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Well guys, fall is officially here, but the way the weather looks fot this week, it may feel more like winter.  But the cold air temperatures should have the opposite effect on the inshore fishing, especially the trout and drum fishing...things should be HOT!  The cold weather will casue the fish to "bunch up" in all the normal fall spots, just in time for the Thanksgiving Inshore Classic, the weekend after Thanksgiving.  See the tournaments page for more details...hope to see all of you there!

I know you don't want to hear about me cleaning house or being sentenced to going to the mall, but what  I can report is generally speaking, nothing much is  happening, either the wind is blowing, or it's raining or like yesterday the fog is so thick you have to cut it with a knife.   However there are a few things I've scraped up to pass on.

Blue fin tuna time is quickly coming upon us.  Captain Roger says that they have been spotted north of us and he figures they ought to be showing up in about a week.  We have OIFC Custom blue fin set ups in the store.  We also have a charter spacial for that as well as king mackerel/grouper, tuna, dolphin and wahoo trips.  Speaking of grouper, there are new regulations concerning grouper coming into effect the first of the year.  You should make yourself aware.

Our Captains' Club Sale begins today.  You don't have to come to the store to shop, just contact Mrs. Juanita, our On-Line Store guru. and shop on line.  As I buy all my gas here I've got a ton of points and already have my eye on some Calcutta and Pelagic stuff!

Our tourist season is slowing down, just like everyone in this business, so I'll be working less.  But that's a good thing because I can fish more and go out on our charters to get better reports, pictures and hone my skills.

For us in shore anglers the bait ( peanut pogies and mullet) is holding strong in Tubbs Inlet.  The shrimp are also thick in the waterway if you can work your way around the side netters.  Jeff, Roger and I loaded up yesterday and stashed them in Bryan Aycock's and Jeff's bait pen.  They've got an excellent  set up and if I get permission I'll be glad to share how to make one with you.  Don't winterize your boat.  FISH!!  I believe we caught more fish last winter than we did this summer.

Finally, happy birthday to our favorite blondes, Caroline and Camdyn!  Their parties are this weekend. 

 Not a bad report for nothing to say.  Maybe I should run for office in 2012.

Today Capt. Roger, Capt. Amy and myself loaded the Carolina Cat up with a bunch of kids and we took them fishing.  One of the children was 10 year old Heather Cartland who won the "Capt. Brant Best Fishing Story" contest held through the Brunswick Beacon.  Along with Heather was a group of my wife Amy's Sunday school class- 7 kids from 12 to 16 years old -- it was quite the crew and most had never been on the ocean.  We headed out some 3 miles and anchored up over some hard bottom where the kids had a blast catching Sea Bass, Bluefish, Gray Trout, Sharks and to top it all off, they landed a double header of 40 inch Red Drum!  People often ask me what type of fishing I like to do best?  The answer is I like doing any fishing where the fish bite and fishermen truly appreciate and enjoy the experience.  Such was the case this AM. 

 L-R: Summer Phelps, Cody Thorpe, Dalton Hernandez, Alexis Phelps, Heather Cartland (bottom), Tyler Evans, Chad Milligan, Austin Rhodes – this group of outstanding young fishermen and fisherwomen are all members of the United Vision Pentecostal Church with the addition of Heather Cartland who was the winner of the Capt. Brant Best Fishing Story contest. The children had a great day catching tons of Sea Bass, Bluefish, Grey Trout, Sharks and topped of their catch with a double header of citation size Red Drum, pictured.

Captain Roger had a king fish charter Sunday with Ken Aadsen (Calabash transplant), Joel  (Anacortes, Washington state) and Tele (Sitka, Alaska).  Joel and Tele were visiting with Ken and decided they'd like to experience our fishing.  They are both commercial fishermen (fishing people as one is a lad) in Alaska and fish a boat Ken built.  They've got some great stories and are going to send me some photos of some of their fish which I'll post.

Roger had to take them 24 miles out before he found warm enough water to really get into the kings.  He was pretty amazed about how the warm water had moved.  The ocean was still swelly after Saturday's blow but was fishable.  They scored several kings off dead cigar minnows and threw in a few good tasting sea bass for good measure.  Someone in the Rodeo needs to catch a sea bass because no one is on the leader board yet.  As soon as I can make an off shore trip I'm going to try it. 

 Finally I tried to recover Roger's cell phone from where he dropped in the water, but with no luck.  I forgot that Captain Amy and Captain Barrett just got their diver's certification and could have done a recovery dive.

Jeff and I were making our rounds this afternoon.  Our first stop was Gordens Net Shop on Bricklanding Rd. to order Camdyn a set of kid's Grundens.  This is a cool place to check out even if you're not into netting and the folks there are as nice as can be.

After that we cruised by Captain Steve Previtte's (U Hook'em) house.  We caught Steve in the middle of bagging trout he'd just finished cleaning.  Knowing I write the fishing report and had just caught him red handed, he just kind of gave me his sheepish grin.  After swearing not to give specifics, he told me he'd caught them and some red drum using live shrimp while fishing with his son Saturday in the Lockwood Folly River.  I've included a couple of clandestine pictures I took.  They're pretty dark so I hope you can see all the trout.

Remember Capt. Kyle's Thanksgiving Inshore Tournament which is coming up at the OIFC on November 28-29 and that the trout are around.

Be sure to check the Tournament Section.  Captain Kyle has his Tournament coming up the latter part of this month.  Also there have been no sea bass weighed in in the OIFC Rodeo.  I'm sure with "grouper season" in full swing some decent sea bass ought to be caught.

The sun is out, there is no wind so the seas should be settling down making for a perfect fishing day no matter whether you decide to go in or off shore.  Roger is out on the Carolina Cat.  Hopefully I'll hear from him so I can post a report, but since he dropped his cell phone in the drink I may not.  I'll update this report if anything comes in.

I know with the world depression going on, it's hard to think about good things, but folks, you need to think fishing right now. This is the time of the year the kings school up in tight packs where you can put the boat in neutral and free line baits to skyrocketing kings as fast as you can catch them. The cooling water will push them either to the jungle/horeshoe/27 mile rocks areas and they will be feeding on schools of cigars or chub mackerel. You can jig live baits or use dead cigars.

In these same waters you will find our late fall grouper bite is in full force. Jig up a grunt or any small fish, drop him down, and hang on. The grouper will be in this water depth for next several weeks.

Next on the fishing agenda is our late fall/winter JUMBO Seabass bite which will start soon and be at all the close in rocks. This is the time of the year we catch the biggest seabass[up to 4 pounds], and everyone knows how they eat, the best of the best.

After Thanksgiving, it's Bluefin Tuna time, and hopefully the Bluefins will return to our waters like we had them 2 years ago. Look for them to be along the Frying Pan shoals, feeding on pogies. Look for the ganents and you've likely found the Bluefin. Anybody needing any help on the how to of Bluefins, email Brant or Barrett at Capt Brant[or Capt Barrett] @oifc.com.

Also, any one going to the SKA National King Mackerel Championship in Biloxi, Mississippi that needs any info, contact Brant/Barrett. Team OIFC will be attending along with many other NC teams, so pull for us NC fishermen to bring the championship trophey back to Carolina.

Fuel prices are back down to reasonable levels, the fish are biting, oysters are in, still some spots around.....get down to the coast and help us enjoy this great time of the year!

Right now the weather is beautiful.  The radar shows a band of rain will pass through here @10 am or so.  Fishing off shore isn't recommended today due to the wind.  However it's supposed to settle by tomorrow. Roger has a trip  Sunday and I'll try to give a real time report.

On the Rodeo scene Brian Richard raised the bar in the Gag Grouper division.  He weighed in an 18.90 yesterday.  This indicates that now is a good time to be grouper fishing.  If I get any further scoop during the day I'll update this report.

After getting off work I went in shore fishing with Jeff, Courtney and Camdyn on the Scout 240.  Armed with live shrimp from Jeff and Brian Aycock's secrete stash we set out to some usual spots for trout fishing.  They were all packed with boats so we decided to go WAY back up the Shallotte River.  Rather than catching trout we were surprised by red fish.  We started catching them as soon as our bait hit the water.   They were all undersized but were fun non the less and all were released healthy.  After a while the bite stopped, probably due to us scaring them off.  The wind picked up, Camdyn woke up and the sun started setting, so we headed for the barn.  You can't do this just anywhere.