Jake Jordan's Fishing Adventures

October 28th, 2009

Fly Fishing Report from North Carolina

October 21, 22, 23, & 24, 2009

Greetings from Albie World:

October 21, 2009:

Today I fished a half day with Ben Bowdich from Oriental NC and a member of the Cape Lookout Fly Fishers club. We headed west along the beach before sun up, lots of birds on Bluefish but no Albies on those baits.

We when headed back to Cape Lookout and found some scattered Albies but they wouldn't stay up long enough for us to get on them. Up inside of the hook there were some fish there but we couldn't get anything but Bluefish. Came in at noon and then heard that fishing was red hot in the afternoon.

October 22, 2009:

Bill Morrison from New Jersey came down to fly fish with me for several days after seeing my presentation to his fly club in Ocean City NJ during August of this year. Bill met me at My boat at 6:45 Am and then we left the dock at 7 AM and headed out of the Beaufort inlet. Now I did not know that Bill had just taken one casting lesson and had never caught any fish on fly, so when he told me that I was a little surprised.

I turned off the engine of "Fly Reel" (My Jones Brothers Cape Fisherman ) about two miles off shore from Shakleford bank near the gun mounts. The sky was pure blue, no wind was blowing, and the seas were dead calm, as I began 3 hours of casting instruction with a 10 weight TFO TiCr fly rod with a Mako fly reel, and a Rio floating fly line. During the next 3 hours Bill learned how to cast a fly up to 50 feet while forming a tight loop, he also caught 4 Albies while practicing his casting, which forced him to learn how to fight fish.

Bill Morrison first Albie ever!

Next we headed across the shoal and up to the east where I had reports of big Albies being caught deep while blind casting. When we arrived there were a few birds but mostly just a lot of bait and fish marks deep. I turned off the key and Bill cast out a 10 weight with a 400 grain sinking head and let it sink for a minute or two.

On the first strip he hooked a fish which felt really strong. Now I had set the drag at six pounds and the reel had 400 yards of 50#GSP backing on it, (Good Thing) that fish ripped off about 200 yards of backing and I started the motor to chase this big fish. Bill fought the big fish for 25 minutes while I caught and released two 15 pound Albies on the other end of the boat. As the fish got close I thought that it was a Tuna however it turned out to be a 21 1/2 pound Albie, the biggest one ever caught on my boat.

Bill is a big man, this is a really big Albie!

Brian Horsley, Sarah Gardner, Donny Hatcher, Chuck Laughridge, Clark Hutchinson, along with several other boats were in the area where all were catching Albies in the 15 to 21 pound class. During the next several hours we managed to catch over a dozen of these monster Albies and then I heard a friend mention that there was some Redfish (Drum) on bait balls not to far away. As I pulled up to the action where I saw several friends already hooked up, Bill hooked a monster Redfish (45 pounds?) which took off on a long run, meanwhile I hooked, fought and landed a 25 pounder which I promptly released. I turned around to see Bill's big Drum jump completely out of the water just before being eaten by a big shark.

Redfish Blitz, Brian Horsley Photos

Brian Horsley Photos

During the next two hours there were Drum on the surface feeding on large bait and every time we cast a fly (5 inch H&H Olive and White or all White) into the blitz the fly would disappear into the mouth of a big Redfish. Bill wound up releasing 4 while I was able to catch five of these awesome fish up to about 40 pounds. Nine Redfish along with a dozen and a half big Albies, this was one of my best days ever while fishing aboard "Fly Reel" in North Carolina. Today was Awesome, it was a pleasure being able to share this great fishery with so many other fine anglers from this area.

These are beautiful Animals

Bill Morrison's first ever Redfish!

October 23, 2009:

Today the wind was light and from the south as Bill and I headed out the Beaufort inlet before sun up, the light chop made for an easy ride out to the cape. We crossed the shoal and ran several miles to the east before heading offshore to 35 foot of water where we saw some spinner sharks putting on a show for us.

Bill caught a couple of nice Albies fishing in the blind while I also managed to catch several also nice Albies. After about a half hour, I got a phone call from my friend Don Butler aboard "Magician". He was several miles away with lots of Albies around his boat, we arrived and caught several more in the deep while blind casting, now these Albies were all above 13 pounds with most between 15 and 20 pounds, and they were eating big baits. While Bill was fighting a big Albie, I hooked and landed a nice 19 pounder, which Bill insisted on taking a picture of.

I love my Job!

Bill and I fished until 2:30 and released more than a dozen Albies, he has already booked more days for next years Albie season. It was fun sharing this great fishery with Jon Snipes, Chuck, Clark, Brian, Sarah, and many more members of our awesome CLFF club. Bill is going to take casting practice every week and be ready fro this awesome fishery next season.

October 24, 2009:

Today the forecast was for 25 - 30 knot south wind with rain, my client had to drive 4 hours to get here so he postponed his Albie fishing for a couple of weeks. Mean while my neighbor Adrian invited me to fish with him this morning in New Bern in the Neuse River. We launched his boat at 4:50 in the morning and headed to the leeward side of the railroad bridge.

Adrian is a spin fisherman who uses "Berkley Gulp" bait and he is quite successful. We found Striped Bass feeding on the surface near a bridge piling, he caught 13 fish on the "stinky bait" while I managed only 5 Stripers up to about 20 inches long. When it got light the fish disappeared and we were home by 8 AM.

My friend Tony Weaver from Anchorage Alaska is arriving tonight to spend 5 days fly fishing fro Albies with me, I only hope that these monster fat Alberts hang around for another month, oh yea, it would also be cool to find those giant Redfish a few more times this season! Stay tuned for more reports to follow shortly, I do love my job, wish you were here!

Regards: