LiveLine Charters Fishing Report

Bottom Fishing Report 8-02-2008

Gillwetter Press — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 22:21:43 +0000

Had a group of experienced anglers come down from Raleigh. The weatherman was nice for the ride out. The guys wanted to bottom fish and they brought some nice custom rods made by one of the anglers beautiful gear. Caught plenty of live bait and had fresh pogies on ice from yesterday. Started around 25 miles looking for gags but not much action. Moved out to 35 miles and after a few moves finally started catching Reds and Scamps. We picked at fish all day and worked hard. Caught a couple of AJs with the live bait. We ended up with 17 keepers and at least 10 shorts released. We had a few Reds around 15 lbs but no monsters. We did have a couple of better fish win the battle and broke off. Headed home in a hard SW breeze and 4 to 5 footers it was a wet ride but the boat ran 25 mph in the slop.

Captain Mike Jackson
LiveLine Charters
910-686-7271

LiveLine Charters Fishing Report 8-1-08

Gillwetter Press — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 22:12:40 +0000

Had a group of guys in town from Charlotte for a live bait trip. Caught some of the best looking pogies I have seen in a while some looked like Harkers Island baits. Headed out 12 miles with a SW breeze. Tried for a while but no action or activity. Moved out to 18 miles to play with the AJs. We hooked a few and broke some off in the wreck but they weren’t very aggressive. The dive boat showed up so we moved off the wreck. Tried trolling again at 20 mile ledges and could only find sharks. Decided to run out to WR4 to see if the water looked better but another dive boat was on top of the wreck. Trolled around the outside and had a few good strikes. Landed a nice 25 lb Barracuda but the swells were a little large and the crew didn’t fell good so we move in closer to the beach. It was a tough day with no ling strikes which was amazing with the baits.

Captain Mike Jackson
LiveLine Charters
910-686-7271

Liveline Fishing Report 7-26-08

Gillwetter Press — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:57:04 +0000

Took Chris Lee and the guys out from Fish Busters Tackle shop in NY on Saturday. The weather was calm (actually too calm) which was the 1st time I can say that this year. We had a little current in the morning which allowed me to anchor. Started around 25 miles and caught a couple of Reds, AJs and a short Cobia. Moved out to around 35 miles and found a couple of good spots and had a few good Reds but around 11:00 the ocean went too flat and no wind or current. We moved around a lot and scratched out a few fish in each spot. Ended up drifting and found a few Mahi. Moved out to 50 miles and the ocean looked dead so we moved back into 100 feet and fished until 6:30 with a few more fish. Chris did catch a nice Red on a new custom jig he has been working on from the shop. Ended up with 12 keeper Reds, Mahi, AJs, Cobia (released) and a few short Scamps. We worked hard all day and ended with a decent box of fish.

Captain Mike Jackson
LiveLine Charters
910-686-7271

Fishing Report 7-16-2008

Gillwetter Press — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:06:10 +0000

Had a live bait trip with a great group of young men and Dad in town on vacation. As usual the weatherman was wrong and we had a NE wind 10 to 15 mph most of the day. Started by jigging up live bait still no pogies around Wrightsville Beach and headed off shore. Started around 14 miles and trolled for a while. We had a couple of strikes and landed a nice AJ on 20 lb tackle. It took a lot of effort with the wind and waves to get the AJ landed but a good job by a youth angler. The kings did not want to cooperate due to the east wind and by the radio everyone had the same problem. Switched tactics and started fishing with the large rods with live bait for the AJs on the wrecks. We caught fish for 5 straight hours and everyone had a blast. The 2 largest were 50 inch length x 28 inch girth and the youngest angler (11 years old) caught the largest of the day 52 inch length x 32 inch girth a 60 lber. Late in the day the wind slowed and we moved in around 10 miles and fianlly had a double header of kings.

Captain Mike Jackson
LiveLine Charters
910-686-7271

Fishing Report “Bottom Fishing” 7-05-2008

Gillwetter Press — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 17:54:47 +0000

Had Chris Lee from “FishingBusters Bait & Tackle” come down from NY with a group of guys on Saturday. We left early but a stiff SW winds did not make the ride as nice as we had hoped. The fishing turned out pretty good with a lot of variety in species. Started around 26 miles looking for Gags and we had a few good chances but a couple broke us off in the ledge. We did land a nice 15 lber. Moved out to around 30 miles and found a couple of good Reds. Then one of the guys brought up a 7 lb spiny lobster. We spent the day moving around various ledges and picked at the grouper all day. Towards the end of the day we got on a small ledge and for 30 minutes we had a great Red grouper bite 2 and 3 on at a time. All were very large fish 15 to 20 lb class. The largest was 22 lbs. We also had a large trumpet fish, Octopus and 4 moray eels. We headed back in around 5:30 and the wind inshore was like when we left in the morning. The final count was 2 Gags, 15 Reds, 1 Spiny Lobster, 4 morays, 1 trumpet fish, 1 octopus and various grunts, pinkys and sea bass.

Captain Mike Jackson
LiveLine Charters
910-686-7271

Fishing Report 7-03-2008

Gillwetter Press — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:22:40 +0000

Took a family in from Texas visiting for the holiday weekend on a live bait trip. The nice thing for a change I caught a few nice pogies for live bait. Headed out 20 miles in 2 to 3 foot seas and decide to start the day with a AJ work out. It took a little while to get them interested because the ocean was flat and a lot of bait around. Hooked a lot of fish but broke off more than we landed. The lady angler did a great job on a nice 25 lb Cobia. We also had a very large AJ eaten by a 200 lb shark next to the boat which was exciting. We dropped what was left over the side and watched the shark finish it off. The ocean went flat and the AJ fishing slowed down so we move off to some ledges and tried slow trolling. The kings were not in the mood to eat. We moved in shore around 10 miles and found a few kings but still relatively slow. Looks like the hard SW wind moved the bait schools around but things should settle down the next couple of days with light winds.

Captain Mike Jackson
LiveLine Charters
910-686-7271

Tournament Report “Jolly-Mon” Ocean Isle

Gillwetter Press — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:56:54 +0000

We fished the 1st tournament of the year for us on Sunday. Started the morning looking for bait and it was not pleasant. We started at 4:30 and finally settled for very small pogies around 0800. Headed out to the Shark Hole off South port. There were only a couple of boats and we immediately had action but everything was 10 lbs or less. Decide to anchor up and try chumming since the baits were a little small. We did watch a nice fish get boated (found out later it was the tournament winner 39 lbs). We had plenty of action but nothing of ant size. Late in the day we moved in off light house rocks and the long line started taking drag off slowly. I thought it was most likely a Cobia but when it started tail walking David had his 2nd Sailfish. We brought him along side the boat and released the fish. A nice 60 lb Sail in 40 feet of water. Not what we wanted for the 1st tournament of the year.

Captain Mike Jackson
LiveLine Charters
910-686-7271

Fishing Report 6-21-2008

Gillwetter Press — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:11:56 +0000

Took a group of guys out in town for the weekend. As usual the weather man was not helpful we had a 3 to 4 foot SW swell and wind. Headed out 10 miles and caught a couple of sharks before the down riggers started screaming off line. The angler did a great job with the fish but a shark eventually cut off the fishes tail. Then we saw a 12 foot Manta Ray that followed the boat for a while. Things slowed down so we tried to move off shore for AJs. The problem was that so did a thunder storm. We hooked but lost 2 AJs before the perfect storm was upon us and then we had to ride it out. Not much fun but made it back in safe and called it a day.

Captain Mike Jackson
LiveLine Charters
910-686-7271

Fishing Report 6-19-2008

Gillwetter Press — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:01:08 +0000

Had a great group in town for a family reunion from all over. The weatherman was very kind with a calm ocean so we headed out 20 miles. Started off with a good work out and we caught AJs (20 to 30 fish lost count) with live bait and poppers. Everyone had a great time and while were caught the AJs we caught 2 nice Cobia (20 and 25 lbs). After everyone had a break we started slow trolling and quickly a line started screaming 300 yards off the spool in a short period. After a short battle we out a nice 26 lb king in the box. We had multiple kings strikes during the next few hours and ended the day with plenty of fish for everyone. Headed back to the inlet at 40 mph in flat seas. A great day to be on the water and the fish cooperated most of the day.

Captain Mike Jackson
LiveLine Charters
910-686-7271

Fishing Report 06-16-2008

Gillwetter Press — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:50:34 +0000

Took a father and son in law out for a father’s day fishing trip (1 day late). We started around 10 miles and the bait had all moved from the previous day most likely from the storms/front that came through. All the areas we caught fish at 24 hours earlier were dead. Moved out around 20 miles and started the morning work out with the AJs. To say they were hungry would be a understatement. When I shut off the engines and looked over there were 12 to 15 fish under the boat waiting to be feed. It took us a couple of fish to get the system down and keep them from breaking us off. We caught and released 15 to 20 fish before we had enough. In the process we boated the 1st 2 Cobia of the season for Live Line and they were boat nice 20 to 25 lb fish. We also hooked a couple of large Cudas for some light line acrobatics. Ended the day slow trolling and picked up a couple of Mahi and kings.

Captain Mike Jackson
LiveLine Charters
910-686-7271