Today I had a charter out of Hatteras with a longtime customer and friend who was celebrating his son's 21st birthday. We started off trolling, and the blackfin tuna were only slightly cooperative. There were some nice grass beds, but the mahi and wahoo were scarce. The water was a beautiful 87 degrees and blue, but it’s tough fishing for pelagics during the hottest part of summer in Hatteras right now.
We caught four or five tuna before switching over to bottom fishing. After making a couple of drifts, we caught some triggerfish, an amberjack and a nice sea bass.
In short order, we also caught two very large, very healthy red snapper that would have turned a mediocre day into a stellar day. We weren't fishing for red snapper. We were dropping a bottom rig with small baits for triggerfish and caught the red snapper accidentally as bycatch.
We had a couple of other red snapper that were too much for the light tackle we were using, or were eaten by sharks before we could get them to the surface. There is absolutely no shortage of red snapper, and these two fish would have saved our day, but we had to release them to the sharks that followed them up to the boat.
Everybody on the boat caught a couple of fish, and my customers went home with a small catch for dinner. Releasing these beautiful red snapper for no reason other than regulations is just frustrating.
Thank you to my group from yesterday! Sorry for the rant — it’s just very frustrating.
Hatteras NC Fishing Is Only Getting Better
As I said, fishing in Hatteras is a little bit of a struggle during the hottest part of summer, but from here on out, the fishing is going to get better with each passing day.
The blackfin tuna fishing will improve, we'll start to see more and more wahoo, and king mackerel will show up in September once we get some cold fronts. Mahi and billfish will also pop in sporadically when conditions are right.
There will also be some north wind that will slow the current down, and we should see some good bottom fishing for triggerfish, snapper, grouper, sea bass and jacks over the next couple of weeks.
I have plenty of dates available, and the fishing is only going to get better from here on out. If you're looking for a Hatteras NC fishing charter, give me a call and let's go fishing!
