Albies at Cape Lookout, NC

[shorthaul]

I went to Cape Lookout for a long weekend and fished 11/22,23,24. The cold snap put the albies off on saturday with lows below freezing. We caught some 20"+ speckled trout and 3 reds off the Cape Lookout rock jetty on a chartruse and white clouser. Sunday was the best day of the 3 with the albies showing sporadically all day with the best action in the afternoon. Tutti-fruiti clousers worked better than the gummy minnows. My first fish straightened my hook out and went to a #1 34007 hook and used the same fly for 2 days. I went 2 for 7 with one fish pulling a tangle of intermediate line off the floor and going through 3 guides and stopping on the 4th, pulling the tip 2 sections of my scott s3s 10wt off. After the first run we handlined the fish in to retrieve the top half of the rod and undo the tangle and finished the fight. Monday ,I switched to a Sharkskin Magnum floater and a flourocarbon 15# leader and got 2 solid hookups. We sited a small whale and a 5ft bluefin tuna chasing dinner in 25 ft of water. Another front came along from the south and stopped all the action.
It was a good outing considering the weather with 4 albies, 3 reds and 30 specks.

[ohiotuber]

Mike Thanks for sharing...good that you had fun...I know how you love to go for those albies!
Call me & we'll get out for dinner soon.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving.
Mike

[Joe Valencic]

Good for you, Mike. I was worried you might get skunked, but it seems to have worked out. Are you stuffing an albie for dinner today?

Have a great Thanksgiving.

Joseph the Mildly Insane

[Duffin Boy]

Albie darned..........looks and sounds like fun!

[kjgallaher]

Good for you. I am glad the weather cooperated so that you could find some fish. I was down there from 11/14-11/21. The weather was really horrible. We even had the dubious pleasure of boating in a snow and sleet storm. We only got shots at the albies one morning along Shackelford Banks. The swell was a conservative 4-5 ft. Birds everywhere and albies popping up here and there. We managed to hook up only once before they dissapeared for the day. The day was still quite a success as this was my wife's first albie on the fly!

Regards,
Keith

[shorthaul]

Good for you. I am glad the weather cooperated so that you could find some fish. I was down there from 11/14-11/21. The weather was really horrible. We even had the dubious pleasure of boating in a snow and sleet storm. We only got shots at the albies one morning along Shackelford Banks. The swell was a conservative 4-5 ft. Birds everywhere and albies popping up here and there. We managed to hook up only once before they dissapeared for the day. The day was still quite a success as this was my wife's first albie on the fly!

Regards,
Keith

Hi Keith
I drove down after work on Thursday and wanted to get out of the snow before i stopped for the night---I ended up in Asheville before the snow let up! For some reason the only action on many boats was on a pink and chartruse clouser and mine were of very sparse craft fur. I only had one sharp hit on a gummy minnow. I really think the 15 # flourocarbon tippet helped, I hooked and lost 3 fish in one frenzy with the heavier tippet. My partner on the bow was using fuller opaque flies and went fishless. Most of our action was quite a bit past the shoal In 25 ft but found some clear out by the tuna fleet in 60 ft.

Mike

[SteveGibson]

I did the albie thing at Harker's Island, N.C. nine years ago. Was a blast. We got weathered out two of the fives days. Albies are great, great fly-rod fish.