 senator and is ripping drag...ends up breaking the mainline which must have had a nick in it that I didn't find.....good bye Tiki Bar and G&H sea witch..enjoy your ride in the deep....get lines back out and another TIki bar and get hammered on my pink spreader bar, otter's on t his one and it's a nice Mahi....left long goes down hard with the 2nd half of the Bull/Cow pair and Mark gets his 9 year old son Hunter belted up and on the rod....Hunter make quick work of his fish and Don stick a nice Gaffer....Otter gets his in which is pulling pretty good on a Large spreader bar and Don sticks this one also...Nice Bull and cow in the 20 pound range...get lines back out around the point in 200 fathoms....Otter tell Mark's 9year old son, Hunter, hey greenhorn, the Capt said only 45 minutes left of fishing...you know you have to bite the head off the Ballyhoo and we'll have luck.....Hunter's all over it, Mark says no hunter and then turns around to check for weed...Hunter then commences to completed RIP the head off a thawed out Ballyhoo, take a couple of chews and then spit it out...HOly shit, I can't believe I just saw this....Hunter then hands the half a Ballyhoo and tells otter to take a bite...Well, what is Otter going to do, a 9year old just called him out...so Otter take a big ole bite of ballyhoo belly and just about hurls, but manages to keep it down...wow, good for you guys, Fear Factor on Still Think'n..I'm loving this..Just about the time Otter is shotgunning a Miller LIte to wash his mouth out...Bam Left long, G&H Sea witch gets hammered, this is no Mahi, it's a tuna...marks on the rod....jig the rest of the rod...right long gets hit but comes unglued, otter's is retrieving the Flat line when a YFT comes cutting through the seas and hammers the G&H Pink ballyhoo, otter drops back and he's on it again and is buttoned up...about this time Mark's YFT shakes the hook so we're down to just Otter...we get the fish boat side and Don stick the first YFT of the year on Still Think'n.....by now it's about 315PM...blowing 15 - 20 Knotts out of the SW and we still have a two hour ride through Nags Head Bike week to get home...so we call it a day...back at the docks most boats I talked with had between 1 and 3 YFT and some Mahi...alot of guys fished south around the 300 line with a couple around the point...bite was very slow all over with fish here and there..most of the Tuna came out of Two tones...

Blue FIn Tuna 13 April

Got home Easter Sunday from South Carolina and started poking around the internet....Saw a weather window for today with it shutting down for the rest of the week...took a peak at the sat shot and saw some good water arond the 000's and south.....started making the calls..Fatbeard - I gotta get my boat today and I'm going Tog Fishing....okSteady - I'm in Minneapolis...(good reason)Jeff "F" - I'm I'm in Boston (good reason)Don (Skinny) - I've gotta work (his 1 day a year he has to actually work...lol)Otter - I've gotta work and I'm taking off friday (take this weekend off every year)Todd (Knott Wishn) - Parents are in town (another good reason)Colt (firefighting fisherman) - I'm on the podium tomorrow or I would goVooDoo - Hell yea I'll go...Ok..I need at least one more person so I post on here looking for riders....no takers...I have them take the post down after a couple hours cause I didn't wanna have to look through volunteers in the morning.....Ok...Me and Mark (VooDoo).....let's do it...Leave Owls Creek at 0545 to a wind free morning, slick ass calm ride out to the 050 line...find 63 degree water and start trolling ...we came out of Rudee same time as Canyon Express who headed way south as he's moving his boat to OI for the spring season.....no hits for a while so we call up Canyon Express who's about 10 - 15 miles south of us and he's into em pretty good.....We pick up lines and head south....find Canyon Express and put lines out....We see a very large school of two tones and head towards em....as the spread goes through the two tones the left long and left short explode....I haven't heard the 50 wides scream like that in a very long time.....Oh no, we've got a double on and there's only two of us...we let the two rods go as Mark and I clear lines.....I had told mark to get the belt out and be ready so he's harnessed up and I'm fighting mine from the gunnell...no time to get belt on at this point.......about an hour later we get marks fish boatside and I leave my rod in the aft Rod holder and go over to get marks fish in the boat....I get on leader as the fish is doing his death circle...I tell mark to unhook the rod, and grab the gaff....Putting the drag down lower in case I loose control of the fish....Mark times it perfect and stick the BFT in the head...I grab the 2nd gaff and stick him....start to lift him over the gunnel but my gaff pulls.....put the steel in his eye and we hoise this big bitch in the boat.....Go back to my rod and work him in...get him on leader and working on getting the hook out..the SOB bit me !...I've got the marks to prove it....as we're trying to remove the hook he rubs up on the side of the boat and breaks off...that's cool....clean release.....AT this point we're frigging done man.....it's a little after noon....we're down at the 830 line (78 Nautical miles south of Rudee) and we've got no more fight left in us......Clean up the mess and motor home.....Don and Billable meets us at the fishing center and Don graciously volunteers to clean the fish at my house while Mark and I clean the boat up.....Jeanette serves up some Sashima and Cavichi at the Bargola.....to go with our ice cold beers.....I'm just happy to have some Tuna on Still Think'n again...it's on now...!.....I'm sure I'm leaving some stuff out but Mark can fill in...He did a great job on his fish today......it's all good.....

Fishing has begun

Well.....Hit up OI on Sunday....no fish for us so this will be short and sweet...conditions were good we just we not on em today....Reports should hopefully be better in the future..until then, enjoy this Video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DglFE8M0lNA

Catching up

well as we're starting to look forward to the upcoming offshore season..the striper season was poor for quantity but quality was pretty good....we landed a 51 pounder, 46 pounder and 44 pounder this year....big fish but not alot of them...the cold really pushed the fish offshore early this year...maybe there will be a decent spring run..who know, won't be me as I"ll be offshore pretty much from here on out....here's the 3 biguns we caught mostly eeling off the eastern shore...

Bob

Sorry for lack of Posts

I haven't updated my Blog for a long time. I will be updating over the next couple of days....Bob

Blue Marlin 30 August 2008

Catching a Blue Marlin is the Pinnacle in offshore fishing and not a whole lot of people get to experience the ferocity and power of one of these beasts. Still Think'n has had 3 shots at the blue ones this year, landing one yesterday....This one was special because Don Malkowski, who gives so much to this sport had never closed the deal on one of these beasts of the deep, for various reasons, all of which are common to all anglers having a Blue Marlin on the end of a thin plastic line.....Woke up an hour late yesterday morning for reasons I won't get into and had 3 missed calls on my phone....Don called, Otter called and John Hamilton called wondering where I was at....dammit, the alarm clock didn't go off so we're running late.....Otter and Don met me at the house while Jim and I were loading the boat and we got underway...first stop the gas station to fill up....finally got in the water at around 515 or 530 or so.....hit the mouth of the inlet and found some nice swells with some wind chop coming out of the SE...little choppy but not too bad...made 28 - 30 knots heading out to the 420 line 250 fathoms where there have been some big-eye's spotted and hooked recently....found Oblivion (Dave TRax) already working the area so we put line out....about 2 minutes into the troll the first of many Mahi is hooked...My buddy Jim is down from Marlyland so we give him the rod but this little flip flop comes off the line....start trolling my area and come on a beautiful mark about 50 - 100 feet down...thinking this is the big-eye's we're looking for we work the area hard...along with Dave Trax but nothing but small Mahi come out of the mix.....I start trolling north between 200 - 300 fathoms trying to find some Tuna....find a long line set with a flyer on it and there are literally 100's of fish under this set up.....we decide to get some meat in the boat so we start bailing...well after trying to flip 3 or 4 fish in the boat and getting broken lines we figure out these are a little bigger class of bailers so we start gaffing these guys as they are about 5 - 10 pounders all over us....we get about 25 fish in the box and I call linees in and start the troll again....Now I'm planning on heading up towards the canyon but we get a call from somebody down on the 350 line saying he just got hammered by Tuna but lost all 5 of the fish...this is all I need to hear...get the trolling lines in and put out two of Don's high speed Wahoo lures with some inline sinkers.....these new lures Don has built look awesome trolling behind the boat at 15 knots but nothing hit while doing out high speed troll....get down to around the 350 line and it's loaded with sulpher lines, weed lines, temp breaks going from 79 - 81 and more birds than I have seen all year.....we get lines back out and immediately get lazered by a Wahoo on a G&H pink and crystal sea witch with Mylar.....rerig and get lines back out....steady pick of Mahi which most of them were released...kept a couple of nicer gaffers but we probably caught near 70 Mahi yesterday..they were everywhere..and just the right eating size for Mr. Blue Marlin.....I told they guys that there had to be bigger fish in here so we're working this area the rest of the day.....about 315PM the left long (Pink and white G&H Sea witch) gets hammered....this is no flip flop Mahi....lines screaming off the 50 wide...I'm thinking Wahoo and Jim picks up the rod....well about a 250 pound Blue marlin decides to show himself and all hell breaks loose....I tell Don to get in a belt...start screaming at everybody to clear lines fast because this 50 wide is loosing line fast.....the crew performs flawlessly and gets everything cleared and moved forward.....Don's belted up and Jim hands off the rod and Still Think'n begins the chase......Now Don's line is directly off the back of the boat, but about 200 yards or more in front of me I see the beast doing an arial dance trying to spit the sharp pointy thing on the side of his face.....Oh shit Don...big bow in the line...you need to crank crank crank while I run this fish down.....John Hamilton (captain of Norfolk Blue) is coaching Don along, giving him water and encouraging him....Otter is on the Video and Jim is standing around goin...why did I give him that fish..lol...just kidding he was keeping an eye out for the fish and snapping pictures.....I get the fish closer and behind the boat and he comes up again maybe 50 - 100 yards behind the boat doing his dance again....I start backing down on this fish to get leader for Don's first release and water is pouring into the transon.....uh oh..clear those pine needles out of the scuppers, water is building up...hahaha....we get the fish close again, John Hamilton is standing on the transom reaching for all he's worth, leader is right there, almost in reach...and ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Off goes the fish again, he's not ready to give Don the scratch just yet......more danciing and I'm backing down hard again....crank crank crank Don....keep working it man he's almost here....well, about 350 or so the leader comes onto the tip of the rod, John grabs leader and we call scratch on a Blue Marlin for Skinny's Kid !!!!!!!!!!......we work the fish for a couple of more minutes and then break him off on the leader...130# fluro is strong but can only take so much but it held on long enough for a release...Congrats to Don for his first Blue marlin...thanks John, Otter and Jim for a great day on the water and WHERE THE HELL ARE THE TUNA.....Until next time........Bob

THe Wahoo are back !

Departed Owls Creek promptly at 0400 with Otter, Scott Sinclair, Mark (voodoo) and Johnny (Mr. Blue Marlin on billable) to a gorgeous ride out to the fishing grounds....had the spread out by 0615 and started trolling....had a meat spread out but not much happening...finally around 0930 or so the Left Long G&H Sea Witch gets hammered...we're thinking White Marlin because there has already been a couple caught....Scott Sinclar is up because he doesn't have a Marlin under his belt and we wanna throw somebody in the creek.....Great fight and finally get color and it's no Marlin...it's a big ass Wahoo all lit up with his stripes just glowing Neon Blue....Voodoo sticks him and he's in the boat....nice fish goes to where fish go to die...STILL THINK'N COFFIN ....Spend the rest of the day trolling around with a Marlin spread...circle hooks, teaser ...the whole nine yards....Get two whites in the spread that steal our Circle hook baits but don't come tight.....Get two nice Mahi on our Circle hooks that dont come tight....Call it quits around 3pm and make the run in to Fisherman's Wharf to weigh the fish....Now he's a nice one for sure and bets are taken on how much he weighs...I call 62 pounds even and he goes 62.2 pounds for Scott's Citation Wahoo.....Now I know why Circle hooks are good for conservation....Because they don't catch fish !.......

5 July Rudee

I normally have great luck the week before the Virginia Beach Tuna Tournament and this week was no exception. Had Steady and Dave H onboard today. Had a couple of cancellations but we were locked and loaded to go this morning so off we went......Left at the crack of 0515 and headed towards the Hot dog to work with Dave and crew on Billable ours......We scored early with a couple of Bailers...kept to for Dave's refrigerator and returned the rest to the ocean to grow into bigger dolphin if they can learn to stop eating baits bigger than they did....wasn't a whole lot of action at the Hot dog so we went in search to an area I had heard was holding some nice Blue Fins....and it was.....we faught off tiny mahi until around 1100 when the long left rigger starts smoking.....nice fish on and he's hooked solid.....Steady gets the rod out of the T-top and we harness Dave into a belt and harness and the fight begins...those dam blue Fin are the hardest fighting tuna out there and this one worked Dave over pretty good but he's a tough guy and wouldn't give up.....had major drag on this fish and he wasn't budging....about 40 minutes later we are able to stick a couple of gaffs in the fish..he taped out at 57" and we thought we had us a citation......weighed the fish at the fishing center and he went 98 Pounds....just shy of a Citation for Dave H....

18 June Rudee

we left Owls creek at the crack of 0400, the wind was about 15 - 18 knots out of the north on the way out but calmed down beautifully in the afternoon. We did a drive by on the Weather buoy (which is still where it's supposed to be) and came up empty handed. At that point we started working South and east with High Hopes, Leaky Teaky, Waterman, Mad Hatter rounding out the group. All boats worked well together keeping each other informed. Our first bite came at about 350 fathoms and just was a nice Bull that Dave immediately jumped on the rod with cat like reflexes...years of Marine Corps training ensured Dave was Top Dog on the rod yesterday. Colt was a little tired from driving in from elizabeth city but would prove to be an outstanding Pit Man on Still Think'n...I really enjoy seeing guys come on the boat and jumping right into the game....not just sitting around waiting for Steady, Otter, Don or somebody else to do the rigging...If you get it wrong, well we'll letcha know and then show you the "Still Think'n" way of doing it...may not be the right way but it's my way....so we keep trolling to the deep and end up in 78 degree water...kind mixed green/blue but very pretty water.....got to the 1000 fathom line and turned north towards Leaky Teaky who said they got broke off by what they think was a Big-Eye on a TLD25......had something come in the spread and knock a couple of baits around about the same time Bob Sinclair report a Blue sighting.....was it a bill...well we'll never know because he didn't come tight......time to start trolling back inshore during which time my eagle Eye crew starts spotting scatter lumber...some held fish some didn't...it was very new wood so hadn't had time to set up yet but will be pretty awesome with the conditions over the next few days...this wood was in 500 fathoms about the 150 line - 180 line but will probably push inshore with the gulf stream pushing in the way it looks.....Found some two tones which turned out to be one of the biggest schools of Porpoise I've seen in a few years...acres of them with baby porpoise just putting on a show as you would see at Sea-World....getting a good 6 - 10 feet of air not more than 10 feet from the boat...you could feel the splash at times they were so close.....We thought this was the spot so I worked the two tones for about 2 hours before it was time to head in......Great day...great group of guys....Colt did a bang up job in the Pit....Don, as always on top of everything...and Dave was the Man on the rods yesterday and also spent alot of time in the Still Think'n Tower (on the gunnels) spotting debris for possible Mahi attack....Thanks for coming guys and we'll get out there in a few weeks.Here's what Captain Dave Wessner of Billable Ours looks like with a fishing pole in his hands.....He fast like a rabbit yesterday with the bites..

1 June Oregon Inlet Tuna Tournament

What a nice day Friday was....The absolute calmest conditions I have seen in a few years.....Ran out with Kent and the rest of the Pirates cove fleet and I must have looked at my position wrong when Water Dog asked for my position, I guess I was about 20 miles off.....in my defense however...Kent was about 15 miles off of where he said he was...I guess he must have looked at his GPS wrong also !...lol......conditions looked good where we set out....Tinker makerals everywhere...nice water...a Green sticker working the area but it was not to be in that location so we trolled to the Tuna hole looking for a good bite.....decided at about 1030 to head up to the 950 line to fish a little sliver of water I had seen on an Ocean temps s hot and found a 67 - 71 degree hard break with slicks everwhere...we're thinking it's gonna be loaded with YFT...well the Mahi onslaught ensued and never stopped the rest of the day....we landed probably about 60 mahi from 10 pounds up to 26 pounds....we kept 26 of them for table fair and commenced to release another 25 - 30 20 pound class Mahi !.....ran in at about 40 knots and weighed in our Mahi 26 pounder and held onto first place in that division for the remainder of the day.Day 2 we decided to pound it out with the fleet in the Tuna hole area...we laid down in fishy looking water and got lines in at 0730, fleet immediately laid down all around me but we worked it...marked fish several times but only had the Tuna come up for me once.....had a crash on the Get Reel TIki Bar...he comes off, then the left short gets hammers and Don's on it...then the left long gets hammered and mikes on that one....Don's comes unglued about five minutes into the fight....big Tuna but gone....Mikes fish comes to the boat all lit up and steady is on the leader...fish is doing his death circle and never gets up enough for a gaff shot when he comes unbuttoned at the boat....this one looked about 40 - 45 pounds to me.....Get lines back out and continued to troll from the 640 line to the 660 line with not another strike....winds are steadily increasing going from about 15 knots to about 25 knots around 1345 we take one over bow and over my console completely drenching me and the rest of the crew...we decided we had enough and with the seas building started heading in...the Inlet was howling..thank god it was a SW wind so it wasn't stacking up the waves but it must have been 40 knots as Kent said....three boats were blown ot out of the channel at various location from the inlet to the OIFC.......Had a great time working with Grady Man (Kent) and having a few beers with Randy and crew.....Neal (Wired up) and Dave (Billable Ours) were up there supporting and made some kick ass Mahi Taco's Friday night for us....I heard Felix the Kat, was there but didn't see him, saw Jeff from black Pearl on his way down to Hatteras, Shortcomings and his motley crew ( didn't see him 2nd night)......Just a fantastic time....We locked up the Outboard division and took some cash home...What a crew...Otter, Steady, Don and Mike worked like a well oiled machine....Dave has video of the Mahi Madness they were definatley on their A-Game....Huge thanks to MIke and Phil from G&H Lures who overnighted some new colors I wanted to give a try on Tuesday night...they were actually what got hit by the YFT on day2 and were absolutely destroyed by the Mahi on day 1.....Congrats to everyone who fished.....it was a good time and day 2 was not a day for the feint of heart for sure !.......Don and Dave have Pictures hopefully they'll get em posted uphere soon....Bob

15 May Rudee Inlet

Well..what can I say...Dave Trax Called me yesterday looking for a ride...I hadn't seen the sat shot yet so I told him I would call him back later....Got home..saw the shot, called work and said let's do it !....rounded up a crew of My Man Stready, Todd Beck, Dave Trax and Andrew....great guys all of em.....we left Rudee at approximately 0415ish and started rolling...beautiful ride out, rolling swells, minimul wind until we hit the hot water at the 220 line in about 300 fathoms...We get a spread out at about 0650 and start trolling north...beautiful water, birds, slicks , all you could ask for.....we got hammered by Football size Blue fin tuna and went 7 for 7 on that round....kept 1 as allowed by NMFS and released the rest.....trolled north....and bam...3 nice Mahi are on...we land all of them and continue on...get to about the 350 line and the temp starts going from 71 to 69 degrees and wam....6 YFT on.....3 anglers get on a rod....Steady is clearning the Planer rod and WAM he gets hit....4 fish hooked up right....I get off the wheel and clear line so we now have 4 tight and anglers are fighting fish....steady gets his fish to the boat and I Leader the fish and steady sticks the rod in the holder and sticks the fish....he's putting his fish in the box and I gaff Andy's fish and get him in the boat....Todd Beck is next up he meets steel and visits Still Think'n fish box....TRAX fish is boatside and on leader and line gets under the boat and pops....ok...3 in the boat.....we regroup and get lines out again and bam...fish on the shotgun, BAM...fish on the left long.....Trax is on one of the fish and Todd is on the other one.....Trax's fish starts running to the boat and Dave is cranking like crazy...and then the fish turns and his mainline pops....must've got chaffed from one of the other lines....But we work Todd's fish in and get him in the box.....Troll, troll, troll...big ass Mahi hits the left long and steady is on it....get this Mahi in the box and he goes 38.8 pounds....dam nice fish....pulled lines at 1 and headed in....dam great day out there....I feel better now about last week....The fish are definately in the water if we get another chance at them....here's some shots from the day....bob

11 May oregon Inlet

Well..first of all thank to Billable Dave, Otter and Don for going fishing with me on a sketchy forecast. I saw a window for some great weather sandwiched between two fronts and knew that the bite would be on. And it was on in a big way but just not for Still Think'n this week. We hit the inlet with the first charter boat heading out and there were a few bumps in the inlet but nothing bad. Once we crossed the bar the seas laid out, the wind was dead ass calm and the heavens opened up and it was the absolute best weather day fishing for me this year. No wind to speak of all day, beautiful swells and just great company.The Big eye bite definatley turned on yesterday and we were right in the middle of it, but we could not buy a Tuna bite yesterday to save our necks. We zigged, zagged, changed baits, changed speeds and did everything we could think of to get a fish to hit. All around us boats stopped fighting large Tuna....Thanks to C-note Connor for calling us and the entire OI fleet into an awesome weedline holding some really nice Mahi Mahi. We spent about 30 minutes just getting the skunk off the boat and a little meat in the boat and went back to banging it out trying to catch a Tuna....but yesterday was not to be our day. We all talked about it and there was nothing else we could have done, just wasn't our day...Final talley - 5 gaffer/hoister Mahiweather - absolutely beautifulGreat day on the water with great friends....going to be out there again next weekend so hopefully we get the voodoo off the boat !...and land some Tuna..

26 April Oregon Inlet

Well...my crew from left week needed time to recoup so I rounded up a fresh group of anglers consisting of Otter, Surfer Dave and Captain Neal of the wired up,...left my house bright and early at 0250ish and got to the inlet around 0450....finally got underway around 0530 as the fleet was late leaving due to a accident on the causeway....Beautiful day out there..little breezy but not too bad.....slow fishing...we boated a couple of Gaffer Mahi early in the morning and then ended the day out with a lone YFT which was the first one of the year for Still Think'n.....great time was had by all....had fun working with Kent...Saw Ktrain coming back from hatteras..he had some trailer problems on the way home though......So...until next time....Still Think'n out.....

19 April Long trip

Well...my wide load permit for my 10'6 fatass beam did not arrive so I made the call to leave from Rudee Inlet this morning at 3AM Sharp....onboard were Billable Ours Dave, Skinnys Kid Don, JSuperjeff (Jeff) and Steady....the weather was definately not light and variable for the 105 mile run south to where the water had pushed out to...we ran to where the last good shot was and the water was nasty Green and cold....so we picked up and headed directly into the SW wind at 20Kts and ended up finding the edge at around the 500 line south of the point...we proceeded to catch a bunch fo peanut and finally get a nice 17 pound Bull on the line which the crew made short work of....called lines in around 1PM cause we had a long run back and I was frankly worried about gas.....ended up back at Fishing center around 4PM for a total round trip of 275 miles today !...wow....awesome day but bumpy and long....here's a couple of pics..

18 February Fishing

Went out around 1100 with Todd (Knot Wish'n) for a little recon....actually we were both bored on a holiday and the weather was really good so we gave it a shot...Ended up limited out off the Ramada right around the 3 mile line with about 9 other boats.....fish were not hot and heavy but man there were marks/birds and everything else out there.....Cleaned the boat and fish in 72 Degree weather in late February....awesome...Thanks for going with me today Todd...