10/21-10/22 Hatteras Report

[HeadHunt]

I know this is a very late report but maybe it will help someone.


I had a rare opportunity to take my 24 year old son Brian offshore fishing. He has never had the opportunity to run out with me since I started this lunacy almost two years ago. He finally had a three day weekend and the weather gods cooperated. With no tunas being caught at OI, and my boat in Manteo, I decided to take him to Hatteras and go after the hoo's.

We arrived in Hatteras about 10:00pm Saturday night and still had to re-rig my outrigger lines Sunday a.m. We finally managed to leave Teachs at 8:15am and after clearing the inlet we made the 25 mile run to the Rock Pile (Gotta love Hatteras...I burned 44 gallons of gas). It was a little choppy on the rocks but I quickly managed to get four lines out while Brian worked the boat around the rocks. The spread on the right was a black/burgandy witch with a large hoo and a black/burgandy hoola-hood on the #12 planer from the cleat with snaps and rubberbands as the clip. I had a large blue/white Islander (chrome jet head) down the middle with a large ballyhoo. On the left I had a blue/white sailure. I took a break to show Brian the contour and give him some pointers for working us around the area. I started rigging some more lines and the port rigger trips and the game is on. Brian grabs the rod and I clear the other three, the planer and somehow manage to keep the boat in position. After a couple of good runs Brian gets most of the line back when the fish sees the boat. He takes off again and we settle in for a little fight. That was all that fish had left and Brian quickly got him close and I stuck him. One hour into the day and a solid 35-40 pound hoo in the box. We got all the lines back in and an hour later I pull in the two black/burgandy's and both had been hit with short-strikes. About an hour later the planer goes off and we boat a 20 pounder on the black/burgandy hoola-hood. After a couple more knockdowns, we are still working the same area when the witch gets hit again. We look back and a blue is greyhounding through the spread. I grabbed the WWB and the blue had crossed it (remember this). We untwisted the two reels and I cleared the last two and that boy is still putting on a show and then....nothing. He must have landed on the main line. All I had was 18 inches of haywire twisted wire to the mainline with the rig the wahoo had been hitting all day. Now, an hour later we get the last hit of the day on the Islander on the WWB. I am not sure what it was but it screamed off about 200 yards from a 30 wide in seconds and then he is gone. We reel in and there is a clean break way up the main line. I think the blue nicked it earlier when he ran through the spread. $25 dollar lure, $5 leader and $4 hook gone. So we headed in to get ready for Monday.

Monday morning I buy two more black/burgandy witches and an Islander from Teachs and we get out to the rock before 8:00am. It was much rougher but I quickly got 5 lines out. An hour into the troll the planer goes off with the black/burgandy hoola-hood and he throws the hook after peeling off about 50 yards. I pull it in and re-sharpen that 9/0 hook. Not much later the black/burgandy witch goes off and we land another hoo in the 35 lb. range. We are feeling pretty good. Should have had two in the box before 9:30. we had one more hit after the tide change. The planer goes off again and another 50-100 yards are peeled off but he also spits the resharpened 9/0. I don't understand. The ballyhoo is completely gone. Anyway,it shutdown after that. I left the camera in the truck Sunday but I got a pic at the dock. Got a nice pic on the water Monday of Brian and one of his Wahoo.

On Monday the charter guys were out deep down the beach and they had a massive billfish bite. There were at least 20 flags flying in Hatteras Harbor.

Go get em boys. They are there.

Alan

[trollman]

That is a great spot! funny thing, i was there that day with friend's boat transporting to FL and we fished 1/2 day off hatteras same day you were on the Rockpile. we heard the Billfish bite going off.

glad you cld get out with the boy and get some HOOSKI!

[HeadHunt]

Originally Posted by trollman

That is a great spot! funny thing, i was there that day with friend's boat transporting to FL and we fished 1/2 day off hatteras same day you were on the Rockpile. we heard the Billfish bite going off.

glad you cld get out with the boy and get some HOOSKI!

Thanks dude. That is a great spot. Especially the back side.
A buddy of mine went back out that Tuesday with it blowing SW20-25 because the billfish were so thick. He caught and released 8 sails and two blues. I don't know what was going on but they were thick. I couldn't get a sst for the cloud cover but there had to be a good eddy down from the rocks.

HH