Slip Slidin' Report---July 19, 2009......Somebody Said There Was A Grouper Shortage??

[Squid]

Myself, Miss Squid, and Seabiscuit had made plans Saturday afternoon to touch base at 4:30am Sunday morning and head offshore. When I went to bed at 10:30, the wind was still puffing so I wasn't surprised when I got up and had a text message that said "Sleep in and we'll touch base mid morning".

Phone rang at 9:30am and it was Nick----"I just talked to Slip and he wants to go with us. How fast can you be at his house in Carolina Beach?" "We'll be on the way immediately." Didn't take long for me to throw some rods and a tackle bag in my truck and Miss Squid was much quicker than usual to get ready. (She hadn't been fishing in several weeks and was ITCHING to go!)

Readied the boat and shoved off for a 11:15 departure. Found a small school of pogies in the inlet so we took a couple of them with us. Made our first bait stop and was it ever a productive one! Among other things, we jigged up some of these unidentified little rascals.....



Although none of us knew what they were (they were not blue runners/"hardtails" though it looks similar), they made one heck of a bait!

There were some storms lurking offshore so we decided to start in 65 feet for a nearshore gag to let the storms pass so we could get offshore (by the way, satellite weather is awesome!). As usual, Miss Squid was the first to connect with a gag that got her back in the groove after being gone for a bit.

A couple more shorts then we saw a huge boil on the lite line shad. I was the only one up at the time so I got the rod and did battle. Fish peeled off about 100-150 yards pretty quick and me, being the one to run more drag than most on my kingfish rods, bumped him up to about 3-4 pounds.

A couple more decent runs and we finally got the first look at the fish which we initially called around 20-25 lbs. It wasn't until she made a pass by the boat when we actually saw how thick she was. When Seabiscuit sank the gaff in her, it took both hands to pull him over the side. This was definitely one that many people would love to have on a weekend!



The scales back at the house put it right at 35 lbs. By now the storms were starting to move northeast so we nosed on out.

Next stop resulted in the first red grouper for the day.



Another short red grouper and a short scamp were released before Slip made the call to keep running offshore. When he first said that, Biscuit said "You do know it's 4:00, right?" Without missing a beat, Slip replied "well we have until 9:00"

Next stop resulted in a few more red grouper and a decent scamp. Miss Squid caught her first scamp as well....a nice keeper which somehow went into the box without a picture. Slip also found a nice eel which managed to wrap himself up.



As quick as it started, it died so off we went to find some more. By now the 150 quart cooler in the bow is starting to get full, thanks in part to the kingfish which took up a large part of it.

The next and final stop of the day proved to be one of the best bites of the year. We went out there looking for scamps....and scamps we found! In a matter of minutes the lid on the cooler wouldn't close and it was still as hard as you could go. At one point, Miss Squid made 4 consecutive drops and connected each time.

Action shot....



Result....her biggest scamp to date:



So with no room in the cooler, what do you do? Start piling them on the deck...



After the anchor course changed a bit, we drifted off the mark and finally had to take a minute to count how many we had and find a place to put them. Total count at this point was 18...2 shy of a 4 person limit. We can't stop there can we? We've got to finish it off!

Pull around on the anchor and get back on the mark as myself and Slip are stuffing fish into an aft fishbox. Myself, and both Nicks send a bait down....I connect with a scamp, Biscuit connects with another scamp, and Slip starts grunting. Miss Squid was quick to get an action shot (since neither one of them wanted their picture taken today ) and then the end result:





A final look at the "new" fishbox:



And a ride home at 35 kts getting to the inlet just before dark:



Final tally....9 scamps, 4 gags, and 7 reds along with the overgrown "mercury missle", a couple of bass and 1 lone pinky.



Not to bad for a half day trip!

Nick, from the both of us, thanks again for another great day on the water! Couldn't have asked for a better time today....not to mention a better bite of fish! And in your words---"No complaints. Life is good."

[seasea]

ya'll crushed em!! that is one hell of a "half" day i'd say.
way to go nick's and squid!!

[weekender]

just when you think it can't get no better, it does. Glad yall didn't leave at daylight, not sure the boat would have held them, awesome catch..........

[Fish Biz]

Thats awesome congrats on a great day. Thanks for the report.

[Flooringman]

Great day. Thanks for sharing.

[SeaBiscuit]

I think it's safe to say that the new Slip Slidin boat came of age yesterday!
The storms moved on in the early afternoon and when the wind went south it was like dropping a switch. They chewed!
Thanks for taking me fishing brother Slip and congratulations to the Squidress for crossing a couple more NC fish species off her "must catch" list.
SeaBiscuit

[Double D]

Not bad for a half day Looks like alot of fun, thanks for the report

[clt_capt]

Awesome. Nice to see that the new boat has been officially blooded to an acceptable level.

Nice catch.

[merry marlin]

That is just WOW! Bottom fishing at it's best.... Nice to see that Capt. Slip can now enjoy the new ride and it's big fish boxes or are they still too small???
MM

[Ponce]

How what a half day, for a lot of people that is a full season. Nice report and pictures as well.