outer banks pier Fishing Report 2024

Good evening from the Polaris Supreme bridge. Today was our first full day of travel. We still have this big swell following us down the line, but it's not doing us any harm.  We're rolling down swell with it, so it's not a real big deal.  I wouldn't mind it being a few degrees warmer, but it is the middle of February.  Everyone got to sleep in a little bit and have a nice breakfast at 0800.  The crew gave a wahoo seminar mid morning the get the guys tuned up on catching some "skinnies".  It's nothing new to the OTR guys,  but a little refresher course never hurts.  They got right into making their leaders, rigging wahoo bombs and so forth. Certainly helps break up a travel day.  Chef Mike and Gringo put out a real nice Chicken and artichoke penne pasta with pesto sauce and garlic bread for lunch. That dish always makes for a nice nap afterward.      

                The rest of the afternoon was just a bunch of catching up with old friends, eating more food as we always do on these trips and the crew doing a few chores before dinner.  Just another standard travel day here on the Polaris Supreme. Till tomorrow, this is the Supreme boys out.

Jed and crew

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

Good evening. With all of the life around the boat last night, we never managed to hook a fish this morning so we made a move and relocated the good sign of fish from yesterday. All in all, it was a very slow day up until the afternoon time when we got on a big breezer of smaller fish and had a nice little flurry on that smaller grade of fish. They really responded well, boiling within ten feet of the transom but for whatever reason we only managed to hook and land a handful. That was pretty much our hot action of the day. We saw a couple good spots of fish today but the Bluefin were Bluefin and it was a struggle to get a bite. There's potential for some decent hits in this area but for now, it's only for a couple of lucky boats and today, we were not a lucky boat. Sometimes, that's just how the cards fall.

With a beautiful load of Yellowtail in the fish holds and an annoying load of kelp flies everywhere else, we put a bow on the 2011 Paul Hess five day trip. Our utmost gratitude goes out to Paul for once again putting together a stellar group of folks and continuing to bring them back year after year. No matter what type of economic situation or what type of fish we catch, this group has a great attitude and they come out here to have a good time. Also, thank you to Sandra and Dave Lafferty for bringing some delicious food, especially the Cherry cobbler. We'll see y'all next year. Go Giants...not.

So there you have it. We're enjoying a fine ride as we motor back to port and we're shooting for a 0730 ETA tomorrow morning. We'll be coming back out with the Costello gang for five days of fun with Captain Drew Henderson at the helm. We'll check back with you tomorrow and have a good weekend.

-Team Supreme-

Thursday, July 21st, 2011

Hi friends. We finally made it to the hot Bluefin grounds in the afternoon and as soon as we arrived, the bite shut off. We saw good life and a few schools but we never saw the whites of their eyes. There is potential to scratch out a day here as the few boats that were in the area all day had a few fish to show for their efforts. Based on that, we rigged up and tossed out the sea anchor and will be drifting offshore all night. There is a ton of life around us right now with squid, sauries, and birds all around so hopefully with all of this life, we'll wake up and pick away at some shortfin's. Wish us luck.

-Richie and Team Supreme-

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

Good evening friends. Yellowtail fishing aboard the Polaris Supreme was outstanding today. From right after breakfast until the late afternoon, we were pulling on 'tails in the 14-20 lb. class. Massive breezers, meter marks, and color spots were repeatedly located and we enjoyed steady catching all day long in beautiful weather. We had a very entertaining day and the evening time found us on the hunt for "premiums" which we managed to boat one right around 35 lbs. Hot rigs today was 30 lb. test, fly-lining a sardine with a J-hook tied on. No fluorocarbon, no designer circle hooks. A Yellowtail's mouth is like sandpaper, so there is no reason to waste the money on more abrasion resistant/expensive line and a hook that is designed to be set in the corner of the mouth so you don't get chewed off by a fish with teeth. With the exception of cow tuna fishing, we see more fish lost on circle hooks than landed. Granted every type of tackle worked today but time after time, we see just a simple 30 lb. rig filled with mono and tied up with a J-hook catching more fish than a rig with fluorocarbon and designer circle hooks. For Yellowtail fishing, it's an unnecessary expense when a so called "cheap rig" will get the job done just as good. Hey, when you step foot on the Supreme, you can fish with whatever type of tackle you wish. But take it from the people who are out here everyday, when it comes to Yellowtail fishing, keep it simple. Outfit yourself with mono and a J-hook and save that money that you would've spent on the fluoro/designer hooks because you're going to need to put it towards your fish processing bill. Get what I'm saying?

So that is all. The gang has had their fill on Yellowtail so the decision was made to venture offshore to focus on tuna fishing for the remainder of the trip. A couple of our community boats had an OK day on the Bluefin grounds so we're looking forward to seeing if we can't track down a few schools and add to our beautiful catch of Yellowtail before trips end. Our weather is a little bumpy but everyone is too tired to notice, they're out and so are we. Wish us luck and we'll chat with you tomorrow.

Happy Hump Day,

-Team Supreme-

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

Hello friends. We began the hunt for Bluefin tuna early this morning by shutting down in the gray light on a school of tuna and just as soon as everyone woke up to begin fishing, they vanished. So we followed suit and the hunt for greener pastures commenced. It took us a little while to get a school located but when we got it located, it was a good one. We immediately saw fish boiling up good all around the boat and we hooked a few right off the bat. We landed a handful and we lost a handful but what we did land were a beautiful grade of Bluefin in the 25-35 lb. range. With the massive surface show 360 degrees around the boat we decided to get the kite out. Multiple fish attacked the baits but missed the hooks and after that, all we could do was watch them boil within ten feet of the baits and turn their nose away from our double sardine rigs. We watched the show for a couple of hours before they bailed and it was a slow day from that point on. We did pull a couple of nice Yellowtail from a kelp paddy and we even trolled up a smaller grade Bluefin tuna later in the day. Not too shabby considering a lot of boats in the prior weeks have been calling in zero's for fish counts, so we're very happy with what we caught and we'll be back on the tuna grounds after we do some Yellowtail fishing. A couple of boats in our long range community had a pretty steady day on smaller grade Bluefin in another area so we'll keep our ears open to that developing situation. Like I said, we're going to go do some Yellowtail fishing as the bite has been hot and we're looking forward to finding out for ourselves just how hot the bite is.

So that's it. Our weather is fair and we're in excellent company with Paul Hess and his good friends. We'll be in the zone first thing tomorrow morning and we'll report back to you tomorrow. Take care now.

-Richie and Team Supreme-

P.S. Te amo, Anna. From: Mark.

Monday, July 18th, 2011

Hello friends. We're back in business as we departed on our annual Paul Hess five day trip this morning. Paul has been putting together a great group of anglers for the better part of a decade on the Supreme and we're happy to see all the familiar faces that he's brought aboard this year. Our bait loading went smoothly and we've been traveling in calm weather ever since leaving the harbor around lunch time. With boats spread out in different areas along the coast and offshore, we're taking our time in deciding what our game plan is. Part one of our journey will be on the hunt for Bluefin tuna tomorrow morning as one of our companions in the long range fleet saw good sign and had an OK day on the shortfins today. We'll begin looking around in the morning and we'll see if we can't boat a couple of tuna fish tomorrow before we worry about part two. Wish us luck and we'll report back to you tomorrow.

Happy Monday,

-Richie and Team Supreme-

July 10
 Alright everyone.  As I promised, July 10th has come and we are now out for the summer/fall so be prepared for a wonderful trip report like I have always brought, every night now.  After finishing a few things boat work style, and saying goodbye to the friends and family, we were ready to get out here for the long haul and that's just what we're doing.
 
 We showed up bright and early, put on some gas, loaded the herms(passengers) and left for the bait receivers.  We cant complain about the bait.  A bit on the larger side so we don't get as many but it's nice and healthy so we know they won't die and we'll catch fish with them.  Reports sound pretty good for the most part. Pretty good local action for the tunas with some better grade yellows showing up under the kelps.  The medium range yellowfin schools disappeared in the last few days but we know they'll show up somewhere soon.  You can still at least make a day of it yellowtailing  at the islands, and the ridge and rocks produce steady numbers of tuna, tail, and wahoo.  Speaking of wahoo, our 9 day in September has room.  Don't miss the trip of a lifetime.  Light load, lots of fish.  Come on, come on, come on.  Don't make me beg here.

 Anyways we're going to start out fishing offshore tomorrow and I don't know why I say start out because we'll be doing it all day.  We'll be hunting tuna and tails.  Pretty good reports in the zone we'll be rolling through the last couple days and we'd like to get in on that.  Tails and tuna baby, tails and tuna.

 On a sad note, we don't have one of our soldiers out with us this trip and we're not sure how long we'll be missing him at the moment.  Our dog Tommie "Gunny" Miles had some health issues he needed to handle.  I'm not going to go into the details but he's doing better and we hope to have him back as soon as possible.  Health comes first though.  I'm sure he's reading so maybe shoot him out a little "get better Guns" on FB.  We love you bud.

 I'll check in tomorrow night and tell you all how things went for us.  So sweet dreams and happy booking on the Polaris Supreme.
    
 
 P.S. I still haven't figured out the spell check yet so I hope I'm not embarrassing myself.

22 passengers on todays boat. We hauled in a catch of 30 yellowtail and 40 bonito. Capt. Matt Bralla and the boys enjoy some quality Fall yellowtail fishing. Come and get in on the “Locals summer”.