Oregon Inlet Weekend Report--Aug. 15/16...Miss Squid Goes Billfishing (LOTS of Pics)

[Squid]

I'll be the first to admit, there's 2 things that really get me going when it comes to offshore fishing----a red hot grouper bite and billfish. As most know, I was in Pirate's Cove all week for the PCBGT and was able to bring updates each night (except for the last) with pictures of multiple flags on multiple boats every day. Seeing a rigger full of flags on the Sea Toy every day was enough to tear me up all week and had to do something about it.

On Thursday I talked to one of my friends, Travis Ketchie who owns a 34' Fountain called the Ketch This. Just so happens that he was on his way to Oregon Inlet for the weekend and didn't know I was there. It was just going to be him and another guy on the boat and asked me if myself and Miss Squid would like to go. Hmmmm....there's a no brainer.

After cleaning up from the tournament, I finally left Pirate's Cove around 12:30am Saturday morning only to set my alarm for 4:00am. Got up and it was pouring rain with gusty winds and some electricity. Made the call to go back to sleep and check again around 6. Still raining.....back to bed again. Finally around 7:00 the rain quit and myself and Miss Squid got up for the final time and headed over to load the boat.

Got underway around 9 and put lines in around 11 in the midst of the fleet. Didn't take long before the first billfish of the day was behind the left short. He took a swipe at it, I dropped it but nothing was there. As I was clearing that line to rerig it, two more lines went off---both connected on fish we didn't see. Didn't take long for them to show themselves, although they were not the targeted species. A couple of nice mahi's though.....Paden did a nice job on the cow:





While Travis did a number on the bull:





The rest of the day proved to be one of frustration and missed opportunities for us and the rest of the fleet. We had no less than 12 shots and whiffed every last one of them. The fish were extremely lazy and didn't want to eat. They would come in slap the baits and then fade off. The entire fleet had the same problem and had an incredibly hard time hooking them.

But as the old saying goes.....what goes around, comes around. I told Travis on our humiliating ride home that "they would pay tomorrow".

No storms on Sunday morning so we loaded up and left at daybreak. Made the long 30 mile run to 45 fathoms and put them in.

The previous night I made the decision that we were going to try a couple of circle hooks so that in the event that the fish are acting like they did the previous day, we would have something to blame all the missed fish on.

As I slid the circle hook under the floss on the ballyhoo's head, the left long got bit. I dropped it back, fish picked it up, I came tight and our first sail of the day was tailwalking across the back of the boat. Give the rod to Miss Squid (who had never even seen a billfish much less caught one) and the right long gets bit. Travis drops to that fish and comes tight. As his sail takes to the air, the long rod (the last one that was out at the time) also gets bit and we come tight on him! Got Travis' dad, Bobby set up on the long fish and watched all 3 of them jump simultaneously behind the boat. Travis' fish jumped off and we were left with 2---Miss Squid:



and Bobby:



both of which had never caught a billfish.

Bobby was first to the boat with his fish which went crazy on the wire. I left their boat with its first bill marks on the side before taking some pictures (which unfortunately didn't turn out).

Miss Squid wasn't far behind as her fish decided to give quite the show in the early morning sunlight:







Got her fish in the boat for her first picture (a big healthy fish might I add):



And I let her turn it loose (something I always do with people first billfish).





What a turnaround from the day before, huh? Already 2/3 and haven't been trolling 5 minutes.

Got our mess back out and was trolling through the fleet when I notice a bill behind the teaser. Crank it up and put a bill in front of him and watched as his whole back came out of the water and crashed it. I hooked him (on a circle hook), and the left short went off. Travis hooks him and then the left long gets bit. Miss Squid was the first to the rod, drops the bait back and hooks him up! Textbook!

So now we are tripled up and the right long gets bit! Bobby turns around from the helm, drops back to him and whiffs. No big deal because we only have 4 people on board and 3 of us are hooked up. Bobby grabs the video camera while trying to drive the boat and clear the last two lines. In the midst, another fish tries us but nobody was able to get to it in time since we were all tied up.

My fish and Miss Squid's both jumped off after a few minutes which left Travis with the lone remaining hookup of the quad. His fish was exceptionally frisky and made a run to the front of the boat so we fought this one off the bow.



Brought him in the boat for a quick picture:



And turned him loose:



What happens next is something that I will remember forever as I have never witnessed anything like this in my life. In the middle of the fleet, we found ourselves by alone and closing in on a flock of birds hovering over the surface of the water. When we got closer we saw bills, sails, and tails, under the birds. Looking closer we saw these sailfish swatting bait in a sight most people have only seen on tv. We immediately went for the video camera as we drug baits around the outside of it. Made a couple circles and it was apparent that the fish were focused on the large baitball they had circled and paid no attention to our baits (I couldn't get enough angle to drag my long rigger baits through the ball). With another boat closing in on us after watching us circle, I told Bobby to go ahead and cut through the middle of it one time and maybe we could pull a few fish before we got cut off and the other boat drove through the middle of them. When we went through the birds, there was NO LESS than 20 sails working the bait. Looking over the side of the boat, you could see individual bait balls that were split off from the main one and sails swimming by the boat chasing them down!

We watched as 3 sails came by the boat, and into our spread. We managed to hook 2 of them and whiffed a third. The boys even let me catch one and Travis caught his second for the day.





So here we are.....it's 10:30 and we've already released 5 sails. The rest of the charter fleet was singing the blues and we couldn't seem to do anything wrong. A complete turnaround from yesterday!

We trolled around a couple more hours and had a couple lazy fish (much like the day before) try us including a small blue marlin that looked around before fading off. With a 4 hour drive back to Wilmington ahead of Miss Squid and I, I made the call to pull them in at 3:00pm.

However, at 2:55 the left long gets slapped. I drop it back and come tight on our 6th sail for the day which spent more time out of the water than in. Miss Squid was on the rod for her second fish of the day which she made quick work of before the release.















During the course of the day this little guy ended up on the boat---not sure if it was spit up by one of our sails or not but check out this baby flying fish.





After turning Miss Squid's second fish loose, we called it a day and headed home with 6 releases which I think was high boat in the fleet (other than the Hunter who was way to the south of us and had 6 sails and 2 whites).





Final count was 6 releases, 3 more jumped off, and a few more missed (most of which were because we had multiples on and not enough hands).

Man did it feel good to be able to string up a rigger full of flags of our own this weekend after watching it all week! Also congratulations to Mark Miller ("offshore") who released a white and a sail of his own yesterday. They are fishing again today so I'm sure he'll put a report up as well when they return.

[Double D]

Those look like some jumbo doggies! Congrats and thanks for the report

[Agitated88]

That was EPIC!!!! Excellent report and pictures...congrats to Mrs Squid as well!!!

[clt_capt]

Awesome day - Congrats Miss Squid... Somehow I missed the creekin pic

[calebw]

Absolutely speechless, 6 sails WTG

[Bent-Bill]

Way to go Squid... Glad Sunday turned out to be Epic. I know you needed the confidence boost after Sat. You better be glad you slept in Sat, After i got off the phone with you and started heading out of the canal, it totally busted loose. We had to idle almost the entire way to the inlet before the rain let up. Congrats again man, awesome job.

[SeaBiscuit]

The kind of say most of us only dream about captain Squid. Congratulations on not letting the first day's event deter you or cause you to second guess doing what you knew was right.

Big bad sails, great photos and a brilliant report! Thanks man!

pretty work on your first and second bills Ms Squid. I bet they will not be your last!

SeaBiscuit

[HOLWACHAGOT]

Those are some big sails. Incredible report.
Pretty work!
Holwachagot

[knot for shore]

1ST CLASS POST SQUID! VERY NICE SAILS FOR SURE. NICE JOB AND NICE TO SEE A FOUNTAIN OUT THERE!

[Ponce]

Did you keep pinching yourself to see if you would wake up.

What a day on the water Congrats.