OBX ~ 53 miles out into the Gulf Stream

My retired neighbor friend and his wife recently bought a new vacation house in the Outer Banks, Kill Devil Hills, NC. He needed some help with a few chores around the house so I volunteered to go with him on the 10 hour drive down for a few days last week. Their house is six blocks from the beach, in a residental area.



I was only able to fish one day, but what a day for catching! Long story short. The next door neighbor is a
charter captain. Here is a link to his site. http://www.fistfulsportfishing.com/

Over drinks one night, he told me he was going out the next morning offshore fishing with his wife and first mate aboard with no clients that day. He guides and also commercial fishes with a dealer license. So for a small fee he would let me tag along to help out catching. Our target fish was Mahi Mahi dolphin fish. He told me we also had a chance to maybe hook a sailfish will trolling and scouting for schools of dolphin.

We headed out on the 32 foot boat from Pirate's Cove through the Oregon Inlet out towards the Gulf Stream. We ended up going out 53 miles to our destination.







After about an hour we stumbled upon a school of Mahi Mahi in 1500 ft. of deep blue ocean.
We proceeded to catch the frenzied dolphin on cut bait for the next 30-45 minutes. Most were 5-6#. with a few
larger than 10#. They all put up a nice battle , often leaping out of the water 4 or 5 times before being landed. The first mate caught the biggest fish @ 35#. Throughout the day we found three or four more schools of these fish. I kept ten fish and the rest were sold to a wholeseller that supplies the local restaurants. Overall we took around 200 fish! Only bummer was we never got any chance to get a sailfish.

Some of our catch:











Notice the blood splatter on my shirt



Here are a few more random pictures of my week in the OBX:

















I HIGHLY recommend Fistful Sportfishing as a guide and will go on his boat again in the future!

http://www.fistfulsportfishing.com/

Congrats. I am getting restless for my own trip.

Great job Greg!  Nice photos.
 
Mahi are really fun.  To catch and eat.
 
Did you catch that large bull or was that the 35 pounder?

Looks like a great trip... nice catch and pics   Thanks for sharing.....

Nice Greg! I really miss fishing salt!

beerman
 
is that a typical trip?  that many fish caught?  is there a limit?

we fished out of Hatteras last fall. caught some dolphin and a wahoo. the mahi was tasty but the wahoo was awesome!

Cool! Thanks for sharing!

You guys are sooooo lucky!!!!

DarDys,

The bull dolphin I'm holding in my initial post is the same fish the first mate caught. 35# Mahi Mahi
Here is a picture of him holding it. I just wish I would have taken a picture of it when it was first gaffed
into the boat.



A few other misc. snapshots:

Greg,
 
You are right about getting a quick photo as soon as they come aboard -- the colors are amazing, but they go away very quickly.  I'll try to dig up one I have somewhere of a Bull all lit up in the water and a cow as soon as it came aboard.
 
Thanks for sharing your trip.