Merry Marlin 05-16 report

[merry marlin]

When we woke up Saturday morning to a front coming through Marshallberg with rain falling horizontal I sure wondered why I had invited Chris "Nauti Natured" to come along for a day offshore...
We drove down from the Piedmont just to fish one day and would be going out no matter what! Chris showed up we we took off for a tough ride out. A south wind on a strong unusual SE current made for a strange sea and it took us a while to ride out.
Jacky prefered getting wet in the rain instead of giving up his favorite spot in the boat...



Water was 68F in the 20 fathom and we thought we'd ride out to the 30F like last week where we found the mahi's.
As we hit 70 degree water we put lines out. Patrick's planer was trying to lock his planer and the first fish took the bait 5 yards behind the boat... We thought this is the spot!!!!
Well it took a while to get the next fish then a pair of wahoos hit and Chris did a great job of bringing his in. Patrick's came loose right at the boat.



Action was a little slow but we picked up one by one some mahi's and everyone got to play!



The WB rod then took off and Jacky brought in a yellowbelly leadered by Chris gaffed by Austin. High hopes for some more were back and we stayed on the shelf even though talk was of a better mahi bite inshore...



Started a slow troll back and picked some more mahi's...





Chris played the same game as the boys and he hugged a dying mama to ruin his T shirt, Gaffed some bulls in the pump station and gutted some fish to find all kinds of stuff...







It was then time to head in but Chris needed to try his Trevala on some AJ's so we stopped half way in to pee... and get a little work out...


No big ones but good exercise!


As we are tourists from the Piedmont we had to do the picture thing at the Lighthouse where flat water makes us usually forget about how rugged the water can be for a small boat here in NC...



A good day for the boys ends at the Mongolian Grill.... Check out these scavengers waiting for the next round.... Sorry Mongolian Grill I think you lost some money on these clients!!!



Thanks Chris for putting up with a bumpy ride and some loud talk at times from my good ole Chatham Redneck, meat slam fisherboys!
MM

[swell rider]

Glad to see another good trip on the MM..as for Chris it's good to see him digging in.. I opted out ,talk to a few bottom guys that said the current was real bad and my charter rescheduled for the end of May anyway so I just worked on the boat..save the beating and the fuel for a better day..plus Im spoiled having Jacky onboard. Hopefully next weekend will be better but did you see whats forming off Florida!!! Talk to you soon... Ken

[gottaflylee]

Great report my friend, you just made my day...

[SeaBiscuit]

What a great bunch of action shots! Lit up mahis, double wahoos and a fat yellowbelly too!
Glad to see that Chris got his day offshore. I'm sure it was worth the beating and drenching.
This spring if you don't go on marginal weather days, it seems that you'll never go. Your fish did not seem to mind the marginal conditions and that boatload of young killers just get friskier like lab pups during a cold front!
Pretty work!
SeaBiscuit

[Squidnation]

Fantastic report. Nice tourist shot also. congrats on a fun day offshore. BTW - its always calm 5 feet below the surface. God created wind to keep the fish populations up

[catman1]

Nice to see this report. Haven't seen too many reports of yellowbellies down this way. Keep up the good work.

[Nauti Natured]

I cant thank the Merry Marlin crew enough for the hospitality and generosity! That was an UNBELIEVEABLE day of fishing. I learned more in that one day than I have in years of fishing myself. These guys are fish slaying machines

Time for some more Advil

Thanks guys!!!

[Anders]

them suckers eat everything they can! great report, thanks

[jtocean]

Great report. Sounded like an awesome trip! Way to go!

[clt_capt]

Nice catch guys