Reel Return.. Swansboro Hole Wahoo's

[reelreturn]

A trip to the stream always means a sleepless night before the trip and this trip was no exception. At 2 am, I finally gave up on trying to sleep, started rigging my baits and loading the boat for our planned departure time of 5 am. Jerry & Karla Hall and Mike Becker were on time and we headed out New River Inlet in the dark which is always a nerve racking undertaking. Once we were through the inlet, the seas had a tight chop and the northly wind keep spray blowing on us for most of our ride out. At about 40 miles out the ocean seemed to lie down and we made good time for the rest of the 20 mile ride. We finally had lines out at around 9 am and had our first hook up off the starboard rigger within 5 minutes. Mike Becker brought in the first fish which was a 28 lb Wahoo.

The Wee Hoo coming to meet some Pittsburgh Steel:



Mike’s 28 lb Wahoo:




Thinking this was going to be a hot day slowly faded as we had to wait another hour for our next bite, which came on the flat line, but did not immediately hook up. I grabbed the rod and managed to get the fish to come back for the bait, and when the fish did hook up I handed the rod to Jerry. This fish started a blazing run which nearly spooled the reel and Mike said we have to chase the fish. Jerry was able to regain the line, fighting the fish out of the bow of the boat. As the fish comes near the boat, it goes deep making me think tuna, but I finally see color and realize we have a substantial Wahoo hooked up. The fish finally comes into gaff range and Mike does an excellent job of sticking and hoisting this 62lb 8 oz pig onto the deck.

Jerry’s bow fight:



The citation Hoo for Jerry:




Karla got the next hookup and fought another Wahoo to the boat which does a Houdini act right as we were reaching for the leader and disappears to the deep. This only means that I finally get a turn on fighting a fish. The bite was almost non existent at this point and I wanted to get a few deep drops in with the jigging rods and be on my way back to the inlet. I started trolling back to the American Red Hole when the starboard flat line starts screaming out line. The fish slows down and I try to regain some line when I realize that the reel will not retrieve line. After a few moments Mike starts to splice the line onto another reel and I expect that the fish will regain its freedom. After the spice was completed we managed to feed the splice through the rod guides and onto the reel, I again begin to fight the fish which was giving me some head shakes and a few more blazing runs. Worried that the reel may now have too much line to retrieve, I gingerly thumb the line evenly across the reel thinking that every crank of the handle may bunch the line and jam the reel again. At last we see color and I still have a little more room on the reel to regain the last few yards of line so Mike can again stick and hoist another 52 lb 8 oz pig onto the deck. High fives all around the boat and we head back to the inlet with visions of blackened Wahoo and Karla’s fabulous carrot cake providing the additional sugar/ adrenaline rush for the next day.

Weigh In photos:





The autopsy table with the Wee Hoo and the 52 pounder:

[tankerfly]

Looks like a great day - nice job!

[SeaBiscuit]

What a great catch of wahoo Taylor, congrats! You may well have had the best wahoo catch on our coast yesterday! Well done and well deserved!
SeaBiscuit

[clt_capt]

Beautiful hoos. Well done. Some shoulders on those...

[Foul Hook'd]

Looks like the Wahoo Challenge might have some nice fish on the leaderboard this year! Very nice fish guys and gal!

Foul Hook'd

[Topsail Angler]

That was a fun trip, thanks for having me aboard Taylor!

Before I spliced that line on the 50w, I pulled off a bit of line to make sure the spliced line would fit. You did a great job getting it to the boat once we had a working rod for you to use!

Here's some pictures of the gaffed fish

[reelreturn]

Originally Posted by Topsail Angler

That was a fun trip, thanks for having me aboard Taylor!

Before I spliced that line on the 50w, I pulled off a bit of line to make sure the spliced line would fit. You did a great job getting it to the boat once we had a working rod for you to use!

Here's some pictures of the gaffed fish

Thanks for the additional photos- your splice job was simply amazing. I think this is an even better picture of the fish coming aboard

[slip slidin]

Pretty work on the two citations and the "so-called" weehoo. We would have settled for the weehoo yesterday. Congratulations to you and the crew.

[Capt_John]

Glad you guys caught them yesterday. I had to fish south of there due to the restraints of the charter. It seems like the best bite was up your way.

[weekender]

very nice all around