Big news! The Free Ranger is now equipped with a Simrad SY50 Omni fish finding sonar. If you are unsure of what this is, or why it is so important to have, continue reading below! This equipment has truly revolutionized the sport fishing industry.

“Omni” stands for Omni-directional 360 scanning sonar. This technology originally came from the navy, and was first adapted for large commercial tuna fishing vessels (think over 150′ vessels). Just in the last 5 years or so have several companies modified this equipment to fit into sport fishing vessels. When turned on, they can scan up to 5000′ in all directions around your vessel! Before while fishing, we were covering a 20′ width of water while trolling. Now with the Omni sonar, we can potentially cover up to a 2 mile swath of water each pass!

This is a game changer for offshore fishing, and we are very excited to put it to use this season. Marlin, sailfish, wahoo, and tuna beware!

Before booking your next fishing charter, make sure to ask if the boat is equipped with an Omni Sonar!

See photos of Captain Rob installing this equipment below.

If you read back through our fishing reports from years past, it seems like every August I’m back on here posting about the great fishing we have going on. August-September is a great time to fish off of Ocracoke.

It is the calmest time of the year, and we have such a wide variety of fish species around. The last week we have encountered wahoo, blue marlin, sailfish, mahi, tuna, triggerfish, snapper, tilefish, red drum, and bluefish; in one week!

This is also the last couple weeks when schools are out for the summer, and we have really enjoyed having the families and young fishermen & fisherwomen aboard. Lots of great memories and “first” catches.

For the next 4-6 weeks the offshore fishing should be really dependable, and inshore we have great drum fishing in the evenings. Give us a call and lets go fishing!

It’s been quite the whirlwind this April. I (Capt. Rob) returned from running the Sails Call in Guatemala on April 5. We spent about 10 days in the boatyard getting everything shipshape for the season, and began fishing on April 18.

The weather has been unseasonably warm and nice, and because of that our late spring fish arrived early this year. We have had excellent mahi, tuna, and blue marlin fishing offshore. Inshore it has been great drum fishing, with the big “chopper” blues mixed in lately.

Looking forward to a great season of fishing charters here in Ocracoke. You can check availability and rates here if you are interested in booking a trip.

I get the question a lot: When is the best time to go offshore fishing in Ocracoke? That’s a bit of a loaded question, because we have great fishing for some species pretty much every month of the year. But I always mention late August/September because of the variety. Sailfish, tuna, wahoo, mahi, marlin, bottom fish. And statistically, you have the best chance of a calm day.

This year has been no exception. This week I’ve had some awesome friends/groups fishing with us that wanted to take lots of fish home to eat. Enjoy the photos!

We have days available right on through the end of October, so please reach out if you are interested in putting a trip together.

I haven’t had a lot of time to post reports lately because man, we have had a long stretch of beautiful weather and thankfully have been fishing every day.

Lots of fun has been had the past several weeks. Its always nice to see friends return that fish this same time every year, as well as meeting some new friends.

Offshore it has been blackfin tuna, mahi, a few wahoo, blue marlin, swordfish, grouper, and snapper. Inshore in the evenings we have had some great drum fishing trips.

I have some days available over the next month, so visit our calendar page to get your trip booked! https://fishocracoke.com/fishing-charters/