Tidelines – August 2026
Catching a bluefish can be easy and hard and beautiful.
The easy part is just getting something in front of a bluefish’s face that they can attack. The hard part, at least the hard part for me and Capt. Danile Griffee of On Deck Fishing Charters out of the Atlantic Beach area, is finding a morning or afternoon with favorable wind and seas that works with both of our busy schedules.
That challenging part was finally solved on a Sunday afternoon in late July with southwest winds at 5 mph and seas running 1-2 feet every 5 seconds.
Ethan (my youngest) invited his friend Potter to join, and the three of us pulled into the Chasin’ Tails Outdoors parking lot a little before 1:00 pm. We threw some food and drink on Daniel’s boat, a Ranger 2310 Bay with a tower and a 300 Yamaha, ran out of Beaufort Inlet, took a left, passed Shackleford Banks and the Cape Lookout jetty, and then slowed down at Shark Island.
“The blues typically start showing up on the shoals in April, and we’ll see the big ones through May,” Daniel explained as he climbed up into his tower to try and spot some activity. “Those big ones in May will run from four pounds to double digits, but they’re usually thin and full of roe. Then in late June, we’ll see big ones again, but the June fish will be thick and solid.”
As he moved along Shark Island and down the shoals, Daniel didn’t see any fish feeding or any of those bluefish-created big black spots that resemble bait balls, but he did see birds working over on the east side.
Thanks to favorable conditions—light wind, not a lot of current, good visibility, and an incoming tide—he found his crossing point, and we navigated over.
As soon as Daniel cleared the rougher, shallower water and turned to head down the east side of the shoals, he saw fish swimming in front of the boat.
Ethan Hurley holds up a bluefish that hit a topwater thrown to the backs of waves breaking on the Cape Lookout shoals. He was fishing with Capt. Daniel Griffee, of On Deck Fishing Charters out of the Atlantic Beach area.
“Grab those rods in the rod holders behind the leaning post,” he instructed with urgency from above, keeping an eye on our targets. “One of you boys get in the bow and cast, and the other can cast from the stern.”
Ethan and Potter were still trying to get more comfortable and confident standing up and moving around the boat on this more swelly side of the shoals as they each grabbed a rod tied up with heavy mono leader, which were actually the tines taken out of an old cast net that had become unusable, and a Cotton Cordell Pencil Popper topwater, one in white and the other in blue chrome.
“Throw towards the breakers,” Daniel directed, using a commanding voice that I imagine he also uses when coaching basketball for East Carteret High School.
Unfortunately, Daniel would immediately discover that Ethan and Potter aren’t the best at casting. Potter’s cast went about 25 feet and kinda horizontal to the white water rather than towards it, and Ethan’s cast wasn’t much better.
However, part of the beauty of this bluefish fishery on the Cape Lookout shoals is that it’s forgiving. The blues are typically hungry, in good numbers, and in multiple directions at any given time, so even errant casts have a chance of finding a fish.
Our day was one of those days. Potter came tight just off the front of the boat, and Ethan’s topwater was smoked shortly after it hit the water.
Another beauty of this fishery is the visual reward. Ethan didn’t just come tight—we saw his lure get crashed on the surface three different times before it was finally pulled under. Potter may not have had surface splashes, but at least five fish could be seen in the water following and swiping at his lure.
Double, triple, and even quadruple hookups are common on these trips, so Daniel was prepared to help give the boys their dancing instructions, “Hey Ethan, you need to come up to the front and go under Potter’s line. Potter, you need to go over Ethan’s line and then move more to the left side of the boat.”
Blood was pumping and hearts were beating, and the swells added a slight degree of difficulty, so Daniel and I did our best to forgive the boys for their struggles with understanding the differences between left and right (“you’re other left”) and over and under (“no, that’s not under”).
Ethan Hurley and Potter Nealon with a handful of the blues they caught sightcasting topwaters. They were fishing the east side of the shoals with Capt. Daniel Griffee, of On Deck Charters and operating out of Chasin’ Tails Outdoors.
They certainly weren’t acting like a well-oiled machine, but Ethan and Potter were good enough to get both bluefish in the boat, and good enough counts.
Daniel explained as he let loose the two blues, “I remove the front trebles from the topwaters for easy releasing. Plus, you don’t need to hook up on every swipe. It’s fun to watch swipe after swipe.”
Then he climbed back up in the tower to look for fish still holding in that same section of water.
No blues were visible at the first spot, but Daniel saw fish swimming through the backs of waves down a little closer to Shark Island. We pulled up, and the boys were better prepared this time. They sent out their topwaters further and in a more accurate direction.
More distance on the cast gave Daniel more time to fine tune the boys’ efforts, “I want you both to reel reasonable fast. No walk-the-dog. No twitch and pause. You want that bait to look like it’s skittering away.”
For the next two hours, multiple fish came over the gunnels, and Ethan and Potter improved as anglers in many ways. Their casts were (mostly) on point. They no longer needed to be told how to solve whose line was under and whose was over. They had their sea legs and used them to move around the boat as needed. And they even figured out how to swing the bluefish up and over and into the boat.
Capt. Daniel Griffee, of On Deck Fishing Charters, chases numerous inshore and nearshore species all year long, but throwing topwaters to bluefish on the shoals has become one of his, and his clients’, favorite trips.
Those bluefish hang on the shoals from April to October, and depending on the season, you also have shots at cobia (spring), tarpon (summer), kings (summer and fall), and spanish (most months, but the bigger ones in the fall).
You can find out more about Daniel at www.ondeckfishingcharters.com or by calling (252) 665-0844.
Daniel can’t promise this last bluefish benefit for all of his clients, but I believe that Ethan (age 14) and Potter (age 15) woke up the next morning with a little hair on their chests.
