Open Dates (May)

I still have some open dates left for May. The fishing has been great. The flounder are showing up big time along the AR's and live bottoms and the spanish should be here anyday now. We are landing some nice Kings and big hatteras blues. The reds have been killing topwater baits in the backwaters. So give me a call and get in on some of this action. Here are the days I have open for May:

Full days: 24, 31

1/2 and 3/4 days: 16, 30, 21, 23, 26, 27, 30.

Call Capt. Robert Hall of Hall'em In Charters at (910)330-6999 or email: hallemincharters@yahoo.com

What to expect for the Month of May

May

CRYSTAL COAST INSHORE FISHING REPORT

May is by far one of my favorite months for fishing. It signals the start of summer with the warm evenings, mornings and warming water temps. You are out of the window for those spring frosts and the spring winds start to die down. Anglers are not the only species awakened by the warming trend. It also motivates fish to start their northern migrations. The bait will also start to show in numbers like your finger mullets, menhaden, shrimp, and stripped minnows.The target fish for the month of May will be the Cobia. They are hands down one of my favorite fish to catch. Getting one of these fish to strike your bait is half the battle. Once hooked these fish will create a boatload of excitement. I typically start my day off by searching for these fish around all the buoys that I come across. I idle up to the buoys looking for their shadows underneath because these fish stage on floating objects. I also look for any floating debris, sea turtles, big rays, or just about anything you may come across. Once I have spotted a fish, I have numerous teqniques to try and hook one of these beasts. Believe it or not these fish can be picky at times. The tackle I typically use is spinning gear. I use a Quantum Cabo 60 reel on a medium heavy boat rod. I spool this reel with 80lb. Sufix performance braid. I will first pitch one of these fish a white 2oz. bucktail jig tipped with a large curly tail grub. If the fish will not take this offering, I will float a hand size menhaden or bluefish rigged on a large heavy gauge circle hook. If all else fails, I will pitch him a live blue crab (cobia candy). I have never seen a cobia turn down a fresh live blue crab. I float the crab on the same circle hook. Once you have the cobia hooked you must be careful not to gaff the fish green. I have a rule not to gaff a cobia unless I have fought him at least 15 minutes. These fish are extremely strong and have been known to knock holes in rod lockers and consoles. Cobias are not the only fish on tap for May. Flounder will start to show up in a big way. They will not only show up on all the artificial reefs and live bottoms but also all their internal haunts. I find good numbers of flounders on all of the marked artificial reefs out of Bogue Inlet. A good color depth finder is a handy tool when doing this style of fishing. I hold my boat over the structure while dropping 1.5-2.5 oz. bucktail jigs tipped with Strike King, Gulp, or any other soft plastic bait. I will also use live mullets and mud minnows on Carolina rigs. Be sure to use a minimum of 1.5 oz egg sinker on your Carolina rig to guarantee contact with the bottom. I use short snaps of the rod bringing the bait off the bottom. You will feel the fish strike and you must instantly set hook. For the internal flounder I use the Carolina rig as well but down size the weight.Every since I was a little fella it seems as if the Spanish Mackerel always show up on Memorial day weekend. It always seems these fish are starving once they arrive. There are a few ways to limit out on these fast moving fish. The most exciting way is to cast sting silvers, Maria jigs, cast masters, or gotcha plugs to surface busting fish. These fish will be feeding furiously on small glass minnows so it will be necessary to match the hatch. Another way locals fill the cooler is by trolling Clark spoons on planers and on top. The number one spoon in my book for Spanish would have to be the 00 gold Clark spoon. Redfish will be biting exceptionally well in the marsh. You will be able to find these fish just about everywhere during the month of May. These fish will fall for top waters, Strike King Redfish Magic’s, Gulps, live mullet and just about anything that will move. The Speckled trout bite will start to slow down but you will still have some success in the backwaters. With a little patience you will find some good numbers in the rivers and creeks.Anglers will also be able to pick off some early summer King Mackerel at the same artificial reefs and live bottoms where the flounder are. My favorite early season King bait is the deep diving Yozuri Minnow.

5-3-08 Redfish on fire

The day started off slow but ended with a bang. We found a couple of schools of about 50-100 fish and were able to land a few before noon. These fish were smashing topwaters and spinnerbaits. We were also able to land quite a few on fly. There were also 4-6 lb bluefish mixed in with the reds. It is pretty amazing to see big hatteras blues fighting Puppy drum for your topwater plug in a foot or less of water.

4-29-08 Flounders are showing up

Well the forecast was all wrong but we made the best of the situation. We were looking for bonito but flounder were the fish of the day. Also had some kings, false albies, and Hatteras blues. The fish bit well today. It is going to be hard to fill a cooler with flounder this summer with the new limits. We would have easily had two limits but hey who likes to clean that many fish. We did not cach a flounder all day that was under 15" and we ended up with 2 around 4lbs. Flounder were all caught on 2.5 oz. bucktail jigs tipped with gulps and fishbites. And the kings, bonitos,albies, and blues were caught on Yozuri deep divers. All fish were caught in the 7-14 mile range.

Seminar Sat April 26

Hello folks, I would just like to give you guys a heads up I will be at the Reel Outdoors on Emerald Isle with a booth and hanging around the shop this Sat. April 26. I will be answering any questions you may have and helping customers around the shop. So come on out Sat. and check out the store and stock up for the summer. I will also have on hand some of the new Quantum Reel, Suffix line, and Strike king baits. If you have any questions give me a call at (910)330-6999 or email: hallemincharters@yahoo.com

Open Dates (April)

I still have open dates for April, these dates are:

1/2 and 3/4 days: 4/4, 4/8, 4/9, 4/10, 4/16, 4/18,

Full days: 4/5, 4/12, 4/19, 4/26

This inshore action has been pretty good so give me a call. (910)330-6999 or email: hallemincharters@yahoo.com

New Trips for summer of 2008

Hall'em In Charters will be offering a few new Night fishing charters for 2008. We will be running Evening shark fishing charters out of Bogue Inlet. We will fish for the common sharks sand, black tip, spinner, and bull sharks. So if you want to tackle the king of the sea book your evening shark trip. We also will be providing surf fishing charters to Hammocks Beach State Park. This area holds thousands of redfish in the Surf zone and Capt. Rob has been fishing them 20+ years. This is an exciting trip to see the state park at night and to get in on some of the best surf fishing on the Outer banks. The final trip we will be offering is night fishing around dock lights along the water fronts of the Crystal Coast. These trips typically provide fast, visual action. You can expect to land a variety on this trip. All of the evening trips we offer are a Max of 3 passengers and will only cost $300. So if you want to beat the heat this summer and still get in on some awesome fishing give me a call Capt. Robert Hall (910)330-6999 or email: hallemincharters@yahoo.com