We're due for a smoker"
Power Marine Outfitters Southern Auto Parts Aaron's Bait & Tackle Dudley's Marina
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Power Marine Outfitters Southern Auto Parts Aaron's Bait & Tackle Dudley's Marina |
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2002 Fishing Journal
Got a free pass from the wife so I called Tony Fincher for a half day fishing trip. The weather was supposed to be bad but it was actually pretty nice and sunny. It blew southeast around 15 knots. Tony and I put the boat in at Island Harbor and caught bait right away in front of the docks. Nothing gigantic but good for today. Proceeded out the inlet and noticed a beautiful tide line around the Mud hole. I thought this might be the first place to try. Tony set the spread and we started working the nice color change marking nice pods of grass shad all along down the line. The water temperature was just right at 78.1 degrees. Birds were working and diving on the baits all around us. This was the perfect setting for a fish I thought. We continued to work the rip for half a mile into some pretty shallow water approaching 15 feet in depth. I was just turning the boat offshore to deeper water when the medium naked line screamed off and under the boat about 200 yds offshore. Hook up!!!!! Tony got on the rod while I cleared the other lines. We followed the fish offshore where it finally laid up on the surface. Gaffed her clean and swung her aboard before 10:00 am. Why can't this be done during every tournament? She measured out to 44X21. This girl was short and fat. Too bad she wasn't 3 inches longer. Well, that was a good start. We set the spread again and continued to work the tide line another hour until it started dissipating. We moved to the Key post offshore number since there were a few kings caught right off the Bogue Inlet Pier in the past few weeks. Hung out there for another hour and got skunked. Third stop was the Station Rock with nothing but a shark. Getting late so set the boat on a drift over the rock and pointed her to the A Buoy. Got off the rock and within a half mile of the buoy started hooking up. First was a hound fish. Second set was a 5lb Spanish. Third Set was a 10lb King. Fourth Set was a 7 lb Spanish, which I got my first citation for this year. It was 28X14. Another short fat girl. Ended the day back in the Mud hole. Pretty good fun fishing day. Our Biggest king ended up weighing 26lbs at the Island Harbor scales. Next tournament is probably the HOOK.
Tony, Tim, and I fished this tournament again. We decided to fish close to home and hit one of our favorite spots. The Charlie buoy. Well it produced again for us and we caught 3 kings to 18lbs. We won the tournament with our smallest fish of 12.3lbs. We took home about 560.00 for that little snake and even caught a 20lb cobia for the grill. I love local tournaments.
Randy and I hooked up together in this tournament again this year. He had a game plan and we actually stuck to it this weekend, almost. We had heard of a good bite off of Avon Rocks and were initially going to make the run there on the first day. We caught bait in the waterway going up from Dudley's and were checked out by 6:30 and headed up Core Sound by 7:00. The ride up to Ocracoke was eventful. Dodging pound nets and shallow water kept the morning exciting. We were probably the 8th boat to get there but seams like we didn't miss much. Looked at the ocean and decided to stay in Ocracoke. Anchored up and fished old fashion style for several hours without any luck. Nobody else hooked up either. Once the tide changed everybody pulled up anchor and filtered out the inlet to their next destination. We decided to hang out at the inlet mouth and fish a progressively growing tide line. Nothing went on for the first hour around the inlet for us except for watching two other boats hook up and catch fish in the mid to upper twenties. We decided to grind it out and wait for our turn. It finally came and were rewarded with a 47X18 inch fish. Next a 45x17 inch fish. Good class!!! Randy caught a nice sailfish and we were done for the day by 2:30. Made the long run back to Morehead and weighed our 25.25 lb king. The second day was was almost identical to the first. Loaded up with bait in the waterway and Harker's. This time we caught 6 kings but the largest was only 46x16. It didn't help us but the Reel Screamer boat landed a 31.8 and won the 23 and under division. Good fishermen who have paid there dues. We ended up finishing with a 15th Place Daily. Some day we'll win this thing. We're due for a smoker!!!!
I had Friday off so Randy and I had a free day to prefish. The weather the whole week was terrible. It rained and rained. We were both trying to talk ourselves out of fishing this one. We headed out of Swansboro around 3:00 am and were at the Carolina Beach ramp by daylight and were greeted by heavy rain and thunder. Loaded up with bait in the boat basin and decided to skip the east side and head down the waterway and fish off of Shallotte. The ride was long and wet but we hit 390-390 first and caught a large Spanish. No kings. Next spot was the 65 foot hole. First line got smacked by a low teenager about 38 inches. Good sign I thought but no other nibbles for another hour. Third spot was 26 mile rock, Barracudas and AJ's. Kept going further offshore but produced nothing. Seas kept building so decided to head in and stop and register at the marina. Ran back to Carolina Beach and went home. We decided to fish at home for this one since we knew of a bite around Drum. The only thing we needed to cooperate was mother nature. We woke up to more rain and a wind gust of 20 knots plus. Oh well, that's why I bought a Contender. We drove up to Morehead and bought bait from EJW and were out the inlet by first light. We were greeted with calm seas until the West slough buoy. The path to the east side was rough and an occasional 8 footer hit us on the bow. We made it through but running to Drum was out of the question. We settled for 30 Minute Rock. At least we could quarter the seas there. We made it in one piece and worked a 4 line spread and caught 4 kings all day but nothing worth running down to Holden Beach. At least we made it back with no major problems or injuries. Randy and I must be really addicted to this sport.
This is the only two day tournament for division two this year so we decided to fish the same historically proven place again. The bait was easy the first morning and we loaded the well in one throw in front of the pier. Seas were a little confused so the run was a little bumpy offshore. We got beat to the spot again by a longer Contender but the bite was relatively non-existent except for a sailfish and AJ's. Fished the spot a little longer and decided to hit another offshore number we had in the vicinity. Success!!! I couldn't get the second line out before it got smoked. 300 yards of Yozuri Hybrid disappeared in a flash. Randy was seeing metal on the hub with its second run. I was thinking huge king or big Wahoo. I haven't seen a run like this since Biloxi. This king was fired up. Finally regained enough line and got the fish to the boat. In the water it looked as long as any 40 I've ever seen but once I hit her with the steel she felt like a snake. It only took one arm to bring her over the gunnel. She was 51 inches long but only 17.5 around. No Girth!!!!!! Oh well, she was in the bag. Fished the rest of the day and managed another teenager. Headed in an weighed her at 26.4 lbs. Good Start for a 2-dayer. The second day called for a little rougher weather so we decided to fish a little closer inshore on the east side. We loaded up with bait right across the slough and were off to the 30-30 ledge hog hunting. Got to the spot and immediately hooked up to a large hound fish. Next was an unidentified fish on the 40 foot downrigger which broke off. Third fish was an AJ. I said forget this and plugged in another series of ledges 7 miles away. Off again and were fishing within 15 minutes. Hooked up to a snake, quick release. Had another snake then another AJ. Stayed there for another hour marking good bait and structure but very warm water to almost 82 degrees. Heard the bite was turning on at the 30-30 so motored back for a last hurrah but could only manage another teenager. We finished the day there. Our fish actually held on to 8th Place overall and paid us 405.00. I wish there was a better turnout. Next tournament is the South Brunswick.
Another poor showing in this tournament. We were in the right place but the king gods did not cooperate. Saw several 30's boated at Jay's Rock but not on the Open Wide. Still trying to hold my mouth in the right place maybe I'll find the right position in the next tournament. Congratulations go out to the Chain Smoker, Local Chum, and Jamie Wallace on the White Trash boat. All of them had fish in the 30's.
I'm trying to recollect this tournament but I seam to have blocked it out. Let me recount those two days the best I can as painful as they were. Tony and I hooked up for this one and had a game plan on fishing the Shack hole where we caught the 24 for the Courthouse Bay KMT and then proceed to the East side for the rest of the day. We loaded up with bait in the dark around Island Harbor and were checked out on time and fishing in 10 minutes. Problem was no fish. We burnt up the Shack hole for two hours with only one undersize king and a Spanish. We moved out the inlet with the tide and up the shipping channel and trolled around some other boats only to see the General Wigfall catch a 28lber beside us while we watch our only decent fish bite through our wire. It's painful watching a nice king inhale your bait in the prop wash and see it chewing your shad and swim away. OUCH. Oh well, that's the way our season has been. To sum up this tournament we didn't weigh a fish. So the jinx continues. Our largest fish for this event is only 19.00lbs. It will be broken someday.
Joey Whitesell and I decided to do a little prefishing for the upcoming CCSA tournament. The weather forecast was bad so we decided to try the shipping channel and DT hole. I met up with Joey at the Goose Creek campground around 5:45 and loaded the boat up. Bait was plentiful in the waterway and we loaded up with a mixed bag of pogies ranging from 3 to 11 inches!! Ran down the waterway in Joey's new boat called the Chain Smoker. It's a 28 foot Privateer with twin Mercury Optimaxes. Sweet ride!!
First stop was the shipping channel, one boil and
one big bluefish. Second stop was DTH, one shark. It started
raining and the wind picked up so we headed back to the shipping channel and
picked up one king around 10-12 lbs. Last stop was the wall.
nothing. water was dirty and no bait on the screen. Called it a day
around 1pm and headed home. Maybe the east wind shut the big kings down
or all the rain the past few days. Hopefully it'll turn on next week.
Randy and I teamed up in this tournament. We prefished on Friday and hit our favorite spots offshore. Boated several kings up to 42 inches long. Felt pretty confident in one particular spot. The day of the tournament was pretty standard. Up at four and in the water by five. Found bait off of Holden Beach and loaded up in two throws. We headed straight to our spot off shore. The only unfortunate thing we found after pounding our way there was another boat already fishing and hooked up!!!!! Oh well. Set the spread and were immediately rewarded with a strike on the top line. Snake. Set the spread and bam another snake. Not a good sign. This held a bigger class of fish yesterday. Four more snakes then finally a teenager that was 38 inches long. Kept watching the other boat to see if they had anything bigger but didn't see anything bigger than our fish. The only one I didn't see was the one they had on right before we got there. After releasing another two dinks, we finally gave up and moved to find another class of fish. Off to our other number and only sharks. Further offshore again to our next number, only AJ's. Moved again to another number further offshore and finally hooked up to a decent runner and got tailed whipped. Boated one more king then the cuda and AJ bite turned on plus 5 boats moving in on us. Started getting late so hit another spot inshore and lost another unidentified fish. Last hurrah spot was 390-390. Ran in to Shallote Inlet and weighed a 16.6 lb. Caught allot of kings today but could not find the right class. At least we sold enough fish to pay for our gas bill. The Yamahas ran great this weekend. We ran over 260 miles and burned only 2 gallons of oil. Next tournament is probably the CCSA or Got Em On.
The Open Wide Team finishes 1st Found out about the little tournament on Tuesday from a patient of mine named Tony Fincher. They usually have this tournament only once a year but it will now be every last Sunday every month. Tony knew of a good bite in the shipping channel and was confident in catching a decent fish so we elected to fish on my boat since his was not ready. We started at the typical time and had the boat loaded an ready before 5:00 AM. There was a telephone check out, so I called Les and headed up the waterway. I had gone out Saturday morning messing around with the boat and looking for bait. There was bait everywhere around Swansboro on Saturday but not this morning. It took us one hour before we finally loaded the well with some small 7 inchers. Good enough but I wanted a little bigger. I kept going up the waterway towards Morehead but could not find any larger shad. I decided to fish with what we had. Went out the inlet and set the spread. It wasn't but 20 minutes before we had our first strike!!!! A 20ft Carloina Skiff on the shotgun. After a few choice words we set the spread again. This time we were rewarded with an impressive run of about 20 seconds. I was ready for this fish this time. I had Rocky Allen on video camera duty. I've always wanted to get a decent fish on video just like Kingmasters along with the corny commentary. Tony provided the play by play while I fought the fish. The water was so dark in the channel the fish was hard to spot. After 10 minutes of zig zagging around more boats she finally laid up and was ready. Tony gaffed her cleanly in the dorsal and swung her aboard. Not a huge fish but definitely in the twenties. Deposited her in the bag. Oh yeah!!! All recorded on video for posterity. Measured her after things settled down. 46 inches long with a 20 inch girth. I thought mid twenties at least. Gotta keep fishing since we had good fisherman like Tenacity and Miss Mercy out there still fishing plus it was only 6:45. Ground it out in the channel and the DT hole for the rest of the day. Only two more spanish and a bunch of sharks. I gave up on the downrigger!!!! Pulled up lines around 3:30 and headed to New River inlet. The 35 mile run in the ocean was a pleasantly comfortable ride compared to the Raleigh KMT. We made it with plenty of time and were the second boat to weigh in. The fish eventually pulled it down to a suprising 24.20 lbs. Oh well, I scratched my head and took the first win for the OPEN WIDE this year!! Thanks go out to the crew for working so hard all day and cleaning the boat. I only wish we could get Randy down here to fish with us more often. Next up is the Jolly Mon KMT. First Division II tournament of the year.
I'm not a really big fan of one day tournaments but Randy and I decided to fish the tournament without much information to go on. Had some reports of fish down south in the 20lbs class but not large enough to convince me to burn the gas down to Southport. I was more impressed with the 38lb king that came off of Bogue inlet. That was verified and seen at Dudley's Marina. The problem was where it was caught. I knew it was rough on Friday so most boats would not venture out too far fearing a severe ass whooping. I tried to talk myself into fishing the beach but I went against my gut and chose to test the Contender's rough water capabilities and try to reach my favorite live bottom I found this year. It was a stupid decision in hindsight fueled by bravado and too much testosterone. I should have read the signs. Hard northeast wind before the tournament. Confirmed reports of nice fish off the piers. Huge bait pods in the shipping channel. Kings free jumping in the turning basin. Even with all that information jumbling in my head, still chose to head offshore. First stop loaded up with bait near the waterway after running aground in the dark. Sucked up allot of sand but the Surflos kept working good all day. First stop out of Bogue Inlet was Southeast bottom 2, nothing. Second stop was 50's bottom, dolphin, pulled the hooks. Felt like it was laying down a little bit or I was getting my sea legs but one of my crewmembers felt the opposite and provided chum for a few minutes. After he recovered from puking decided to go out even further in the driving rain and wind. You gotta love tournament fishing!!!! After arriving at the 86 foot bottom we set the spread and were rewarded with a strike on the first line out. Never hooked up but brought the bait back cleanly sliced in half. Good sign I thought. Set the spread again and caught another chicken dolphin. Third strike felt like the man! It hit the 50ft downrigger and blistered the reel. Randy fought it for a 25 minutes. We never saw it. Fourth strike was a shark. Fifth strike was an AJ. Gave it up there and headed inshore.
Next stop was the Triple nickel, one dolphin.
Final stop was AR 330, beautiful bait, one dolphin, no kings. Ran out of
live bait, time, and patience so we called it quits and headed home at 5:00
pm.
Went home and found out the majority of kings came
from the beach or shipping channel inshore. Congratulations go out to
Jay Russell and the Mitchell brothers for telling me about the bite in the
channel. If I wasn't so stubborn I should have gone a soon a they told
me. Oh well, call it an expensive learning experience. Next KMT is
the Jolly Mon.
Decided to do a little fun fishing this weekend with Scrapper Pate from the Have Mercy team. Forecast was NE 20-25 knots. Offshore was out of the question but maybe some inshore Spanish mackerel or beach king fishing. We met up at Dudley's Marina around 6:00 am and loaded the boat up. I am still so impressed with these new Yamaha HPDI's. I looked at my fuel level and still had over half a tank and three quarters a tank of oil on each side. I ran over 150 miles last weekend.
Found bait right off the
waterway. Loaded up in one throw with some 6-8 inches. Good for
pulling doubles. Ran out of Bogue and headed straight to Keypost inshore
and set the spread. Wind was howling so just used one downrigger and three top
lines.
It didn't take long before the
shotgun double pogy went off. Didn't run much but turned out to be a
nice sized Spaniard about 4-5 lbs. Set the spread again and hooked up
with a shark. Trolled over to Keypost offshore and caught 3 more 3-4 lbers.
No kings. Did hear of one 14 lber caught near the mud hole. The
man thought it was a world record Spanish mackerel but was finally taught the
difference by the local charter captains on the radio.
The Spanish bite died down so I
thought maybe run a little bit offshore and see how the seas got. First
stop was station rock, nothing. Second stop was Charlie buoy, nothing
but 6-8 seas. Ran inshore to the Bear inlet Rock, one cutoff. Bear
inlet, nothing. Finally ended back at the Keypost and ended the day. Not
a great day but caught enough to eat. Next trip will be prefishing
for the Raleigh KMT .
Randy, Robbie Ferrell, and I decided to do a
little fun fishing for some kings or dolphin. Randy came down from
Raleigh Friday night and stayed at the house. I told him that the
dolphin bite was awesome during the Swansboro KMT and was anxious to put
some meat in the freezer.
I also wanted to fish the same spot where I had lost the good king during the tournament and maybe catch her momma. We met up at Dudley's around six and headed off to the first stop which was the Coast Guard station to try and net some bait. No luck so off we went to Charlie buoy for some cigar minnows and chub mackerel jigging. Came out the inlet and were met by a nast 3-5 foot chop. So much for a good weather report. Trudged out to the buoy and proceeded to jig up a dozen and half 6-8 inch bait. Started getting crowded so pulled up and headed offshore. First stop was in about 90 foot of water over some live bottom and caught one king about 10lbs that came on a double cigar on the downrigger. Fished for another hour without any more luck than a small shark. Moved further offshore to the 96 foot bottom I wanted to try again. I was on a mission to catch that one that got away. Set the spread and first fish was another small king that was about 11 lbs. Second fish was a dolphin about 8lbs that hit the 75ft downrigger and still shot out of the water. Third fish was another king about 12-13lbs. Not what I was looking for but still some meat in the box. Decided to head inshore and stopped at the 50's bottom and pull some dead bait. Ended up catching our biggest dolphin about 18lbs. Pretty cow which struck two of our lines. Fished a little bit longer and ran in to clean some fish. All in all a good day with some good fishermen. Only lost one dolphin that weighed about 2lbs. Next trip may be fun fishing this weekend.
The Open Wide Team finishes 20th
I always tell myself every year not to fish this
tournament because it's too early for a consistent king bite plus my
anniversary is on the 27th. Even with all the negative signs preceding
the tournament I elected to fish anyway. My wife gave me a free pass for
the weekend and from baby duties, so I tried to find a crew in short order.
I got my neighbor Rocky Allen to commit 24hrs before the captain's meeting.
The first day found us teamed up with Perry and Phil Mitchell on the 32 Donzi called the Bite Me. We bought some unusually nice penned bait from Dudley's marina. Although small they were pretty feisty. I loaded four dozen into my 65 gallon live well enough to pull doubles all day. I took point down the waterway down to New River inlet. I love the fuel economy on my new Yamahas. Running 50 mph and getting 2.0 mpg!!!! With my old 250 Mariners I would have been looking at .9 mpg or less. We shot out of New River and headed straight to AR 355. I usually don't like to fish AR's but Perry had a good first hand report of a mid thirties fish caught the day before. I have caught some mid twenties fish here in the past but not usually until in June and July. I said what the hell, I didn't have a better game plan. I fished the reef for all of an hour and a half without a single bite. Called over to the Bite Me boys and said I was going to move over to the 7-11 ledge and were welcome to follow me. They decided to stay at the reef. I got to 7-11 and immediately hooked up to a very aggressive AJ which proceeded to dump my spool. I managed to get enough line back but not my fluorocarbon. The second line got hit again this time with a shark. It's amazing how a place can change in a week. I had previously caught 9 kings in this exact same spot during the Courthouse Bay KMT. Frustrated, I decided to run and gun fish Onslow Bay. 2nd spot inshore of Jesses Ledge, nothing. 3rd spot Christmas Rock, nothing. 4th spot D-buoy, nothing. 5th spot 50's bottom and Nat's Place, nothing. 6th spot Southeast Bottom #3 and #2, sharks. 7th spot Station Rock, nothing. That ended the first day of the tournament. Went back to the slip confused and frustrated. I guess I wasn't alone since the rest of the fleet had the same problems as me. I felt better when I found out that first place was only a 16.9 lber that was caught way offshore. I made a few phone calls that night and decided that the combination of bad weather and full moon had made for the tougher than usual fishing conditions. The second day found myself and Rocky at Dudley's Marina again waiting for bait and some daylight. Perry and Phil decide to team up again and head offshore to the 240 Rocks and AR 305. The 40 mile run was easy since the wind was almost non-existent. I believe we were fishing by 7:00 am. Fifteen minutes didn't go by when the long line started screaming. I thought this is what we were looking for until the dolphin broke water. Proceeded to catch 3 fifteen to twenty pounders. Still no kings. I started getting ancy again when the Bite Me boys pulled up and left due to the AJ bite. They moved way inshore to the Rock South of 13. I decided to try some hardbottom we found. It was a beautiful bottom. Best bait I had seen all weekend. Set the spread and waited about 10 minutes before the first king struck the long line double pogy. It turned out to be a feisty 10.35 pounder. Set the spread again and hooked up on the 40 ft downrigger. Good initial run but bad luck struck me and the knot pulled loose on my fluorocarbon. Set the spread again and once again was rewarded with a scorching 30 second straight run which proved to be the biggest king of the day. Worked him close enough to the boat to get a look at him and Guesstimate at mid twenties to low thirties. Bad luck struck again when the hooks pulled as I tried to work him close enough to gaff him with my other hand. Oh well shit happens!!! Ran out of time and ran into weigh in the little dink which eventually placed me in 20th Place overall. |