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Giant Bluefin Tuna Fishing in Morehead City, NC
2007-2008 Season
This is an overview on our charter and commercial operations down in Morehead City, NC for the upcoming winter giant bluefin season. Our crew for the upcoming winter GBT season on the 55 Custom Carolina HOOKED UP II will be myself, Capt Kobey Treadwell from Bluewater Sportfishing in Cape May, plus Capt Jimmy Heidrich from Long Island and Florida. Capt Jimmy has been fishing commercially for GBT since he was 18 years old from Maine to North Carolina. He caught one of the first GBT that was almost 1000 lbs in the Mud Hole years ago and has caught hundreds of GBT tuna commercial fishing. Last December Capt Jimmy ran the Lady Maureen and in 10 days on the water he caught 8 giants. We are glad to have Capt Jimmy aboard the HOOKED UP II this winter and look forward to a banner winter GBT season for all involved. We will also have Capt Timmy Tanghare from Clean Sweep joining our crew after he finishes his striper season in Cape May along with other quality mates and captains we know. The HOOKED UP II is currently having two new Caterpillar C-13's diesel engines installed courtesy of Caterpillar plus experimental props from Michigan Wheel. We hope to have it ready within a few days after the engine sea trials scheduled for late next week and then off too MHC. We should be able to easily cruise at over 30 knots, weather permitting, with a top end speed of at least 34-36 knots. However, with fuel prices we won’t be pushing the speeds that high but it is there if we need it. The HOOKED UP II is not only one of the fastest big charter boats on the East coast but offers many amenities just not found on most charter boats. We have the ability to put up information from our 2000 kW digital fishfinder on the big 40 inch flat screen TV in the salon so our guests can see exactly what we see on the fish finder on the bridge. Our customers love this feature plus we can get all your favorite college bowl games and pro football playoffs live while trolling for GBT with the 140 channels from Direct TV. More important than all of this is, we do know how to catch GBT. We teach on all our trips and encourage active participation by all that fish with us. We run anywhere from 5 to 25 miles from the inlet to find the best bite and usually depart long before sunrise to start trolling before the other boat traffic arrives which is often when the best bite is. Our trips cost $1675.00 per day with up to 6 anglers on the new 55 HOOKED UP II and we never fish by the clock and will stay out as long as we feel there is a chance to catch a giant on most days. We discount the rates when multiple days are booked and if we catch a bluefin we can sell over 73 inches when you are out with us you fish for free. We also discount small parties of 1-3 anglers. Contact us for more information concerning the current regulations and how we work this out with our charters. We may even overnight offshore on some trips and have done these in the past on occasions. We will do whatever it takes to catch including running down to Southport, SC if that is where the best bite is. We prefer small parties of 4 anglers or less but can take up to 6. Most all our customers come from the NE and are regulars that have fished with us in the past and book the boat for 2 days and spend at least 3 days in MHC.
There is quality lodging at very reasonable rates plus lots of good restaurants in and around MHC not more than a few miles from our dock. Since most of our customers have a 8-12 hour drive down from the NE we do our best to give them an honest fish reports and let them decide if it is worth their while spending the time and money coming down to MHC. This also includes winter weather conditions as we do not want our customers sitting at the dock after the long ride down and refund all deposits if other dates cannot be rescheduled. We plan to go every day the weather allows no matter how good or bad the bite is and take our chances commercial fishing as we have done for the last few years. I like to advise those that are interested in coming down to MHC that it should be looked at as the opportunity to get out fishing with friends or family when the offshore season is over up in the NE without the long canyon runs we do in the summer. The giant fishing has not been anything like it was in the past but each year no one really knows how many fish will show up and we all are hoping for large numbers of fish this season and we do have early reports of lots of bait and some giants caught already the last few days and we plan to start fishing between December 4-6.
The 55 HOOKED UP II at Canyon Club having new Cat diesel engines being installed
First new engine installed on starboard side a few weeks ago. Both engines are in now and waiting for new exhausts to arrive that were shipped today
Picture of bait and bluefin below on 40 inch flat screen TV in salon that was piped down from the bridge. We have sure come a long ways since I first fished for GBT out of Pt. Judith, RI in the mid-70's with a 6 channel crystall style VHF and a flasher fishfinder by Ray Jeff.
Picture of the bait (bunker-shad) that brings the GBT to the outer banks and so far the reports I have gotten is there is lots of bait off MHC this fall. This was taken a few years ago my other boat the HOOKED UP I
GBT getting prepared before going to Japan the next day.
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