**Coastal Carolina Charters will have a "Blanket Saltwater License" for the boat. Which means our clients do not have to worry about purchasing a NC Saltwater License. "We've got you covered!"**

2007_reports

July 2008

Well I had a crazy day today and the weather was just as bad, as you know it got pretty rough out there today, but took my Sunday trip today because I think Sunday is going to be terrible in the ocean. We got back to the docks at Dudley's and my buddy Jeff was trying to catch one of the stingrays that hang around. They kept peeling the line and cutting them off. I said I have something for that stingray, so packed up the family for some good ole excitment. We all headed down to the marina to hook into one of these monsters. I brought the "heat" with me, my daughter Stella wanted to catch this thing and she was determined, so I said you got it. So I pulled out one of the Penn 50's and said come on! It took us a while to get him to come in and start messing with our bait. Finally he got a hold of the cigar minnor on a #8 Gamakatsu treble hook and there he went trying to head out of the basin. I let him run a little and then gave it to my son Skylar and he fought for a while, and little Stella was a little scared at first but then she saddled up and starte to crank on the big ole 50. We brought him up and everyone was astonished by the size of him. He probably had about a good 48 to 52 inch wing span. Lots of fun with the family, now I owe them all a Dairy Queen ice cream.

Give us a call at Coastal Carolina Charters to book your next trip 910-787-2500

Captain Jamey Copeland

Well we were not sure what the weather was going to do today, but the over-cast skies moved on and the sun came out. We started out on the inside fishing around Browns inlet, right off the bat Nancy had a strike that took off like there was no tomorrow. The poor finger mullet never had a chance, we never saw for the 14 pound braid snapped, so it must have been a monster, I think some Amberjacks may have been lurking around the inlet. After a while the action slowed down, so we took off out Browns inlet and headed to Bear rock, we got on the rock and it was not long and we found a school of "Reef Donkeys" they were small one's around 5 pounds, but they sure did put up a good fight and it was a good thing they were the small one's on the light tackle we were using. We would not have stood a chance with some monsters. We caught a load of Black Sea Bass but all were about an inch too short. We finally got into a few Brown Bombers, everyone had a ball with them. I want to thank Paul, PJ, Anna, Justin, and Nancy for the great time today, I hope you guys enjoyed it and won your family "Big Fish" contest.

Give us a call at Coastal Carolina Charters to book your next trip at 910-787-2500.

Captain Jamey Copeland

Today I got to do one of my favorite things in the world, take a kid and his dad out on a Ecology tour of Swansboro. It was a beautiful day and I met Neil and his son Ronan at Dudleys Marina and the adventure began. Of course we started out with some pirate stories about the area and some of the history. We pulled a few crab pots and checked out the blue crabs and Ronan even got to touch one, he was pretty stoked. We checked out some schools of bait fish, lots of finger mullets around Swansboro this time of year, that was really cool. Went over the shark island and picked up some shark's teeth and fidler crabs, that was pretty fun, except Neil got pinched pretty good by one. I found a nice Hedden top water bait in the marsh while I was retrieving some fidler crabs, so I was pretty excited. We then went to the Emerald Isle high rise and fed the Sheepshead for a while. A pretty awesome day to say the least, we didnt have a chance to clam on some of the oysters rocks due to all of the rain we had but maybe next time.

Give us a call to book a fishing trip or an Ecology tour of Swansboro and Emerald Isle, it is a great time for the family. 910-787-2500.

Captain Jamey Copeland

I had the Bonaventures on today from Virginia. They have been coming to vacation on Emerald Isle for years and looked us up for a trip. We headed out Bogue inlet and it was pretty nice, very light winds and a little overcast. We made it out to "D" buoy and first thing we saw was a big Baracuda sky out of the water for a bait, so we jigged up some nice baits and quickly put them out. It was not long and we had a strike on the long line, the fish ripped the bait right off the hooks. After a while we moved back towards the beach due to the weather and wound up by East Rock, the bite was on there another boat had a few small kings in the boat, so we put them out and WHAM big strike on top and this nice 10 pounder was the result. It was a good fight for Brandon, using the medium action Shakespeare Ugly Stik with a Penn 550, there is nothing like light tackle fishing for king mackerel. We had several more short strikes and are fill of sharks, let me tell you we no shortage of sharks this year.

Great trip today I really enjoyed it, give us a call at Coastal Carolina Charters 910-787-2500 to book your next trip.

Captain Jamey Copeland

June 2008

I had a great crew on board today, Steve, Darrin, and Phil from outside of Charlotte. It was pretty cool because they work for Flowers Baking Company, and my first job when I graduated college was a sales rep for Flowers.
Well, these guys were ready to fish and I did not want to let them down. We headed out to the "B" buoy and picked up some greenies and began trolling around, the day before it was on fire. It was a little slow this morning so we moved out to AR 345, and wow, there were some big "reef donkeys" out there. We had about 20 of them circling around the boat. We light lined some greenies out and hold on, because the AJ's took them for a ride. We were hooking into some some 25 pound fish and it was super crazy. After wearing our arms out we went over to the Charlie buoy and jigged up some cigar minnows and began trolling. It was not long and we had some lines screaming. There was a lot of action out here, we caught some barracuda, dolphin and kings on this spot. Awesome day with you guys, I really enjoyed it and see you again soon.

Give us a call to book your next trip at Coastal Carolina Charters 910-787-2500.

Captain Jamey Copeland

I had one of my regular clients on board today with his father in law. They were amped to go for some king mackerel. We headed out Bogue inlet around 0615 and it was a little rough, but we steamed ahead. We made out to the "B" buoy and found lot's of bait and began to fill the livewell. We put out the lines and put'em down around 25 ft and we had the first knockdown. There is nothing like the line screaming off the reel. Steve jumped up and took control and started working the king to the boat. The drift and the wind were pretty bad, so we had to re-group and get our lines back out and WHAM! This king was mad and a lot bigger than the first one, he peeled off about 150 yards of line and then we put an end to his run. Shawn had the rod and did a great job getting the fish to the boat. Got everything situated and put the lines out and you guessed it, WHAM! another king on, we had a little bad luck on this one, the wire snapped at the boat before I could get the gaff in him.
It was a pretty awesome day and enjoyed the talks about the big fish up in Minnesota. Give us a call at Coastal Carolina Charters to book your next trip. 910-787-2500.

Captain Jamey Copeland

Some pretty nice weather the last couple of days. I had the opportunity to meet some really nice people and venture out along the Crystal Coast. The weather was super hot and the water temp was in the 80's, that is pretty hot. We been hitting the bridges in the area pretty hard for some Sheepshead, and the bite has been pretty good. I have been using sand fidlers, but saw an old timer using some big crabs the other day and pulling some nice 5 pounders up, pretty sweet.

There is an abumdance of bait in the area, and we have been jigging up nice baits out by "B" buoy and surrounding areas. As always this time of the year, we have plenty of bottom feeding brown bombers. They sure are fun hooking up on lite tackle and put up a nice fight all the way to the boat. They are not too bad for the dinner table either. Al and Tom really had a blast with these. The Spanish Mackerel are on either side of the inlet and are chomping on the Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnows and Clark Spoons, its a good time and I let the clients do it all when pulling spoons, they have to haul in the leader with the fish, they seem to get a kick out of it, the kids really love it.

There has been a good sign of grouper this year, we have pulled up several Gags, but this day lots of small ones, but they sure are a blast to fight out of the holes. We have been using live "Greenies" . The Amberjack are all over the place, lots of big Reef Donkeys at Honeymoon Rock, they are so hungry they will bite the hook with nothing on it.

Give us a call at Coastal Carolina Charters to book your next trip (910) 787-2500.

Captain Jamey Copeland

Got a call from Brian out of Goldsboro who wanted to charter me on his buddies boat today. I said you got it, they picked me up at Dudley's Marina in Swansboro and we headed out. Since the bait has been pretty thick at Charlie and Delta buoys, we headed that way to load the livewell. I got the boys set up with some Sabiki rigs and it was not long and we filled the well. It was pretty awesome while jigging up bait the kings would explode on the bait coming up right in front of you... Well these guys wanted to bottom fish so we went to one of my grouper holes and began. Brian had the first tug a 22 inch Gag, he had to go back. A couple more drops and boom, pulled this nice Gag out of the hole. We caught some nice Black Sea bass as well. We headed back to get more bait and managed to catch a few kings and spanish as well.
Great time out there today with Russell's, Brian and Brian you guys did great and cannot wait to hear about your Gulf Stream trip...

Give us a call at Coastal Carolina Charters to book your next trip, 910-787-2500.

Captain Jamey Copeland

What a smoking hot day on the Crystal Coast. I had a good friend Colby from Swansboro on board today for a little offshore fishing. We hit the inlet around 0545 and headed for some bait. The Charlie buoy was loaded with bait, so we filled the livewell in the 240 LTS Triton and headed to a favorite spot. I had a report that some dolphin were showing up close to the beach, so I headed there as quick as we could. Well it was not and we had the first Mahi skying out of the water on the baits. It was pretty exciting on lite tackle, Shakespeare Ultra-light Ugly Stix with Penn 550's. Put a few dolphin in the boat and switched up for some bottom fishing, we were looking for some grouper and got into the "Reef Donkey's", Old Colby is a big man, but that 20 pound AJ kicked his butt, it was pretty funny giving him a hard time.
Great day of fishing, so give us a call at Coastal Carolina Charters to book your next trip at 910-787-2500.

Captain Jamey Copeland

I had a father-son on board today, Joe and Chris from up-state New York. We met up at Dudley's Marina in Swansboro and headed out Bogue Inlet for some action. The wind was a little stronger than predicted but we still managed to get outside. There was a little chop on the water from the east wind as well. We pulled outside the inlet and a few spanish were chomping, there were a few boats out and many of them were talking about catching their limits. We headed out to some live bottom looking for some flounders, but ended up on some Black Sea Bass. This is Chris with a nice 2 pounder. We headed back inside and got up on the bridge and started working for some Sheepshead, I had some nice fiddler crabs and we pulled some fish.

Great day to be on the Crystal Coast fishing, give us a call at Coastal Carolina Charters to book your next trip. 910-787-2500

Captain Jamey Copeland

May 2008

Another spectacular day here in Emerald Isle/Swansboro. I had a great father-daughter combo on board this morning, Mathew and Tracy from Rhode Island. We headed out the inlet to go after some Spanish Mackerel, it did not take long to find some nice 2 pounders along the beach of Emerald Isle. We were pulling Yo-Zuri "Crystan Minnows" and some Clark spoons. There were lots of spanish out there today and Tracy ended up catching a few big ones. We ventured out to some of the live bottoms and started jigging for flounders, my favorite way to fish for the flatties is with a 2 ounce SPRO bucktail tipped with a Berkley Gulp 4 inch shrimp. Jigging for the flounders takes a little practice but once you get it, it is no problem as long as you can stay over the live bottom. Mathew did an excellent job and pulled up a nice 3 pound flounder, he was impressed by this method. I told him you should be able to do the same thing up in Cape Cod bay. I saw a charter captain of mine fishing for some Cobia, so I thought we would give it a try, I got some live cigar minnows and lite lined them out with my lite tackle rods, no cobia but some nice blacktip sharks, Tracy had a good time with them. Great job today and I hope you guys can find a nice place down here and come stay for a while.

Give us a call at Coastal Carolina Charters, 910-787-2500 to book your next trip.

Captain Jamey Copeland

Beautiful day here on the Crystal Coast of North Carolina! Headed out Bogue Inlet with three awesome guys for a full day and some hot action. I met Craig, Shawn, and Ryan at Dudley's Marina in Swansboro and we headed out. We stopped by "D" buoy to jig up some bait and then we were off to one of my favorite spots. The weather was simply incredible, the wind was very light and the sun was shinning. We were slow trolling with the live "greenies" and I would throw a dead bait in the mix as well. The bite was pretty good throughout the day, we had 5 or 6 knock-downs and ended up breaking off, I was getting pretty upset about us missing these fish so I re-grouped and tied somemore rigs. Well I ran out of my pink Pirate Plugs, so I had to go to my "Mean Greens". Well the kings were craving green, because they were destroying these bait one after the other. All of the kings were about 28 inches and we were using light tackle, Shakespeare Ugly Stik and Penn 550's. It was some kind of fun for these guys. I was glad to take these hero's out today and I had a great time, thanks for what you guys do and come back and see us again.

Give us a call at Coastal Carolina Charters at 910-787-2500 to book your next trip.

Captain Jamey Copeland

What an awesome day! I had an full day trip today with Stephen from Pikeville Kentucky, a big river trout fisherman. It was so pretty we had to head offshore and check out the king mackerel bite. We headed out to "D" buoy, there was lot's of bait showering the buoy and the kings were there as well. We put out some Yo-Zuri Deep Divers, I was using the dark green color, it closely resemembled the bait around the buoy. I was telling Stephen, "I love it when we troll by other boats jigging for bait and the reels take off." Sure enough when we went by a group jigging for bait the port side Yo-Zuri DD went to screaming. We also did some bottom bouncing for flounders, I use a 2 ounce SPRO Bucktail and a white 4 inch Berkley Gulp, and we pulled up some small ones, but that's a good sign, hopefully the bigger fish will move in.
We headed in to the backwaters with the tide coming in, we hit one of my favorite bays for Redfish, no nets around slick calm, PERFECT! We saw some fish pushing water and commenced to casting on them, one blow up and a miss. Its an awesome sight to see a big ole Red explode on the water like that. Well it was not long and a "weekend gill netter" came into the bay, I asked him to give us one hour and he could have the bay. He just yelled and screamed and set his nets. Totally wrapped us up with nets and ran his motor as hard as he could hitting the bottom every inch and pretty much scary every fish out of the bay.
All in all a pretty good day to say the least. I had a great time with Stephen and look forward to the next trip.

Give us a call to book your next trip at 910-787-2500.

Captain Jamey Copeland
Coastal Carolina Charters

I was out scouting for some Red Drum and got a last minute trip with some really cool guys from Philly. These guys were classic and did not let up on each other all day. The wind laid down and it was real pretty off the beach. We headed out to AR345 for to try for some kings, it was a little slow and had small kings, nothing very big at all. We were pulling the Yo-Zuri deep divers, I mixed it up with the three sizes, seemed the kings liked the 4 inch ones today. We shifted tactics and went to bottom bouncing for flounders and got on a little knot of them. We were using 2 ounch SPRO bucktails with a 4 inch Berkley Gulp shrimp (white). Therer were several large fish out there so dont worry about the size limit of 15 1/2 inches, these babies were 3 to 5 pounds.

All in all a great day on the water with some really nice guys. Give us a call to book your next trip, the weather should turn for the better around Thursday or Friday. I will be fishing the Swansboro King Mackerel Tournament on Saturday, so good luck to all the anglers.

Captain Jamey Copeland
910-787-2500

What a beautiful morning! Headed out Bogue Inlet for some near shore fishing and the action was hot. I had a great group on board this morning and they were ready to fish. We put out the Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnows and it was not long before the Blue's were chomping away. Slow troll the Yo-Zuri minnow at about clutch speed and make sure you are holding onto the rod, because they are going to jump all over your lure. We also rigged up some Gotcha plugs and were casting off the bow and getting some massive hook-ups, which would bring more fish up to the surface. These blues are really aggressive and will attack each other for some food. Since it was slick calm I decided to head over to the shoals and look for some Red Drum, well these big boys were hanging in the shoals and ready to eat. We were using Berkley Gulp 4 inch paddle swimming mullets and white shrimp on a 1/4 ounce Gamakatsu jig head. It was on! We pulled several off the shoals and everyone of them were 27 inches, I sure would like to have two of these for the upcoming CCFA Redfish series...

Give us a call at Coastal Carolina Charters to book your next trip...910-787-2500.

Captain Jamey Copeland

April 2008

What a nice day here on the Crystal Coast, I had Nathan and Jordan from Burlington on today. The weather finally cooperated with us and we got off shore for some action. There was a pretty good Bluefish bite going on at the Hutton this morning with some Hatteras Blues in the 10-15 pound range. Chased some birds for the bonita, but they were really moving today. We worked a few ledges for some Sea Bass and picked off some pretty nice fish. We moved back inside and the Bluefish bite was on in the Emerald Isle area. The Redfish bite, there were a few explosions on topwaters for Redfish in the backwaters when the tide changed. We were pulling Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnows (3 5/8) for the blues were really hitting them hard. It will not be long and the King Mackerel bite will pick up, the water temp was 66 degrees today.

Give us a call at 910-787-2500 for your fishing adventure.

Captain Jamey Copeland
Coastal Carolina Charters

Got the Blue's? With all of the high winds we have had lately it's been tough to get offshore, but not to worry the new Triton 240 LTS is the ticket! I had two cool guys on today, John and Jeff. These two hard charging Marines were pretty funny all day, cutting jokes about women and missing fish. We were fishing around Emerald Isle and Swansboro today for Blue's. We got into a real nice school of chompers near Emerald Isle. We were using my favorite lure and the best around for blues, the Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnows, (3 5/8"), We were using the Blue, Green and Yellow ones today and the the blues were tearing them up, nothing like it on light tackle, I even hooked up a couple of trout rods and it was on. All in all a great day on the water with two really nice guys, be careful on your upcoming deployment and come see me when you return.

Give us a call at Coastal Carolina Charters, 910-787-2500 to book your next trip, dates are filling fast so call early.

Take care,

Captain Jamey Copeland

April Gulf Stream Report

Well we have had some rough days but my buddy Captain Folden Lee "Still Outnumbered Charters" finally found a window and made it out to the bluewater. Folden started out at the Swansboro hole for some awesome Wahoo fishing, and it was on fire! Folden reported several hook-ups with some nice hoo's, the yellowfin and blackfin tuna bite was pretty decent as well, a handful of 30 pound yellowfin were brought to the boat and making a nice meal right now for some lucky souls.

Give us a call to book your next Gulf Stream charter, Captain Folden Lee is going to be running my trips this year, I could not ask for a better captain to do the job.

Call 910-787-2500.

March 2008,

Hooked up with a nice group today, Joel had some family visiting from Indiana and we headed out for a day on the river. It was a little cold this morning, but that did not slow us down. We got to one of the hot spots that had been producing nice speckled trout this week and started working the shore. We were fighting the full moon so the bite was a little slow, but we still found some nice fish. We had some nice hook ups this morning on Berkley 4" Gulp, white shrimp on a 1/16 ounce Gamakatsu jig head. Later on we started working the Yo-Zuri crystal minnows and had several nice hook-ups on red drum, we also threw a few Yo-Zuri Hydro Pencils (top water) bait and had a couple of explosions. All in all a great day and very nice people, oh yeah and some die hard Purdue fans....

Give us a call at 910-787-2500 to book your next trip, the weather is warming and the flounders should be getting closer along the beach, and there are still lots of speckled trout and reds as well.

Captain Jamey Copeland

Get Ready for the CCFA Redfish series 2008. I am so excited and proud to be apart of the series that Crystal Coast Fishing has put together this year. We have a (3) tournament Redfish series that has over $70,000 in prizes and best of all the chance for a lucky angler to win a brand new Chevrolet 4x4 from Stevenson Chevrolet. That's right a brand new 2008 Chevrolet truck. We will be tagging a Red Drum and releasing it the day before the tournament and if you catch it during that tournament bring it in and collect your truck. It is that easy.

Thursday, January 10th

We had our first meeting for the new Inshore Saltwater fishing club started in Swansboro tonight and we had a really good turnout. I would say there were about 70 people that showed up. I know all of the board members were really pleased and watned to thank everyone for showing up and helping with getting this club started. The club is main focus is to start a Hatchery in the area to help improve fishing in our area for the future. We have (3) Redfish tournaments scheduled and one Trout tournament for this year. If you are interested in joining the club or finding out more about it you can go to the web site at www.crystalcoastfishing.net or give me a call at 910-787-2500, I will be glad to give you more information. We hold our meetings on the 2nd Thursday of each month, next month we will have the meeting on Wed, February 13th. We hope to see you there.

crystalcoastfishing.net

January 6th 2008

The Bluefin Tuna season has been extremely unpredictable this year. One day the bite is unbelievable with lots of fish being caught, and then it will shut down for days, leaving the charter captains scratching their heads on where they are. I got a call from a buddy of mine Joe Dean and Ernie White from over at "Poison Point" , no really from Waterway Campground in Cedar Point and they were heading out to give it a try again for one of these elusive beast. I checked the water temps for another captain friend of mine and had heard the Knuckle Buoy may be the spot, well O'l Joe Dean headed for the waypoint and the lines were in the water by 7:30 and he was hooked up by 8:15. Joe battled this fish for about 2 hours and it dragged him about 3 miles from where he hooked up. Well I have to say Joe and Ernie do a pretty good job when they are fishing together, they have impressed me to say the least. After some sore arms and backs they got this beast on deck and it dressed at 285 lbs, should be a real nice pay day for the boys for sure.
Oh yeah if the fish looks small compared to Ernie, don't worry it's not, Ernie "Wee-man" White is standing on a 6 inch pallet, he only wishes he was that tall...

Great job out there today boys keep it up. Give us a call at Coastal Carolina Charters to book that next trip. 910-787-2500

Take care,

Captain Jamey Copeland

January 5th 2008

I got a call from the Turner's about doing some fishing, they just bought a new boat and wanted to get out on the ocean and test it out. Well I spoke to some other captains and decided to head over to the 'East Side' and see what we could get into. We crossed the shoals and steered to the Atlas tanker. The water was 70 degrees and bait and fish all over the wreck. We started trolling, put out a good mixture of baits, Pirate Plugs, Cape Lookout Lures, and Blue Water Candy all rigged up on medium Ballyhoo. Thanks to the crew at Reel Outdoors for helping Phillip out with some tackle, you guys are awesome!!! Well it was not long and we were hooked up with a good o'l King Mackerel, Phillip grabbe the rod and began to work the fish in, he did a great job. We switched up to bottom fishing, because the Atlas was stacked up with fish and we could see some of the other boats pulling up a nice mixture of fish. Well we sure got our share, some really nice Black Sea bass, some around 5 pounds, a few B-liners were mixed in and some of the biggest Pin fish you have seen...Well it was getting towards the end of the day and I broke out a Butterfly rig, the crowd asked do those things really work. I said, "You bet they do". I put a nice pink and silver one on and bounced it off the bottom maybe twice and a monster Amberjack had to have it. It was some workout but we got the fish in the boat.

All in all a great day, beautiful weather and calm seas. Give us a call at Coastal Carolina Charters 910-787-2500, there are still plenty of nice days to fish.

Take care,

Captain Jamey Copeland

Late December East side Cape Lookout shoals:

I had a good friend give me a call about what was happening over on the 'east side', which is across the Cape Lookout Shoals for the folks down here on the coast. I told him the King Mackerel bite was on fire with a bunch of 40 pounders getting hauled in. I also said there were a few Wahoo's being taken as well. The day was ideal you could not have asked for a better day for fishing, heck any day out there fishing is a great day. Well my buddy Barrington Page set out to show me a thing or two, and let me tell ya, he hooked into these two monsters tipping the scales well above 80 and 90 pounds each. The water temp over there stays real nice for big Kings and Hoo's this time of year and can make for some spectacular days on the water.

So if you are feeling like you are ready to give a big Hoo a try give us a call at Coastal Carolina Charters 910-787-2500 to get on this hot action.

Take care,

Captain Jamey Copeland

December Outer Banks Style:

The Outer Banks has always been a special place and this time of the year you cannot go wrong booking a charter for Stripers. The bite was a little slow to start but he sure picked up pretty quick. The fish have be spread out I have heard of some fish being caught down near Hatteras but the main concentration has been up toward Corolla. This is some exciting action for any angler and these big cows aim to please. The run out of Oregon Inlet up to the VA line is not too bad but can be chilly on some mornings. I get everyone onboard looking for the birds diving and we head towards them. You have to be really careful to ensure you stay inside the 3 nautical mile zone so you really have to pay attention. There were lot's of times the birds would be working out farther than three miles and the times we went out it was the big o'l Bluefish, which are fun to catch as well. We mainly used Stretch's this year and tried some top water baits as well, pretty successful year to say the least. There still plenty of fish out there being caught and you can book a trip out of Oregon Inlet and give me a call and I can hook you up with one of the captains I know.

Give us a call at Coastal Carolina Charters to book your next adventure!

Take care,

Captain Jamey Copeland