All I caught was Crabs

**Robja** · 07-27-2009 11:58 AM

Tenacious has been after me for a fishing report and after talking with him last week I told him the weather looked good(2-4) and I was headed down to the beach on Friday. When I got down on Friday it was quite breezy but trusty NOAA said the winds would die down over night and the ocean would lay down. So like an idiot I trusted their forecast. We decided to take my friends 27ft Albemarle instead of my other friends 25ft Parker just in case NOAA was wrong. Friday afternoon we got the boat fueled up and the gear stowed away so we could leave early on Saturday morning.

I got up at 5:30 Sat. morning only to find it was still breezy. No matter cause the Albemarle should handle it ok till we start a slow troll. I picked up my friend down the beach and we headed to pick up the other friend who owned the boat. After picking him up he wanted to get breakfast. So much for leaving early I thought. Finally arrive at the marina at 7:45(its not that far) and after farting around for 15 min. its time to shove off. I'm thinking great I will finally get to go fishing and if we bottom fish I can try my new jigging outfit.

As we rounded the corner at Caswell and got into the ocean we were greeted with the 4 footers with an occasional 5 and 6 thrown in for good measure. Its kinda hard to find pogies in that rough a water much less throw a net on them and hope you stay in the boat. After about a mile down the beach we decided to change plans and go back inside to get some small pogies and anchor inside either the Cape Fear inlet or Little river inlet or maybe up around Snows cut and just do some inshore bottom fishing. We just did not feel like getting beat up outside.

We went up the Wildlife canal and with one toss loaded the livewell with little peanut pogies. I'm thinking finally I will get to do some fishing other than surf fishing in front of the house where all I catch is little brown marlins. As we start back to the waterway we hear a loud sqealing noise. The Capt. says it sounds lke a belt is slipping. So we pull into a dock on the waterway to tighten the belt. Now I'm thinking oh no not again. Hope its just a loose belt. You have to understand that my friend just got this boat back in Nov. and I have been down about 5 weekends hoping to fish and all I end up doing is boat repairs.(water pump,thermostat,Burnt exhaust hose,gouged prop hubetc). Well we got the belt tightened but when we revved the engine up it did it again and it wasn't charging so we determined the alternator was shot. After docking back at the marina we headed off to see if we could find a new alternator. Not to be. Found one but the mounting holes were not the same size. After a couple of stops we decided to head back over to the boat to release the pogies since it was apparent there wasn't going to be any fishing plus we left the beer on the boat.

I'm sure by now you wonder what the heck the title has to do with this story. Well here it is. While sitting on the boat at the dock I decided not to let the bait go to waste so I hokked a pogie on a flounder rig and tossed it into the marina waters thinking I might get lucky(not a chance in hell). I noticed after I went to the cooler for some liquid refreshment that my line appeared to have moved about 10 yards from where I threw it. Now I'm thinking maybe I have a fish. As i reel it in I notice there is something more than just a pogie on there. As I got it to the boat I see all i caught was a crab and with no crab net there was no way to get him in the boat. He decided he did not like the topwater so he just took what was left of my pogie and back to the bottom he went. Frustrated I rebaited and went back to fishing. Few minutes later another crab so I decided the heck with it.

So there you have my fishing report Tenacious. All I got was crabs

**Tenacious** · 07-27-2009 12:13 PM

I like that type of report, it's not always about fishing. It's more importantly about enjoying each others company even if it means catching the crabs. What would have made this a 5 Star report would be a pic of you and the crab of course.

I saw you on the boat and took a picture myself.

Thanks for the report Jay!!!!