offshore ocracoke

[rich]

Been very tied up here lately so I haven't had chance to get online much. I graduated college monday moved back home tuesday and took the boat to Ocracoke for the Reel Fish Challenge Wednesday fished Thursday laid up Friday and Fished again Saturday. Now I am back with a report.
Dolphin EVERYWHERE. Nice gaffer fish. I went a little farther south than where the big numbers were being caught but got into a decent class of fish. Thought I had a placing dolphin but he ended up getting knocked out. We ended up with 12 gaffer dolphin on thursday. Friday was a blow day and we rode over to hatteras and up to frisco rod and gun for a little tackle shopping. We had some baits that worked well that I had just decided to buy to try and they worked so I had to go get some more.
Sunday came along again and I ran south to hopefully get into that same decent class of fish. No luck only a few peanuts around. Trolled up around the 000's and some very scatttered decent fish. Hit one medium sized school and went 3 for 3 and had a single hooked up right when we slung the last one in the boat on a long rigger we had left out. started trolling up towards the rockpile and hit one really good school of gaffers. We had no fish we wanted to weigh so we figured we would stay out past weigh in and catch fish being they were biting and we were there. Well we had 3 knock downs got the first 2 in and decent size gaffers. But the 3rd fish was fighting hard. Finally got him to the boat and it was a nice sized tuna. We knew that he would place. We picked up and headed her west HARD. Got to the dock with a 40lbs yellowfin that ended up taking third place. We had 20 dolphin mostly gaffers and 1 40lbs tuna and a 3rd place check.

Now I have to commend the guy that ran the tournament. He put this tournament together in 30 days and did a very good job of it. He gave every boat atleast 4 door prizes. Some as nice as an 80w tiagra on a stand up rod to as little as a calcutta hat and beer coozie. But everyone won something. He did something I would never expect out of a tournament director. He did not specify in writing how he would do 2 fish that tied in weight. 2 people had 29lbs dolphin and he paid up the extra cash to pay out 2 second places in that division being he never specified on how a tie would be determined. I have to say he ran a good tournament especially under the short time period he had to put it together.

Oh yeah and pictures to come as soon as I can get them from the man that had the camera.

[SeaBiscuit]

Been busy huh?
Good job on all your fish Rich and congrats on the 3rd place tuna.
Looking forward to the pictures.
SeaBiscuit

[hotrodmarlin]

Congratulations on the 3rd place! I hope you got your entry fee paid!

[shoefish]

Congrats on graduating... I think ... and nice job placing a fish. Looking forward to the pics.

[rich]

Ok after rereading my post. that tuna was caught way before time was over. We had just been discussing fishing after hours. I was in 30 minutes before we were suppose to be. We had no lines out time we just had a weigh in time and I was at weigh in well ahead of the time I had to. We had just made the decision to stay out and fish if we did not have a fish worth weighing.
Sorry about that guys but I had to correct that as I could see how it would be misinterpreted.

[Crazy Eyes]

Very nice graduation trip. Congrats on the graduation, tourney placement and overall just great weekend.