Capt. Joe Shute checked in with this report:
The water temperatures are around 65 degrees along the beach and the fishing is heating up as well. I left the dock at 6:00 a.m. today and went for a little bit of fun fishing before I had to be at the shop. There were plenty of bluefish and some Spanish mackerel working in Beaufort Inlet when I went through about 6:15. Birds were picking very heavy over the feeding fish. A few alberts were also working just outside of the Beaufort Inlet. I went farther off the beach to the artificial reef and immediately started catching Atlantic Bonito! I was using a 7 weight and a 300 grain sinking line with a chartreuse half & half and a short shot of AFW 13 lb wire for a bite tippet. I caught 7 or 8 bonito from 4 to 6 lbs. before I had returned to the dock around 8:30.
Like I said , the Spanish mackerel and bluefish are doing well just along the beaches and inside the inlet also. Farther off the beach, there are a few anglers fly fishing for the yellowfin tuna and the larger gaffer size dolphin are showing up too! These dolphin are fairly easy to catch on a fly and put on a good show. A good 10 weight will handle most of the dolphin that you might encounter, but it helps if you also have a 12 weight for a back up since you never know just what you might find. It would not even hurt to have a 14 weight rigged up for a marlin! The offshore boats have been catching good numbers of both white and blue marlin in last week or so.
If anyone is interested in any offshore fly fishing for the dolphin, yellowfin tuna or billfish, we would be more than happy to help line a trip up for you.
Good Luck & Good Fishing
