Topsail Angler's Fishing Blog
Wahoo in the Stream
Monday, September 12, 2011
It’s been a long, stormy & hot summer with few opportunities for me to fish. Not many catching reports from me. That changed yesterday. I was able to go on a Gulf Stream on Taylor’s Boat. We headed out about 5am with high hopes and weren’t disappointed!
The seas were slick and the ride was smooth in Taylor’s Glacier Bay catamaran. We deployed some high speed lures about 5 miles form our intended destination. We had a couple of hits, lost one lure to a cut-off but no fish boated.
Once we got to the Swansboro hole we put out a full spread. The best action was in the early afternoon. We boated a mahi and 3 Wahoo with the largest going 29 pounds. We had two other knock-downs - one that was a reel screamer and lost a black fin tuna at the boat when it headed under the boat and into the prop.
I enjoyed fishing with Taylor and Jonas, very nice day!
Wahoo in the Stream
That changed yesterday. I was able to go on a Gulf Stream on Taylor’s Boat. We headed out about 5am with high hopes and weren’t disappointed!
The seas were slick and the ride was smooth in Taylor’s Glacier Bay catamaran. We deployed some high speed lures about 5 miles form our intended destination. We had a couple of hits, lost one lure to a cut-off but no fish boated.
Once we got to the Swansboro hole we put out a full spread. The best action was in the early afternoon. We boated a mahi and 3 Wahoo with the largest going 29 pounds. We had two other knock-downs - one that was a reel screamer and lost a black fin tuna at the boat when it headed under the boat and into the prop.
I enjoyed fishing with Taylor and Jonas, very nice day!
King Fishing 7/2/11
Sunday, July 03, 2011
Had the pleasure of fishing with my buddy HuntersHaven yesterday. We were fishing in our club’s little monthly tournament. This month there were prizes for both kings and mahi.
King fishing has been VERY SLOW this year and I hadn’t heard to many reports this week with good results, so I consulted my fish logs. I noticed that I seemed to always catch kings at this one particular location the first week-end in July (our club king tourney is the first Sat of the month so I have plenty of history for that week-end). Also a few other seasoned king fisherman suggested the same place.
We launched my boat around 6 and headed out of New River inlet (the buoys are all WRONG so use great caution). We made a quick attempt at AR362 for some live bait but it was all small so we broke out the frozen cigar minnows and headed to our spot.
We landed two kings there, they ended up weighing in within .05 of each other. First one at 7:50, the other one at 8:20. Both were caught on the downrigger on a naked Bluewater Candy deadbait king rig with a pink jighead.
We stayed another couple hours, had our bait terrorized by a school of small bluefish, caught a shark and one more king bite but he missed hooking up. So we left and tried a couple of other spots. Nothing but an amberjack, a shark and a mahi barely bigger than the bait he tried to eat!
On the way home the GPS display overheated and so I had to dead reckon with the compass back to the inlet. I turned it off so it would cool and then turned it back on when we got to the inlet so I would have the sounded and my old tracks to navigate the inlet.
Our king ended up winning the tournament! The mahi didn’t At the club meeting we had our usual 4th of July week-end meal - boiled shrimp and boiled corn on the cob with all the fixins. We all brought our families and had a great time!
Man I love this place!
Grouper Slaying! (5-22-2011)
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
On Sunday, I finally got my first chance to get out and do some serious grouper fishing since the season opened on May first. It paid off!
I was with my friend Scott on his boat the REEL DREAM and our friend Tanner. We left out of New River inlet and headed out to some nice bottom in about 120-130 feet of water and began dropping out baits. we used a variety of lures including Bluewater Candy Roscoe’s and something Tanner calls the “after school special”, it’s a squidhead and some bling with an attached J hook and a stinger hook.
The first drop resulted in Tanner bringing in a citation sized Red grouper (weighed 26 pounds). He later caught another citation red grouper at 21 pounds. Scott and I didn’t get any citation size fish but we did catch some nice reds, scamp and a trigger fish. We also caught a few bailer sized mahi on poppers. A pair of them followed a fish be had hooked, the others we ran across at weed lines as we moved between spots.
Fish that didn’t make it home with us (cause the season is closed): A handful of huge Black Sea Bass including one knot head that was 22 inches long! And a very nice sized American Red Snapper.
The ocean was flat, the sun was bright and the water was blue! We had an AWESOME day on the water with good fishing and friendship! (and of course Tanner couldn’t quit talking about those groupers…..........)
Gulf Stream Trip
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Finally! The marine forecast was decent for a day that I could manage to fit into my schedule for some offshore fishing. I headed out at 4am this morning on my buddy Taylor’s boat with Scott and Doug. We left out of New River Inlet and headed in the direction of the Swansboro Hole near the Gulf Stream.
About 6 or 7 miles short of there we stopped and deployed some cow bells (high speed Wahoo Lures) and then continued on at a speed between 15 & 20 knots. We got one quick knockdown but it came unbuttoned before we could even pick up the rod, that was a little after 7am. No more hits for about 15 minutes.
Then we ran across a nice rip caused by 72 degree water on one side and 70 degrees on the other. The rip was popping and was about 50 yards across and full of WEEDS! We pulled in the high speed lures and deployed a nice spread of ballyhoo on Witches and JAGS. Soon it was GAME ON! We worked that weedline for several hours and boated 9 mahi including a bull that I caught that weighed over 25 pounds. We also caught a 15 pound king and two barracudas.
Then the bite died. We tried some other places with no luck. Finally we headed home with plenty of fish and smiles! Great day on the water fishing with friends!
