We entered the Greater Wilmington this past weekend and for the second year in a row decided we should have entered the sail tourny instead. Caught bait at Lee's Cut the day before and caught more in the waterway on the way to CB Inlet Sat morning at O-Dark thirty. The plan was to fish offshore at 15 miles or so and head back to the beach for the tideline bite, but after getting to the Dredge, we saw enough bait to want to stick things out. No luck at the Dredge, so jigged some cigars and headed out to the Schoolhouse. Caught one shark and had just redeployed when Mr. Bill hit the spread fully lit up. Anyone who was at the Schoolhouse at around 9:30 heard me screaming "Sail, sail, sail!!!" at the top of my lungs. I know a blue hull Regulator heard me cause they kind of watched the action from there on. We landed the sail, took pics, and released - we were pumped but still needed the right species.
Decided against running in like planned and turned further offshore to some really purple water and a great ledge at the 23 mile rock. Ended up with two kings, one around 16-17 and one at 18.5 or so which took 27th in the tournament. Both were caught on flat lined pogies or cigars (can't remember which was which).
Here's a quiz for those interested...fish ID scenario...
Our WTF back line with a cigar and a mylar skirt gets nailed and the fish goes on a 150 yard tear...definitely king right? We chase the fish for a second cause he's (she's) not giving us our spool back. Fish stops, we get most of it back, but now it's on the bottom, or close to it in 90 feet of water - and we can't move it with 20lb gear. Every foot we take, it takes back. No head shakes, but we can sort of feel it swimming...we break off after 1 hour and twenty minutes after trying to use more drag to hoist it up...I'm thinking reef donkey, but I wanted everyone to take a shot...
We had assorted other knockdowns including a barracuda that skied at least nine feet up and 30 feet across...had to be 40 pounds...awesome sight.
Sounds like a great weekend dog. I was trying to find out the results of the sailfishing tourny? Nice sailfish. Sounds like the weather is finally getting better.
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