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After spending the last couple of fishing trips on the troll for mahi and other critters, I was anxious to go offshore for some bottom fishing. I called my friend Capt. Scott Erickson monday morning and reviewed the weather forecasts for the week and we agreed that due to his schedule and the somewhat favorable forecast for Tuesday, that we would try that day for some bottom fishing. By early afternoon my boat was not ready from yet another 100 hour oil change, so we decided to take Scott’s boat Reel Dreams on our quest for grouper. Tuesday morning I awoke, got my gear ready, and then went to Topsail Island’s only biscuit factory to pick up and bag of biscuits and await Scott picking me up at 5:45 AM. On the way to the ramp, we stopped and picked up our other fishing partner, Tanner Gray and were pleasantly surprised to find the ramp empty and totally clear of the summer tourists.
Upon clearing New River inlet we were greeted by low lying clouds and a 2-3 foot sea with a long period swell that enabled us to make a comfortable 30 mph cruise to our first planned stop 41 miles out. Somehow my share of the biscuit bag never made it to the ramp and I spent the ride out listening to good tunes and trying to catch a few biscuit crumbs flying past my head. Our first set of numbers had the fish finder lit like a neon sign, so we drifted over the spot and quickly caught one keeper gag and one short scamp. We set anchor and got into a grouper bite that was on fire!! In the first 45 minutes we landed 2 more nice gags and 3 red grouper before the bite disappeared.
Scott’s next set of numbers was only 3-4 miles away so we threw out a high speed wahoo lure and a cedar plug hoping to get some pelagics in the box. The fast troll to our next spot did not yield any hits and our next drop only produced bait stealers and some live bait for our next stop.
Our next stop was 54 miles out and by this time we found the wind was shifting to an easterly direction which had the sea and drift confused, which made anchoring quite difficult. We did manage to pick up 2 nice scamps and add 2 more red grouper to the fish box.
On one of our stops we had a school of nice sized mahi swarming around the boat; Scott quickly began throwing chunks of bait and hoped to again show us his expertise and free gaffing mahi boat side. Tanner finally managed to coax one of the smaller mahi to take a gitzem jig and we prepared for a bailing blitz of 12+ pound mahi. Our hopes were quickly dashed when a huge barracuda cut the first hooked mahi in half and the school fled. Although a few grouper short of a limit, we didn’t get rained on, had relatively calm seas, had great tunes, and great times with good fishermen and friends
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Originally Posted by Capt_John
