Offshore Fishing & Gulf Stream Fishing

Offshore fishing and Gulf Stream fishing is some of the most exciting fishing. Offshore fishing primarily covers the 10- to 30-mile range, which is about 70 to 110 feet of water. This area offers some of the most consistent fishing.

Mahi-mahi

You can troll this area catching mahi-mahi, amazing fish with colors from Mediterranean blue to light sky blue with bright chartreuse dots lighting up all over. It’s not hard to tell it is a mahi-mahi because of their spectacular jumps as soon as they hook up. They are true aerial acrobats. They frequent the 10- to 30-mile range in the warmer months. They hit a variety of trolling baits.

Atlantic sailfish

Another acrobat that might have the mahi-mahi beat is the Atlantic sailfish, one of the most prized billfish. They get upwards of 80 pounds and excite even the most experienced anglers with their 6-8 foot leaps skyward. “Sails” are finicky eaters and will jump and slash all around your trolling baits. With proper skill and experience you can hook them on specially rigged baits for an unforgettable fight. They are more common during the warmer months.

King mackerel

The offshore fishing area is a great place to catch that tournament-sized king mackerel you’ve wanted a picture of you holding for so long. They school up well out there and usually keep the reels singing. They hit most of the baits we use for mahi-mahi and sailfish.

Bottom fishing

This fishing territory also offers great bottom fishing because of all the live reef, ledges, and rock bottom that provide habitat for bottom dwellers. During this kind of fishing operation we usually anchor directly above the fish. You simply drop straight down to them using weighted grouper rigs.

When bottom fishing we target big grouper, gag, red, scamp, and gray. This is just the tip of the iceberg for bottom fishing. There are a bounty of hard pulling, beautiful, and delicious fish, including black sea bass, pink snapper, American red snapper, hog snapper, gray grunt, vermilion snapper, ocean trigger, queen trigger, jolt head and ringtail porgies, and many more. Typically as soon as you get a good bottom fishing bite, a big mahi-mahi or king mackerel will hook up to one of our light line rods to keep things “reel” interesting.

Gulf Stream fishing

The Gulf Stream is where fishing dreams are made. This warm body of water starts in the southeast Caribbean moves up the islands and runs up the east coast of North America. That warm water running up and clashing with cooler water produces world-class fishing off our North Carolina coast.

The Gulf Stream moves slightly in and off shore and starts around 55 miles with 150 to 250 feet of water. In this area, we troll big tackle for big fish, yellow fin tuna, black fin tuna, Wahoo, big mahi-mahi, sailfish, white marlin, and blue marlin.

For these fish we use big game rod and reels, but we have an ace up our sleeve – the tuna green stick. We are the only charter boat there is with a tuna green stick. This form of fishing involves a special 60-foot fiberglass pole that dangles artificial squids just above the water. The squids slap the water in a fashion that big game fish will not turn down. When big game fish like a yellow fin tuna sees these squid, they skyrocket many feet out of the water with the bait in their mouths thinking they’re home free. Then they crash back down in the water, hooked up and ready for you to pull in.

Another unique perk to our Gulf Stream fishing trips is snowy grouper fishing. Snowy grouper are about 15 miles outside the Gulf Stream and close to 70 miles offshore. They reside in 800 feet of water! We use 10-pound weights that take a few minutes to reach the bottom, and there they are – pure snowy grouper. These fish average around 30 pounds!