Topsail Angler's Fishing Blog
More Mahi!
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Today was my friend Taylor’s birthday and he wanted to go fishing so he invited myself and my good friend Mark (Pier Dweller) to go with him in his boat. We decided to troll in the 25 mile range for some dolphin (mahi). It was full moon night which often means the fish quit biting about mid-morning but we wanted to try anyway.
Mark comes down a few times a year and fishes with me while staying at his family place in Surf City. So when Taylor called and said he had a couple openings for today, we changed our plans from fishing on my boat to go with Taylor. I’m glad we did. The weatherman got it wrong on the marine forecast - it was lumpy when they called for smooth but it was manageable. I even stayed dry on the way out but Mark got pretty wet on the right side. Taylor did a great job in keeping us from getting beat up.
As we approached the area we planned to fish we deployed a pair of cedar plugs while still doing about 8 knots for the last few miles. We didn’t get any hits so when we arrived at our destination we pulled those in and deployed a spread of ballyhoo on various rigs all hand crafted and rigged by Taylor. We had a great spread, Taylor does fine work! We had a missed strike then soon after we had our first fish on for the day. I manned the rod and soon had a stinky barracuda at the gunnel. We released him quick before he could totally stink up the place. A little later I landed our first dolphin of the day, she went about 12 pounds.
Then we got a double strike from the same fish. First he hit our medium short flat line and as Taylor was preparing for the fight he broke off, dropped back, hit our long line on that side and disappeared. We lost the fish but now we are really pumped up! Soon after that we hooked up again but it was a short strike. Mark had the rod in his hand and two coaches beside him feverishly hollering, “drop it back, drop the bait back”. He complied and soon landed our second dolphin of the day.
It was approaching 9 AM and that was to be our last fish of the day despite 3 more hours of fishing. Today the theory of a full moon shuts off the bite by mid morning held true. But we were happy with a pair of very nice mahi in the cooler and a beautiful day on the water with friends! Happy Birthday Taylor! Hope you enjoyed your birthday.
Offshore 6-2-09
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
The weather man was calling for very calm seas yesterday and I had the opportunity to go offshore with my friend Taylor in his boat. Another friend of his, Tanner, also went with us. I meet Taylor at 4:15 (o’dark thirty for sure) at his house on Topsail Island. We loaded the rest of the gear and ice and headed out meeting Tanner at the boat ramp. We cleared New River Inlet about 5:30 and headed for the vicinity of the Swansboro Hole, 60 nautical miles offshore.
Our intend was to troll for a while and then do some bottom jigging. We deployed our trolling spread at our first stop and soon after hooked up on a nice dolphin fish. I pulled her in after quite a nice aerial display, we estimated her at between 12 - 15 pounds. Right after that we had a knock down but no hook-up. We saw a weed line and temperature slick nearby so we headed over there. Nada. We moved a few miles and hooked up another mahi.
We then trolled for quite a while with nothing. So we headed fro some nice bottom numbers and started jigging. Tanner had a nice red grouper sliced in half on the way up by a shark. Then Tanner boated a nice triggerfish. It was the biggest I have seen caught so far and weighed in at 7 pounds and 7 ounces, earning him a NC Citation! We also caught a few red grouper, a strawberry grouper and a few other bottom fish.
We decided to move inshore a bit and do some more trolling, hoping to catch a few more mahi and maybe a wahoo or yellowfin. As I was deploying the prop wash bait I had a fish hit the bait just as I was putting the line into the flat line clip. I had the monofiliment line across my fingertips and it pulled so hard that it burnt my skin on the fingers - the white, thin marks are very visible but not painful. I let go and tried get the fish hooked up but never did see what it was. A short while later the long line snapped off the outrigger and Tanner picked up the rod - it was nice billfish, maybe 7 or 8 feet long. The fish sailed out of the water several times - I think it was a marlin but not sure if it was a white or a blue marlin. After a few flights, crashign throught our spread, the fish headed straight for the boat and came unbuttoned. Game over.
It was an exciting minute or so and really got our blood pumping. But that was it for trolling. Another hour produced no bites so we finshed the day with a little jigging and then headed home. Great day on the water with some friends and some nice fish in the box. Hard to beat that!
