Fishing with George

[Robja]

With calm seas I couldn't pass a chance to head to the coast. So Saturday I went fishing with my friend George who I should write a book about since it is always an adventure. The plan was to head towards Frying Pan Tower and do some trolling and bottom fishing. Since we don't bottom fish much I decided to go on the South Atlantic fisheries web site and print off the SnapperGrouper pictures and rules and have it laminated. I had high hopes of catching a bunch of good eating fish. Going out across the shoals we came upon some blues so we picked up a few to light line for Kings. Upon arriving at the tower it was time to get some live Cigar minnows. I hooked up a sabiki rig and went to work. 15 minutes later still no love so I switched to another sabiki rig and finally got enough bait. We were heading off to some numbers Capt. Fred gave me but stopped short when we saw the bottom lit up with fish. I put the blue out and went to jigging. In a few minutes the blue went beserk then a king hit and started screaming line. Five minutes into the fight a 36 Yellowfin who was fighting a fish seemed to be headed straight towards my fish. Their fish decided to join mine. then my line went slack. Mr Barracuda decided to cut my king into. The yellowfin boat was kind enough to retrieve my half a king and throw my rig back in the water.

I took off the jig off my jigging rod and switched to a bottom rig. First drop resulted in a nice size B-liner. Just my luck went out of season the first of the month. Second drop second B-liner. Damn. We ended up with some grunts, Pink Snapper and some nice Black Bass.

With only an hour or so left to fish we headed back over to the tower to see if there were any African Pompanos still around. I put a live bait on a king rig with a 2 0z weight and dropped it over the side 20 ft down it got hit and headed to the other side of the boat. Holding the rod down in the water I waited for the fish to circle around so it wouldn't get cut off on the bottom of the boat. 10 minutes later the foul hooked king met the gaff.

It definitely wasn't a Merry Marlin or Sea Bisquit type of day but still a good time on the water.

Ran into a big school of these about 15 mi. off Bald Head on the way in .


A pretty sunset on the way in.


Once Capt. George spotted the lighthouse he headed in that direction. As we got close it was dark and I asked the Capt. if he knew where he was going and he said he was headed to wards the lighthouse so I asked him if his boat had wheels. He asked why and I said that he wasn't where he thought he was and that Bald Head Island was between him and the lighthouse. I told him to go left because we were going to have to cross the shoals and he said that is what his crew last week told him and he ran aground on Caswell beach. After finally convincing him I guided him to the shipping channel and the rest of the way in. It is always an adventure fishing with him.

[clt_capt]

Nice report - Sorry you didn't continue on a bit - but there is always the next time... Glad you had a good day

[Nauti Natured]

Thanks for the report. Better than a day on land any time!

[crappiekrazy]

Great report and pictures! One fine day on the water.

[WAHOONBOX]

WONDERFUL PHOTOS AND A GREAT READ!

[Agitated88]

Congrats Jay...nice report and great pictures!

[jaws]

Great report and pics. Don't it hurt to throw those B-liners back?

[gottaflylee]

Congrats on a fine day on the water. Looks like a lot of fun with some great pictures...