I need people for Hatteras make up trips

[capt. jakeg]

Next week I am going to be running makeups out of Hatteras for bluefins on friday march 2, saturday march 3, and sunday march 4 (weather permitting). I have a couple people who have already expressed interests in next weekend and Im pretty sure we could get a boat full for each day.

This is starting to become the prime time of the season for bluefins and though I have some days booked already where the whole boat is chartered, I have a number of people calling wanting to set up make up trips. The boat is $1350 per day. This comes out to $225 per person plus mates tips and fish cleaning. I am fishing out of Odens Dock Marina in Hatteras, which is a 2.5 hour drive from Virginia Beach and a little over an hour from Nags Head. With most make up trips we are able to set up car pools to and from the boat from Virginia Beach. The boat typically leaves the dock between 6-630am and returns around 5pm. The ride to the fishing grounds is relatively short from Hatteras with most days putting in lines about an hour and a half after clearing Hatteras Inlet. You get a lot of fishing time on a day out of Hatteras.

This year we are rigged up to catch these bluefins in any way using conventional ballyhoo trolling gear (we have a entire spread of shimano tiagra 80 wide two speed reels on unlimited class bent butt rods) , new high tech spinning gear for casting poppers, jigging gear, and we have also added a greenstick to ensure that we can get every bite possible.

If you have never fished on a boat with a greenstick before you gotta check this thing out. The baits are presented vertically to the water and the greenstick "jigs" the baits out of the water where they fly several feet up in the air at times. The whole greenstick setup mimics a tuna or porpoise feeding and bait flying out of the water trying to escape. This drives the tunas crazy and they will come flying out of the water several feet trying to get a hold of these baits. It is an awesome bite. Also with the baits being presented vertically, we dont have to worry about leaders dragging through the water and tunas seeing them so we can hook these things on heavy leaders and use heavy drag to get them to the boat quickly.

The fish have already shown up and this year we have a pretty good class of fish. Most fish are in the high 70" to mid 80" range and weigh around 300#. There are a handful of daily keeper size fish around 150# around too. We can keep one fish per year over 73" and if you are lucky enough to be on the boat and we catch a 90" or better fish we will bring it home. I still have my giant tag for the year. All the giants we caught earlier this year were caught commercially and dont count towards my recreational tag for the year.

There are also yellowfins around in the same areas as the bluefins some days. There has been some stray mahi, wahoos, makos, and even a blue marlin or two caught so far this season. Theres killer whales and great whites in the same areas as the bluefins as well. These can be a nuisance while tuna fishing but nonetheless are awesome to see. To the south we have the usual assortment of amberjacks, bonitas, blackfin tuna, and sharks on the rocks and some days we can find a school of red drum on the way in.

Either way, I have plenty of availability in the upcoming weeks and would like to get enough days booked to be out there every opportunity that the weather allows. The couple days I have listed are not the only days available and if you are interested in another date call me and we will try to get it set up. Check my websites at www.matadorcharters.com or www.charterfishinghatteras.com for more info or call me directly at 757-749-6008 for booking. Thanks and hopefully we will see you soon, capt. Jake.

[AdamM]

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