A "Whale" of a day

[BOTTOM DWELLER]

Awoke yesterday morning to fog hovering the ICW. Nice day ahead as I new there was not a breath of wind blowing. Met up with Worknot, Russ Jones and Chris Avery and headed out the inlet. 2 miles off carolina Beach we come across a Whale (Im gonna guess either a "Right" or "Pilot"). Snapped a few pictures then headed out another 18 miles. We dropped on numerous marks looking for some inshore Gags and picked up nothing. Looked as if what little current there was it was moving parallel to the small ledges. We decided to run offshore and look for some better fishing. Found them 41 miles out and although not the strongest bite we managed to put 9 Reds in the box. The biggest came when Chris battled a 22lb 12oz red off the bottom. Easily the biggest I've ever seen. In all a nice day on the water , really incredible for us in NC for Dec 11th. Sunny, no wind and temp in the mid 70's.
First 2 pics of the whale, note Carolina Beach in the background.
Next pic of Chris and I with his "whale" Red followed by a pic of the weight on a hand held scale.
Last a shot of the days catch.

[shoefish]

Man I've got to move south....on the way to work this morning it was 18 degrees....meanwhile you're in short sleeves, sweating to pull huge grouper off the bottom....man I'm stupid

Thanks for sharing your day! Keep the reports coming!

[squirtis]

Dammit Boy//...nice red huh....WTG

thanks for the report

Curtis

[SeaBiscuit]

Most excellent report captain Keith. That red is a hog! T-shirts in December, no wind and groupers galore. You did good adapting to the conditions and finding them.
SeaBiscuit

[brandon558]

wow...thats quite a red!

Pretty work guys

Brandon

[slip slidin]

Great shots of the whale so close to the hill. Never know what you'll get to see out there on the big pond. Great write up and pics Keith. One hell of a puddinhead. Way to put your crew on em Captain.

[bigg09]

YOU GUYS DOWN SOUTH ARE KILLIN ME WITH THESE REPORTS. I WOULD LOVE TO COME CATCH SOME GROUPERS. I GUESS I NEED TO PACK THE PANGA UP AND HEAD SOUTH. WHO CARES ABOUT A NON-FIGHTN LAZY STRIPER. WE CAN'T GET THE WEATHER TO COOPERATE TO GET OFFSHORE FOR SWORDS. WHY DID I EVER LEAVE WRIGHTSVILLE????

BOY I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE WATER TO WARM UP AND THE BULL REDS AND BLACK DRUMS TO COME BACK!!

ON A SIDE NOTE OF MY RANT. WHEN WE WERE DAYTIME SWORDN SUNDAY, WE SAY HUMPBACKS FULLY BREACHING OUT OF THE WATER FOR ABOUT A HALF AN HOUR LESS THAN A 1/2 MILE FROM THE BOAT IT WAS AWSOME.

GREAT JOB AGAIN GUYS
CASEY