Headhunter Outdoors Report

Hi folks, Capt.David here with this weeks outdoors report. Fish in the sound,fish in the surf,fish offshore,it doesn’t matter what you like to catch,they are biting! The Inlet bars are holding some nice Reds and the Spanish are thick just outside the inlets. Some nice Flounder are showing up now and the blues of all sizes are everywhere. Kings are being caught from the beach on out but most are little snake kings. If you want the smokers go out a couple of miles before you start fishing. The Cobia are showing up in good numbers and will swim right up to the boat if you make some noise. I know it goes against everything about fishing to be noisy but Cobia are curious critters and will investigate anything around. Gulf coast anglers will take a paddle and beat the water to attract them! Be sure you have a good rod and reel with plenty of line on it if you hook one and be sure to wear him plumb out before you bring him into the boat. Cobia are known for going ape when they are pulled in the boat and will beat the heck out of you and your boat! Folks it really doesn’t matter where you like to fish get the kids and go fishing!
Now I’m going to rant and rave for a bit so bear with me. Last week I had a party out fishing with me and we saw something floating in the water and went to pick it up. I thought it was trash and I always pick up other folks trash from the water. Much to my surprise and dismay it was a 25 inch Redfish dead. It had net marks all over it and we found 8 more floating belly up in the current dead from gill nets! Now don’t get me wrong, commercial fishermen are working a lot harder than 90% of the people in the world and I’m not against a man making a living. The thing is the netter responsible was a weekend warrior with a recreation/commercial gear license! Folks he killed fish for what, a couple of little flounder. You can call it a Flounder net or a spot net but a gill net catches everything that swims into it. I’m not a tree hugger or anything but I practice catch and release and try to take care of the environment as best as I can. One of these days NCDMF is going to figure it out and get the gill nets and shrimp trawls out of the nursery-estuary system for the benefit of everyone. Folks I have caught little grouper,barracuda and who knows what else in the sound and we have to protect the nursery areas. This opinion will probably get me cussed out but you know what they say about opinions. Another thing that rubs me the wrong way is gigging! Folks sticking ain’t fishing,it’s hunting! If you want to send me a photo of a 5 lb Flounder, don’t send one full of holes! The best thing NCDMF did was give the giggers the same limit as rod and reel fishermen. Besides why does someone need to stick 50 flounder in a night. Hell I don’t want to clean that many fish. Commercial fishermen feed the world and if you don’t make a living full time doing it you don’t need the gear. Besides they ain’t going to screw themselves by overfishing an area either! Well thats it for this week so remember to take a kid fishing and be safe.

Capt. David
Headhunter Outdoors
(910) 329-0818