JIGFEST 3 Wilmington, NC 10/4-10/5 AJ jigging report LOTS of PICS! Warning!!!

[JerseyBrian]

Day One

With the 4:45AM wake up call, spirits' and outlooks' for the day were as high as could be. We were all excited to see how the day with pan out, to say the least

By 5AM, the boats are loaded up with jigging and casting gear and the teams assemble for the day:

Rick's Boat:
1) Doug (d-a)
2) Fred (gimmedeal)
3) Al (fishingeek)
4) David (Masonboro)

Chip's Boat:
1) Glenn (gman)
2) Nick (njnicka)
3) Brian (kidflex)
4) Brian (JerseyBrian)

By 5:15AM, the boats pushed off the loading ramps and under a clear sky with the constellation "Orion" above us, the Metal Militia quitely made their way to the battle ground

With most of the activity for AJ jigging taking place when the sun comes out, we chose to troll a bit in the morning for wahoo as the bite has been VERY good in the past few days. Unfortunately for us, the bite was non-existant However towards the end of the troll, we did run into a gang of Mini Mahi which provided some fun action to start off the morning for us....but we didn't come here for that. We came for BIG Amberjack. Off to the spot we go....

On our first spot, Glenn immediately hooks up. The day has begun!! I quickly hook up after Glenn and after both fish are released, we drop back down again without any rest and get hooked into 2 more fish! Not before long, Nick gets tight and lands his first AJ into the boat! Great start Nick to the FANTASTIC day of AJ jigging you had! Brian also hooks into his first AJ of the day and before you know it, a nice 40lb AJ cracks the ice for Brian!

We continued to move from one area to another while constantly putting solid 50-60lb'ers on the boat and then we hit Godzilla-world. On Nick's 2ND AJ EVER.... his Saragosa is just screamin'...his JM400 rod bent over and when we finally see color...we all know this is a VERY LARGE FISH! After a few pics, the fish tapes out to be 54 inches long (at the tail fork) and 34 inches in girth It's so amazing to see the size of the heads' of these BIG AJs...they look fake .....well that just fueled the first for me, Glenn and Brian...game on biatch!!

With the energy of competition and AJ blood on the deck of the boat, we all started to jig with a purpose. Chip positions the boat again at the top of the drift and without any notice Nick, Glenn and I triple up!!! Awesome! After several agonizing minutes of swearing and cussing....three 70lb AJs are brought onboard!!! woohoo! Biggest fish I've ever caught.....so far

Well, Nick screams over to Brian to get his butt up, he couldn't stand not being in the triple hook up, so he decides to drop his jig...moments later...his Daiwa 6500 Saltiga reel start SCREAMIN for 40 seconds straight. QUAD HOOKUP! After a good intial 5 minute fight, Brian's line popped and we all knew that was a BIG fish. But that didn't stop Brian from re-rigging immediately after the rest of us 3 landed all of our AJs. So Brian drops again and BAM, a looong 15-20 minute fight, he lands a 90lbs AJ! He takes the lead!!! The fish measured out to 56" Fork Length and 33" girth. A BIG 95-100lb AJ! Now Brian is in the lead!!! Way to go my southern korean brother from another mother












And then....it happend.

Glenn hooked into a fish that felt like it was dead weight....for the first 20 seconds ...AND Glenn even said it wasn't a big fish!!! ....then it was ON like Donkey Kong! For 25-30 minutes Glenn was at a stalemate. We all knew it was a BIG fish when Glenn couldn't even move his Shimano Blue Rose and Stella 20000 from the underarm position upwards....it looked like he was just stuck it was soo heavy. So finally, we see color and we all go crazy...at deep color the AJ already looks enormous. By the time it was ontop of the surface we all knew Glenn did it. He landed a 120lbs+ AJ and it was a GIANT. The thing looked like a friggin' dinsosaur! The fish ended up being the largest of the trip and measured out to 63" Fork Length and 36" Girth 70 inches overall!!! Arlen contested that the fish was easily over 120lbs and that's coming from the guy that caught a 100lbs AJ on our last trip.

**Glenn, I'm so proud of you man. I'm so happy I was there to see your accomplish your goal of AJ jigging down in NC. Words cannot express how happy I was for you....AND YOU FINALLY SMILED IN YOUR PICS!!! **

Soon after the highlight of Glenn's weekend, I hooked into another Big fish. On a Hots Fake Lez rod and a Stella 8000, it took me 30 minutes to land this fish which ended up taping out to 52" Fork Length and 32" girth. A solid 80lb'er. My biggest fish (not sharks lol) ever to date. I was thrilled!

I was only broken off 2 times yesterday where 2 unstoppable AJs just took my stella 8000 to the max and ended up cutting me off on structure. The other jigs were donated to the Wahoo Free Charitable Foundation

After seeing Glenn's dinosaur, Brian wanted a 100lb AJ cuz he and Chip didn't think his last BIG AJ hit the 100lb mark ....which was ONLY hovering in the 90lb range. So he dropped his Nagamasa jig again and I swear, it was like Babe Ruth point towards to the stands in Yankee stadium. A good 25 minute fight unsued and Brian's biggest AJ was landed. It taped out to 57.5" tail fork and 36" girth. It was an easy no brainer.... that fish was a 100lb'er...solid. It was amazing. If I ask for a million dollars, could I have it? Cuz I would spend the couple of hundred bucks fishing with Arlen and Chip again to get MY 100lb AJ! haha

We also filled the box with some nice Scamp Grouper which both Nick and Glenn jigged up. yummy!

All in all, saturday was the BEST day of jigging I've ever had with such LARGE class fish. Most of our fish on our previous trip was anywhere between 40-60lbs with a few 70lb'ers and a rare 80lb'er or so. On this trip, the class of fish we were landing were steadily into the 60-80lb range with the occasional 90 and 120+ lber!!!! Insane! By the end of the day, we had all landed several 50+ inch (at tail fork) AJs into the boat and the weather could not have been more beautiful. Calms sees with a nice breeze (unlike last trip, right Tony ) made it for a great day to jig offshore in the gulfstream.

And as per usual, Chip was a fantastic guy to fish with. Funny as all hell and KNOWS the spot to hammer on these Big Dawg AJs. It was my utmost pleasure to fish with Nick, finally, after hanging with each other and talking about fishing so much! lol As well as Brian (kidflex) who is a VERY cool guy and a lucky SOB for catching that 100lb AJ RIGHT AFTER you catch that nice ~95lb'er! I wish I had more time to spend with Brian because his funny personality is just contagious and you just want to laugh all the time when you hang out with Brian.

We ended the day with a fantastic dinner at the Front Street Micro Brewery where we recapped the days events on both boats as well as meeting Sami and his crew which were going to fish on sunday for their crack at the 100lb mark. It was like having dinner with 14 of your dearest friends in a random restaurant in NC....all just because we all have a passion for fishing...and jigging slob AJ's in general

Lots of pics to upload!

[JerseyBrian]

Terrorist Cell Faction Leader "Mahi-man" of the Smith KGS 70MH casting regime

Glenn and a seasick Brian

a Fuzzy Chipster

Nick hooked up on his first AJ ever


Brian's first drop


Nick's 2nd fish

Nick licking balls

Nick's first jigged grouper

Getting Bigger

[JerseyBrian]

Brian with another plumper

Nick started hooking up well as the day went on

yes



Nick doing it up



Glenn drops twice = 2 AJs That damn blood warpaint friggin works!


Glenn and Nick doubled up


Brian gets hooked up and boats another nice guy

[JerseyBrian]

Ladies and Gentlemen Welcome to the Wilmington, North Carolina Aquatic Circus Maximus. Featuring our special guests we like to refer to as "THE FREAK SHOW" ...

Brian's 90-100lb'er





Chip's big honkie



Nick and his friend saying hi!



Glenn and with JUST applied blood on his face (you can tell since it's so damn bright LOL) and next drop boom



Doubled


My first big boy


Brian's 100lb'er



My biggest fish ever!!

[JerseyBrian]

AND NOW I'd LIKE TO INTRODUCE THE MAIN STAR OF OUR SHOW...

MAMA-SITA



Note how big the head is compared to Glenn's leg

It even bigger than Glenn! Look at that thing's head compared to Glenn's

[JerseyBrian]

Doug gettin jiggy and scoring AJ after AJ on day one





Al showing what he can do on Day one!

[di hrd]

Awesome pics Brian. Those are some line stretcher you caught. Congrats on your biggest catch yet. See, if you got the 3D the first or second trip you would have nothing to shoot for next trip Working your way up as it were.

[paul708]

thanks for the report..you do one hell of a write up
GREAT TRIP

[JerseyBrian]

Day two

It always seems that on the first morning of these jigging trips, everybody is up right at 4:45AM sharp and ready to rock and roll....and it always seems that the second day of fishing when that alarm clock rings at 4:30AM... you ask yourself...what the hell are you doing? Did I pay for this torture? I'm sore, I'm tired and it's 4:30 in the morning!! haha But I got right up because I live for this stuff. This is the only pain that I like. If a friggin fish can put this much pain into my body, its well worth my 110% to fight back. Nick was in shock at how bad he felt I think

Some of the guys were dead tired and beat from the previous day's fishing and others were ready to have at them again. We arrived at the dock and split into groups again for the two boats which were:

Rick's boat
1) Glenn (gman)
2) Nick (njnicka)
3) Al (fishingeek)
4) Brian (JerseyBrian)

Chip's boat
1) David (Masonboro)
2) Brian (kidflex)
3) Doug (d-a)
4) Fred (Gimmedeal)

Sami was also down with a few friends and trying their shot at some Godzilla Donkeys on Mike of LiveLine Charters' boat
1) Sami
2) Redfisha (Rob)
3) Joseph
4) Dave Irving

The day started off with a downed engine on one of the boat's and an increase in swells and wind gusts, but we finally got the electrical kinks worked out and we were quickly on the way after Mike and Chip's boats. Nick could barely move his fingers, but after a nice soooothing vicodin there he was, breaking dance on Rick's 27ft Onslow Bay Boat doing the robot and the wave. LOL, I love you man. You are hilarious and a Serious fisherman. It was not that wet of a ride out to the grounds (except for Al on our boat!...sorry bud lol) in the morning, but we got there eventually. On my first drop, I jigged up my first grouper ever (Scamp) with a 200g Turkey Slider jig. LOVE THAT JIG!

On Nick's first drop we landed a nice size AJ to start off his day and get the juices flowing in those sore muscles again. We started catching a few AJs here and there, but they weren't near the size of the day before. Arlen and Rick suspected that the NorthEast winds and faster current had really affected their feeding. Throughout the entire day, we would jig these spots where the fish would be stacked ontop of each other upto 50ft off the bottom at times and with 4 good jiggers going at it....we would come up with nothing a lot of times...

Glenn and I agreed that we have never jigged so hard in our lives. Our boat was jigging FAST and never stopped that day since we really wanted to get on the fish with Arlen and Rick, but it was a big fish here and a big fish there with scattered reports among the 3 boats. And Glenn is right..."The worst part about jigging ..... is jigging.. " Cuz you don't mind when you've got a 70lb AJ on the end of the line (even though it's CLEARLY heavier that jigging a 1/2 pound jig), but your adrenaline is usually poring out of your nostrils by then...so that helps out a bit LOL.

Nick even landed an AJ that had a portion of it's gill plate removed. It was also almost lacking in all pigment in its body coloring only for a few blacks spots on its face. The gill plate was nasty looking and you could actually see it's gill rakes moving vibrantly like a stadium "wave" around a ball park and before you know it...there's Glenn frenching the damn gill plates. HAHA. That guy can't get enough fish sex. I guess it's TECHNICALLY not cheating lol.

Nevertheless, we pushed on and continuted to jig our faces' off and I actually lost my voice from screaming so much on saturday and sunday's trips lol....trying to get the mojo going. One thing that I noticed on sunday was the amount of cutoffs we had from our toothy friends; Kings and Hoos. I had brought down 11 OTI 11/0 assist hooks and now have ZERO left. One memorable hook up was with Nick at the bow of the boat. We stopped at a spot that was lit up in the 150ft range where the bottom was about 285ft. We all dropped our jigs and continued to concentrate our efforts in the middle of the water column this time. Well Nick's line goes tight and the sound that came off his Stella was like nothing I've ever heard before. If anyone is familiar with Hi-Performance sports cars...think of the sound that a supercharger or turbocharger creates...that sound of a slow whine that quickly escalates to a violent banshee-type of scream . Well... now picture that scenario on Nick's Stella 20000FA spool! I just couldn't believe it...and just and quickly as the line ran off his spool...the line went slack and Nick's hook was gone. Glenn, Al and myself all looked at each other saying "What the hell was that!?" And Nick looked up at Arlen with a frown while Arlen looked back at him with a smirk say, "Nice size Wahoo probably"... Nick vows to get revenge back on them hoos next time!

We still had fun doubling up at times with smaller class AJs as well as getting some other buddies into the boat like a football Blackfin Tuna and my first King Mackerel! Yes! Of course it came on one of my favorite jigs. The Smith Jack knife R jig. Alas, my stupid ass lost the jig to the ocean because I didn't listen to big brother Glenn never leave your jigs on the rail of a boat!!!! EVER.

The reports from the other boats were also scattered although there were some beasts that were landed on Chip and Mike's boats. Doug landed his biggest AJ of the trip on day two!!! Taped out to a 57" tail fork and 33" girth fish!!! Way to go buddy! And I believe it was on a new prototype OTI jigging rod Chip landed a MONSTER 59" fork length fish and was great to hear he too caught it on the OTI prototype rod. Rob (redfisha) landed his biggest AJ of the trip on his last drop of the day! It measured out to 60" long! Everytime we passed by their boat, I was Rob hooked up. I'd like to fish with him someday He's quite the character LOL. Glenn, Rob and Chip would be a riot of a charter.

Another exciting event which occured on Chip's boat was that a 50lb AJ was caught and two BIG Bull Sharks took one bite each and all that was left was a head that weighed 16lbs! lol I saw more free swimming sharks during this trip than I have ever seen. Upto 10 or so in two days!! I guess they like AJ sushi!

With the offshore scene not looking good, Rick suggested we could go inshore to a spot in about 80ft of water where we could try for 30-40lbs AJs on topwater. We were all sold!!!! This would turn out to be the highlight of the day. So the idea is, once you locate the school of AJs on the bottom, you jigging for them to bring them up the water column to the point where we could actually see 5 or 6 AJs racing after our jigs and then quickly throw out your popper or stickbait to the surface AJs. So Al, Nick and Arlen started jigging once we got to the spot and sure enough, you can see on the fish finder the ball of fish moving up from 60ft...to 50ft..to 40ft.. to 20ft...and you could start seeing color in the water! Nick caught one or two AJs on jigs as well. Meanwhile, Glenn and I were armed with our casting rods and with a nice LONG cast from his Zenaq 83-5 Fokeeto Trevally rod and Stella 18000HG reel his says "I think there's a shark following my Runboh!"... Then I see 3 ~35-40lb fish swiming right after his stickbait. I thought they were cobia since their backs were so dark, but turned out they were hungry AJs and the pack leader took to the hook almost boat side...and the rest was history. Glenn's reel must have been pushing 25+lbs because neither Nick or myself could pull line off the reel with our hands and that fish took off line like Glenn hooked a cheetah lol. Just a furious 25-30 second run and the AJ had gotten him into the wreck which cut him and his precious Smith Runboh off....but it changed something inside Glenn...this experience.... he's found a new passion and that it topwater AJ fishing!!!! Glenn even said it felt like the intial run of a big tuna. We was giddy to see the least, but when that line popped...we took a nice pic of Glenn's face that nicely summarized the events of the previous 100 seconds Glenn also had several boils and blow ups from fiesty kingfish that never hooked up, but was still exciting to see....topwater fishing is just so damn visually stimluating It was a great way to end a day that started out so-so and turned into some exciting events for the next trip

[JerseyBrian]

Nick getting the first AJ of the day



Albino mutant AJ


The "Wahoo Run"

Nice one for the day

Doubled up with Nick!

This little focker had my whole body shaking and at one time got loose on my and tried jumping out of the boat....so as any man who really wants to eat a fish would do...I grabbed that tail and slammed that biatch on the deck of the Onslow Bay I really wanted to own that freakin' Blackfin Tuna LOL That's for you Chip! I don't think Capt. Rick or Arlen stopped laughing for about 10 minutes. I've got about 10 pics of me that Arlen was trying to take while he was laughing....you could see him shaking up and down in the succession of shots he took of me HAHAHA

My first King Mack! Bloody mess. Nice

Glenn losing his first Topwater AJ and acquiring a new found addiciton...can everyone see Glenn's face saying "AwwwWW!" LMFAO!