Ran to the Cigar, seas were 2-3 foot. Only 6 or 7 boats in the area. Caught 4 YFT and a skippy. Largest was about 35 lbs. Two were caught on green machines behind a spreader bar, two were on feathers, one green/orange, one mexican flag. About half of my ballyhoo were garbage, so I only had 3 servings of meat in the pattern at any time. Nothing seemed to want it anyway. We had hoped for a banner day from the reports. Oh well. Passed a group of 6 boats at the Hot Dog in the afternoon. Any reports from there?

Thanks for the report. Going out tomorrow - planned to go to the fingers and wayne's world but am now thinking further south. Looking forward to more reports from the other guys that were out.

Thanks for the Report I have had some lousey baits reacently also.I am going to switch places because the last 4 trips offshore my baits have been too soft.Killerbee dont seem to be that great what happened to Calcutta.The blueish colored Central American hoos seem to be tuffer.Whats your take on this matter?

Donna Sea, I think you're on the right track heading farther north. I was debating heading to the Fingers myself, but the Cigar won out. From what I heard on the radio, we may have had one of the bigger catches. Mega Bite, I've had spotty luck with ballyhoo for years now. I talked to one of the owners of Calcutta at the Big Rock captains meeting in Morehead City several years ago (we happened to be wearing the same Calcutta shirt so he thought I was an employee) and he described the problems they were having. The gill net ban in Florida almost put them out of business. He was on his way to South America, where they were having trouble with the local fishermen icing down the catch as soon as they hit the deck. To me that's a problem in itself. They shouldn't be iced down, they should be blast frozen immediately. But anytway, I'm going to reduce my dependence on ballyhoo by using more artificials. More Tuna Clones, Zukers and green machines. Maybe even some of those rubber hoos Calcutta makes. I'll let ya'all know how they perform. Tight Lines.

Fished the area you talked about and caught 4BFT and 9 Kings in about 2hours. Caught most of the fish on a planer and spoon.

I might make the run Tuesday has anyone tried the Norfolk Canyon? I heard the Hot dog was stacked up with Bluefin,Bluefish and Kings.

Keith, heard of some boats catching at the Canyon. My buddy had 10YFT there yesterday on a charter. The biggest was 47lbs.

Well... Talk about being undecided. I may go with my original plan for the fingers and Wayne's world. It's not that much farther out to the canyon if things are happening.

Keith.. I'm taking that downrigger. May try it for the first time.

Anyone else going out tomorrow ... or everyone staying home for hamburgers on the grill??

Didn't make it out today. Decided to waite out the 10-15 NE winds. Planning on heading to the Fingers and Canyon on Tuesday. Good luck tomorrow. Let us know how you did. Anyone fishing Tuesday?

"Hook Down" button 68.

One major detail I have learned from working on charters is look for green stuff coming out of you know where. If there is any type of blood in the ballyhoo pack dont think twice about tossing it back down. If they have green coming out of them that means they where frozen right away. Also you should always salt them down with that bionic brine or my own mixture which is kosher salt and baking soda. Thats just my two cents if it helps. Also dont buy killerbee, they have the worst ballyhoo out of them all.

I went offshore a week ago and the some of the hoos already had holes in the gut like they had been rigged.

Good reports...thanks for the info. Good job catching.

--Don

The offshore action is very good right now. Good catches of tuna and dolphin are being made. Small bluefin seem to be everywhere. The SE Lumps, Hotdog, Fingers, Fish Hook, 26 Mile Hill, and any other hump out there that you can put a name on has small bluefin. Most of these are pups, some not making the 27 inch minimum but there are some 100 pounders out there also. Out past 20 fathoms, yellowfin become more common. This past week, the hot spot was around the 41100 line somewhere between 20 and 100 fathoms depending on the day. Good catches of gaffer dolphin are also being made offshore. Amberjacks are stacked up around the south towers. Take plenty of bait because they are running large and so are the bluefish that are also at the towers.

Fished the hot dog dog yesterday morning. Started w/lines in at 0700. Had a hook-up on small bluefin within 5 minutes. Tally- 4 bluefin, 4 bluefin pull-offs. 1 king -12 lbs. swarms of bluefish. Fished length of hotdog to the 41210 line back and forth. hits were consistent every 15 min. until we were driven off by bluefish.

Lifted riggers and ran to 21 fathm finger. Got two nice yellow-fin and a 25 lb. gaffer dolphin. 80% of hits were on natural cedar plugs except bluefish which ate everything including every ballhoo that hit the water. heard reports of mixed 80 to 150lb bluefin in the schoolies but we only had 1 keeper. hope this helps if someone is going. Please note this was a nice run - only 160 miles total.We were back on the dock at 1600.

Pretty work ...... sounds like a great day was had!!!!!

Nice Work!

thanks - I tried somefing new for me. Keith maybe you do it all the time.Those mini spreader bars are good. They are only aboubt 18 in long with maybe six small squid behind them. These were light enough to pull on the outrigger with out pulling out of the clip. I really like them

All my spreader bars are the larger kind.

Just for kicks rig yourself 5 ceder plugs in line with the stinger in the last one, they dart back n forth looking like running bait fish, will work off your rigger clips but you might have to snug the tention up a bit. Getting another new engine put in now, 2nd one one in 6mos.!!!!!! Hope I don`t miss the bite!!!!
Capt. Skid --" One Mo Pass"

I have a few daisy chain cedar plugs one I slid Boone skirts over the plugs they are blue and white with a black mackeral stripe on them.

wonder how a small spreader bar with all cedar plugs would work?

Good probably.I saw one at TW`s on the Outer Banks.