Topsail Angler's Fishing Blog
Amberjacks
Friday, May 30, 2008
I went out today with John, a friend from Wilmington and Sean. We met at John’s work at 2:00pm and headed for the Wrightsville Beach boat ramp. We intended to head to the Schoolhouse and if the weather was decent then onto WR-4 form some trolling and bottom fishing.
The seas were a bit bumpy and got a little worse as we headed out but it was doable so we headed for the schoolhouse. I had some new popping lures I hoped to try out as well as tap into my arsenal of vertical jigging rigs. We were loaded with ballyhoo, sea witches and trolling gear too.
We began by trolling some ballyhoo around the wrecks. We were marking some bait pods on the surface and over the wrecks but after about 30 minutes of trolling and no takers, we decided to switch over to jigging gear. We attracted a large school of Amberjacks, curious as to what we were up to. They would follow our baits but wouldn’t take them. We tried a whole bunch of different jigs. Then we broke out the popping gear and lures. I used a Yo-Zuri dolphin colored popping lure, that did the trick. Before long I had an AJ blow up on a lure, he missed the first two times but on the third pass the game was on!
While I was fighting him, Sean hooked up as well. Double header! After a pretty good battle I landed my first amber jack on a surface popping lure! Sean broke off. John had a hook up but had the line jam on his spool and lost the fish. Sean had another hook up but this one broke him off. Then I had another but after a few minutes he managed to get into the wreckage and broke me off. Then it went quite. No more bites.
We kept switching out lures and jigs trying to find something they would hit. Sean had another hookup but he came unbuttoned. Then I switched over to a long butterfly jig in cigar minnow color and as soon as it hit the bottom, BAM - game on. This one fought even harder than the first making several good runs and trying to get over tot he wreck. I managed to keep him in clear water and continued the fight. Finally landed him, he was a little bigger and probably tipped the scales at around 28 - 30 pounds. What a fighter these fish are, they earned their nickname, Reef Donkey.
That was the last hook-up for the day. we tried some more trolling but to no avail so with sunset less than an hour away we headed for the hill. We didn’t catch many but I had a big smile on my face. Amberjacks on vertical jigs and popping gear are a blast! Had a great time, Thanks John! It was nice to met and get o know you too, Sean!
Fishing report
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Reading the marine forecast for today, I figured it would be strictly an “inside” fishing day. So checked the tides and left around 10:00. After catching a few dink flounder and rat reds I ended up near Rich Inlet. I was shocked to see almost no whitecaps and slick water outside the inlet. Weatherman missed it again.
I didn’t have the right gear for chasing kings but so I decided to switch out my terminal tackle on my light gear with deep divers and maria jigs and chase some Spanish.
It was fast approaching low tide with a SSE swell and a west wind. That meant there was a beautiful elongated tide line running out of the inlet and toward the north. I began to troll along the line, weaving in and out of the clear water. It didn’t take long before I was releasing my fourth or fifth blue fish. So I sped it up a few knots and BINGO, Spanish on! Several times I had both lines hooked up.
Being by myself, it was a challenge to keep the lines from tangling with two fish on and keep off the shoals. SO after a couple of fire drills, I went to one line and that was fine cause it kept me busy. I lost track of how many I caught but it was non stop for about two hours. I brought home a couple of nice size ones for dinner.
Nice day! Good fishing!
Spanish fishing 5-7-08
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Yesterday was one of them picture perfect weather days. I fished with my neighbor, Al and his friend John. The wind picked up just as we were loading the boat to go fishing. Then John’s boat developed an engine problem at the ramp that required his mechanic to come fix it ( he had just had it serviced too). He found the problem and we shoved off about an hour or so later.
Pictured is Al with three of the fish we caught.
Due to the choppy conditions and late start we scraped our original plans to head to the school house to try for kings. Instead we stayed near shore and went after the Spaniards. We caught a total of 6 nice ones with the biggest weighing almost 3 pounds. We watched and followed the birds circling and diving. We were able to get close enough to one school for sight casting but they quickly dispersed. We landed one Spanish and a blue fish.
After several more attempts we switched over to trolling as the schools were moving quickly. I don’t think the bait schools were very big so the Spanish were on the move. That ended up being the right strategy as we could cover a lot of water and follow the birds. We five Spanish and several blues trolling using Yo-zuri deep divers - clown was the hot color. The first Spanish was caught sight casting with a purple/silver Marie jig.
We had a great time and boated some decent fish. It was nice to fish with Al again and to met and fish with John. Enjoyed it guys!
Bonito Bonanza
Friday, April 25, 2008
After the weather busted our planned trip for this past Tuesday, Gery (Hunter’s Haven) and I have been anticipating getting out today to chase some Bonito. The weather reports and marine forecast looked promising so we met up at 6am and headed for the ramp.
The big decision was where to fish. Normally the South Topsail and WB area provide some of the best Bonito action around but it has been REAL SLOW this season so far but there has been some decent action at the north end of Topsail. So we decided to try up there. We made the 45 minute ride up the ditch and went out of New River Inlet at about 7am and were met with beautiful skies and 3 foot ground swells on 10 second intervals with almost no wind - Beautiful!
About a mile out of the inlet we noticed birds ahead and a few boats in that area so we deployed a couple of Yozuri deep diver. BAM! hook-up. But we lost him before we could get him to the boat. Now we were in the area near the diving birds and could see fishing occasionally busting the top, so we decided to sight cast. BAM! Gery has a fish on. He gets it into the boat - skunk be gone!
A few minutes latter, BAM! - I get a hook-up, then a slack line, cut-off. No sooner get a lure back in the water and BAM! fish on. Then another one or two. Then BAM! BAM! double hook-up! Gery and I both get our fish to the boat.
And so the morning went - at times we had fish busting on all four side of the boat! What a blast. Bonito is a hard pulling, fast running fish. On 10/12 pound tackle they are an absolute blast.
We ended up keeping 7 for the table(s) and released and lost plenty too. It was a great morning of fishing and fellowship with a good friend. It was so nice out there we decided to make the 25 mile trip back home via the ocean instead of the ditch - it was a nice ride on a beautiful day!
This was Gery’s first time Bonito fishing - judging from the high fives and smiles, I doubt the last though. Glad we were able to get on the fish Gery - we certainly were blessed!
New River area trip
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
A friend of mine, Alan and I decided to give one of the creeks on the New River a try today. I met him in Sneads Ferry first thing this morning dressed in jeans and T-shirt ready to fish - gotta love the weather for early March!
We headed out looking for some specks and whatever else we could roust up. We started at a spot Alan had worked a few weeks ago with good success. But today there was a lot of mud flowing out from the feeder creeks due to the storm that rolled through here last night. I did manage to get the skunk off the boat pretty quick and boated a puppy drum. We released him and thought, wow this is going to be good. Pretty soon the tide began to drop and the mud was everywhere. Never caught another puppy all day.
So we headed to a different spot looking for cleaner water. We found it just down the creek and we bagan and began to work some structure. We boated 5 flounder in the first 15 minutes (only one was big enough to keep). Then the bite just died. I mean nothing for the next hour. So we moved spots and proceed to catch a few more and lost a couple too. Again the bite died and we moved. This time changing creeks and trying several spots. No luck.
We never did get any specks to complete a slam but we ended up catching 10 flounder and a drum and had a real enjoyable day on the water!