Another Grouper Killing Sunday---Nearshore Gaggin'

[Squid]

Yesterday I decided to fish out of the old port of Ocean Isle Beach and do a little exploring to see if the gags had shown up inshore. Cleared the inlet around 7:30 and found bait quite difficult. Ended up catching about a dozen before giving up and going offshore with the sabiki's.

An hour later we had enough to get a good start and went to our first hole in 55 feet to find a blank screen. Ok, we'll head on offshore. Get to the next spot (one of my favorites) in 80 feet and find just what we were after. Bottom lights up and we drop anchor right on top of them. Couldn't convince them to bite however so we pull up and anchor on another really good mark in the same area. Still can't buy a bite and we're starting to get frustrated.

Oh, and did I mention that it's blowing quite a bit?? Damn weatherman!

Decide to make a move back inshore because it's too rough to keep going offshore. Back in to 65' and have a good mark on a small rockpile. Drop anchor and end up right on top of the mark. I had a couple of doubters on board when I told them that we were about to load up. I think one of the comments was "Ok, Squid.....whatever you say. " First drop resulted in a throwback but our spirits were lifted. The other 3 guys were already fishing so I figured I'd drop a line too (my first line down of the day). It wasn't down 1 minute before I was bowed up on a nice gag. Jeremy's next drop was another nice gag. Continued a slow, steady pick for the rest of the afternoon and ended up with a very respectable catch.

One of the really cool things that happened was the hook that had been broken off in one of the gags I caught. The hook had apparently been there quite a while (see pics)-----had barnacles growing all over it and was just now starting to rust away.

Biggest fish of the day was in the teens but all were quite respectable. It's only going to get better from here!

[O-SEA-D]

Looks like a great day on the water.

The sunset was amazing last night too.

Pretty work on your fishing guys!!!!

[brandon558]

Very nice job man...great report.

The sunset yesterday afternoon was awesome indeed.

Brandon

[SeaBiscuit]

Cool beans Squid. Suckers had the lockjaw yesterday morning, didn't they? The got to chewin' early afternoon though, thank goodness. Nice catch, report and pictures.
SeaBiscuit

[TriAngler]

I love a man on a mission - way to stay and make it work, Squid.

Say -do you know a guy named Al Perkinson with Costa? Ran in to him at a recent reunion (sort of) and turns out he's working with them.

[Capt. Jon Tennant]

hey squid, I think that might be one of Lindon's hooks...

[Squid]

I love a man on a mission - way to stay and make it work, Squid.

Say -do you know a guy named Al Perkinson with Costa? Ran in to him at a recent reunion (sort of) and turns out he's working with them.

I cannot say that I know of Al. Lots of people down in Florida with the company though.

[Squid]

hey squid, I think that might be one of Lindon's hooks...

I wish I would have shown that to Lyndon when I got back to the dock. He was there but I didn't even think about it. I tried like hell to get that hook out but it would not budge. Looked like his mouth had grown around it.

On a side note......while fishing after that happened I got to thinking about how all the freshwater people talk about hooks rusting out after a few days-----HELLO!!!! How long do you think that hook was in that fish's mouth to have barnacles like that as well as skin and muscle growing around it in the SALT water??

[gottaflylee]

Great report Squid, but I think after all the driving I've done in the last 2 days I gone blind...I can't see the pictures???

Now I know I'm losing it...the pictures just showed up ...cool picture of the sunset!