Hatteras bottom fishing...

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Heading to hatteras with the boys the last week in Oct. I'm hoping on giving the bottom fishing a shot is the offshore bite is slow. i would love to hear a few suggestions of gear, depths or any popular wrecks out of HI. a PM would be super appreciated! thanks in advance...
erik

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anybody??

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We caught all the genuine red snapper you could ask for at the 280 rocks last may. We caught em on vertical jigs and most of em were 20" plus fish. We let em all go b/c the regs were unclear at the time and I wasn't about to have the law towing my boat away for some fish. These were not beeliners either. Not sure about october but I am guessing that some of the shallower reefs would have some gags hanging around. If you can find some live bait on one of the cans offshore then I am sure you will be able to come up with something. Good luck bro.

[WAHOONBOX]

We caught all the genuine red snapper you could ask for at the 280 rocks last may. We caught em on vertical jigs and most of em were 20" plus fish. We let em all go b/c the regs were unclear at the time and I wasn't about to have the law towing my boat away for some fish. These were not beeliners either. Not sure about october but I am guessing that some of the shallower reefs would have some gags hanging around. If you can find some live bait on one of the cans offshore then I am sure you will be able to come up with something. Good luck bro.

THANKS FOR THE INFO HERE...

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Not sure if I helped out a whole a helluva lot but hopefully the guy can get on some fish while he is up there. Hatteras is one of my all time favorite places to fish and I honestly wish I could afford to live there. If I were going back to Hatteras to fish then I would avoid all of the old light towers offshore unless the fishing is just terrible and you really want to get a few bites. All that I have ever seen there was big reef donkeys and barracudas and while they are aggressive as hell on topwater plugs, I want to find that big slob gag or a fat yellowfin when I am in the some of the best fishing grounds on the east coast. The light is pretty cool though. The ideal plan would be to quit messin around and run straight to the edge of the stream, start dragging ballyhoo in search of some big dolphin and some YFins.

In search of live bait? Get some #4 #6 and #8 sabikis and start running from can to can(there should be a bunch just check the chart before you go). You will find some cigar minnows on one of the cans and bottom fish usually won't turn a live greenie down. Some guys say they do well on dead sardines but I have personally never caught a thing with them so I don't use em. I am probably doing it wrong though.

Not that anyone asked but my go to bottom rig is a little overkill but it works and I always am able to put a few fish in the cooler. This is mainly used here in south florida for mutton snapper but I use it wherever I go b/c I know it works. It has worked in NC from wrightsville beach to oregon inlet in depths from 60-200 feet for snappers, gags, sometimes cobias and all the other crazy sh*t that eats live bait.

I use a trinidad 16 spooled with 50lb spiderwire stealth braid on a 15-30 star plasma rod. A short bimini to a 3 way swivel. 30-40lb flouro in a 25-30 foot section with a 4/0 circle hook snelled. On the other ring of the 3 way swivel I have a 12" piece of 10lb mono with an appropriate egg sinker to keep me on the bottom. The egg sinker is kept from sliding off of the mono b/c I use a small barrel swivel at the end so the weight can slide freely on the mono. The rod isn't all that important so anything you have will likely work. The rig is key in my opinion and if you are gettin busted off by big fish the up the leader/hook as needed. Good luck and just get a topspot chart a couple day ahead of time so you can check out all the different spots hatteras has to offer.

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Not sure if I helped out a whole a helluva lot but hopefully the guy can get on some fish while he is up there. Hatteras is one of my all time favorite places to fish and I honestly wish I could afford to live there. If I were going back to Hatteras to fish then I would avoid all of the old light towers offshore unless the fishing is just terrible and you really want to get a few bites. All that I have ever seen there was big reef donkeys and barracudas and while they are aggressive as hell on topwater plugs, I want to find that big slob gag or a fat yellowfin when I am in the some of the best fishing grounds on the east coast. The light is pretty cool though. The ideal plan would be to quit messin around and run straight to the edge of the stream, start dragging ballyhoo in search of some big dolphin and some YFins.

In search of live bait? Get some #4 #6 and #8 sabikis and start running from can to can(there should be a bunch just check the chart before you go). You will find some cigar minnows on one of the cans and bottom fish usually won't turn a live greenie down. Some guys say they do well on dead sardines but I have personally never caught a thing with them so I don't use em. I am probably doing it wrong though.

Not that anyone asked but my go to bottom rig is a little overkill but it works and I always am able to put a few fish in the cooler. This is mainly used here in south florida for mutton snapper but I use it wherever I go b/c I know it works. It has worked in NC from wrightsville beach to oregon inlet in depths from 60-200 feet for snappers, gags, sometimes cobias and all the other crazy sh*t that eats live bait.

I use a trinidad 16 spooled with 50lb spiderwire stealth braid on a 15-30 star plasma rod. A short bimini to a 3 way swivel. 30-40lb flouro in a 25-30 foot section with a 4/0 circle hook snelled. On the other ring of the 3 way swivel I have a 12" piece of 10lb mono with an appropriate egg sinker to keep me on the bottom. The egg sinker is kept from sliding off of the mono b/c I use a small barrel swivel at the end so the weight can slide freely on the mono. The rod isn't all that important so anything you have will likely work. The rig is key in my opinion and if you are gettin busted off by big fish the up the leader/hook as needed. Good luck and just get a topspot chart a couple day ahead of time so you can check out all the different spots hatteras has to offer.

GREAT info...spent a bit of time in so fla and we used the break off rig that you explained all of the time, thats for sure a go. thanks for taking the time to give a few points...and ofcourse im running into the stream early!

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you haulin your intrepid down? that boat would crush it in hatteras!