Spanish Mackerel weekend
August 29, 2021 Hampstead 3 photos

Trip Summary

Two trip reports in one... I had chatted a bit with Lamont and talked through the options for the half-day trip he had planned for himself and his girlfriend on Saturday, 08/28. What I didn’t realize was that this trip would be a total surprise to her, so she had no idea what was going on until I greeted them at the dock. Fortunately, it was a good surprise. Despite having never been ocean fishing, she was a great sport and definitely up for the experience. I had planned an easy day, trolling for Spanish right along the beach. To make it better, the wind and seas were perfect. We rolled out of Topsail inlet, set the lines out just past the sea buoy, then turned back inshore toward Lea (Hutaff) Island. I was running three 00 Clark Spoons on #1 planers, along with a 3 ½” drone spoon on a #3 planer… just in case. I’ve picked up a number of kings this way, while trolling nearshore for Spanish. Unfortunately, there were no kings this day, although something did cut off my planer. It’s not easy to write up a very exciting description of Spanish mackerel trolling, but we picked up our first fish just along the shoals south of the inlet. I made some circles, and we lost a couple and caught two or three undersized fish before the bite dropped out in this spot. We repeated this pattern down the beach, zigging out to about 35 feet of water before zigging back in to around 15 feet, hunting the fish, and circling the area whenever we picked up a strike. The odd thing was the ridiculous number of 10” and 11” fish we were catching (they have to be 12” to be legal). I could hear other boats on the radio complaining about the same thing. Usually, if you’re getting little ones close to the beach, you can find bigger ones in deeper water… but it didn’t seem to matter how deep we went. Little fish everywhere! We easily boated over 30 fish between Topsail and Wrightsville, and we lost a bunch more. At the end of the day we had 9 keepers and a couple of happy customers. I thought we were done for the weekend, with no booking on Sunday, so I gave the boat an extra scrubbing and packed everything up to take home. I planned to spend part of the day reorganizing the tackle bucket, fixing rigs, and generally giving my gear the TLC it hasn’t really had lately. I was already having an icy beverage and heading for the shower when I saw a notification on my phone. Someone wanted to book a half day for Sunday, 8/29. I would be lying if I didn’t say I considered declining the booking. It had already been a long weekend, and I was pretty whipped. The boat had already been stored. On top of that, the fishing has been really tough. But I decided to respond to the guy and just find out what they were looking for. I’m glad I did. Josh and Curtis are a couple of Coast Guardsmen, stationed over in Jacksonville. Josh’s girlfriend, Amanda, would be joining them. I told them how hard the nearshore fishing has been lately, with Spanish pretty much the only game in town, but he said they really didn’t care too much. As Josh put it in his reply to me, they were just looking for a nice day on the water. I decided to take the booking and get them out there. When we met up at the dock, the whole crew was just as laid back in person as Josh sounded in our messages. I could not have asked for a prettier day, with flat-calm seas and a nice, offshore breeze. The boat was just being put in the water, so we were off and running. We fished basically the same plan as the day before, setting out the lines just out of the inlet, then working inshore and along the beach. It took them a couple of tries to get the hang of reeling in the Spanish without snatching them out of the water and de-hooking them, but we were in the fish reasonably quickly. The action wasn’t quite as good as the previous trip, and there was still an inordinate number of undersized fish, but the crew more than made up for the slow action with humor and competition. At the end of the day, they took home 6 fish, enough for a good dinner or two.
Phillip Loughlin
Hampstead, North Carolina, United States
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Other reports from this charter

Busy week - mixed fishing
Busy week - mixed fishing
July 31, 2025
I've fallen off on my reports lately. Between fishing trips and other business, I haven't had a lot of time for updates... but there are updates to make! First of all, the Spanish mackerel have been a little finicky the past few trips. On our Kid's Fun Trip last Saturday, we couldn't seem to get rid of the bluefish long enough to get a Spanish on the line. That's not a bad problem to have, as the group was catching fish and they really weren't interested in bringing any home to eat. On Tuesday of last week, we ran a 3/4 day trip with Kyle and his boys. You couldn't have asked for a prettier day with calm seas and light winds almost all day long. This enabled us to run out 25-30 miles to hit some of our distant spots. Out there we were able to pick up a couple of mahi before the needlefish moved in. Needlefish can be fun to catch as they like to jump and run all over the place, but they're not for the table. They also tend to take over an area when they show up. As we were bringing one of the needlefish to the boat, something erupted underneath it and a huge barracuda came out and cut the fish clean in half. The 'cuda circled back to get the other half, and I was able to put a bait right in front of him. He struck and the fight was on. This barracuda must have thought he was part sailfish because he jumped and flipped and put on one heck of a battle before the young fisherman was finally able to haul him to the boat. We released the fish in the water (they smell really bad so I didn't want him on the deck), but I would estimate that big boy easily at 40 pounds. As usual around noon, the fishing started to slow. We hit a few more spots and then I suggested we go nearshore and see if the Spanish mackerel wanted to cooperate. We were technically out of time, but I thought I'd extend the trip at least long enough so the guys could catch enough to make a good dinner for the family. Fortunately, once we found a good school, we were able to sling several fish onto the ice. Our final trip on Thursday, another 3/4 trip ran into one challenge after another. The clients wanted mahi and maybe kings, and I figured we had pretty good odds based on the offshore conditions previously in the week. We got off to a great start with nice conditions for a run out to some ledges about 27 miles offshore. I had been watching the weather for a couple of days, but the forecast looked good after some early morning thunderstorms moved offshore. At first I thought the forecast was actually right, for once, but we had not been trolling long when I could see storm cells lining up across the horizon. We hoped they'd go on by, but when the wind and rain started to really pick up, I decided to try to run to another spot where radar showed clear skies. Unfortunately, these summer squalls come up fast, and by the time we reached the new location, more storms were surrounding us. With some lightning in the air, I made the call to run back close to shore and see if conditions were better there. It took a while, but as we got closer to the beach, the wind died down and it stopped raining. I put out the Clark Spoons for some Spanish, but we weren't having a lot of luck. We got into some small fish and some blues, but the big boys just weren't having any of it. The water was pretty murky and we had fairly heavy cloud cover, so I'm guessing they just weren't feeding heavily. We trolled about fifteen miles, picking up little Spanish and blues, as well as some unusually small false albacore (something I don't recall ever seeing before). At the end of the day I think everyone had a great time, along with the adventure of running before the storm. Everyone had the opportunity to reel in fish, even if the fish weren't really what we were hoping for. Some days are like that, though. As I've said before, if I could swim down and put a trophy on the hook for you, I would do it in a heartbeat. But it's a big ocean and fish have their own schedules. Like many captains, I'm pretty good at figuring them out, but sometimes Nature is just going to win.
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Getting the youngsters on some fish and
Getting the youngsters on some fish and
June 22, 2025
I think one of my favorite things about running charters is getting the kids out on the water. They're always good for a surprise, whether it's handling rough seas or finding the fun in silly things... making up a fish dance, for example, or spotting things that some of us adults might take for granted. They're always curious and always learning. This is why I created our three-hour "Kids Trip" charters. This past Sunday, we had two kids' trips, back-to-back. It made for a long day, but it was a very good one! Our morning group was a rescheduled Father's Day gift, due to an iffy weather report on Father's Day. The wind and seas were about as nice as you could ask for, with just enough breeze to keep it from getting too hot, but not enough to chop up the gentle swell. These guys weren't really interested in keeping fish to eat. They just wanted to get out and catch some fish, spend time on the water, and have a fun morning. This is just what we did! I dropped the Clark spoons back as soon as we cleared the inlet, trolling south in 20-30 feet of water. With water temps near the mid-80s, I knew the fishing wouldn't be fast and furious, but there were plenty of hungry Spanish mackerel around to keep it from getting too boring. 13 year-old Mason did the bulk of the fishing, while his 5 year-old brother, Carson, explored the boat, ate lots of Sour Patch Kids, and basically had a blast. He'd occasionally ask to reel in a fish and was generally obliged. I think Dad had a great time just watching his boys do their thing, and he did a great job keeping them engaged during the lulls. As we wrapped up the trip, the catch was well over 20 Spanish mackerel, with a couple of blues and lizard fish for good measure. Our second trip of the day, with Chris, his the two youngsters, Stella and Solomon , and their granddad was just as much fun. The afternoon wind had kicked up as it usually does this time of year, so the seas were a bit choppy, but I don't think they even noticed once we got the lines in the water. There was some good-natured sibling rivalry as each child claimed a rod. Dad and grandpa played supporting roles, cheering the kids on with each fish. I'm afraid I lost track of the scoreboard, but they both did a pretty good job... especially considering how bumpy the ocean was getting. Stella definitely got the big fish of the day with a chunky Spanish, but Solomon made up for size with numbers. By the time we brought in the lines to come in, they had 15 Spanish on ice with a couple of shorts that we had to throw back, several bluefish (also released), and a couple of bonus lizard fish. I'd seen a lot of menhaden pods around, so I dropped a cedar plug way back, just as a Hail, Mary, in case a cobia or king was lurking around all that bait. Chris claimed that rod for himself. Sadly, that one didn't score for us on this trip, but I think just knowing it was out there added to the overall excitement of the day. I will always love running way offshore to chase big game fish, but it's hard to beat a day right off the beach with excited kids hauling in the Spanish mackerel. It's a reminder not to take the simpler times for granted. I know, for me, it will never get old!
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