Wrightsville Beach 9/23

[cbaker77]

We headed out today with wahoo, snowy grouper, and big Ajs on the mind. First stop was in the nipple area. Lines in at 7:15 and five minutes later first wahoo in the box at about 40 pounds. This was my first experience with the planer rod and it certainly will not be the last! It put a hurtin on em all day. We trolled the area for another 45 minutes and missed another wahoo and caught a king and a cuda. With snowy grouper on the mind we started trolling towards the spot and about halfway there boat another wahoo. We got on the snowy spot and after a few tries got right on it and had a quick limit, one real nice fish on a jig and the rest on bait. Now it was time to hit the AJs. Kevin was on board and he wanted to put his new torsa to the test and did he ever. Last time we went we found a spot loaded with big ajs so we trolled back inshore inshore to find the ajs but what we encountered we did not expect. When we got to the Aj spot, all five jigs went down and and all five hooked up immediately to good fish. The action ensued for as long as we could take it and by the time the smoke cleared everybody on the boat had landed at least one aj that was 70-80 plus pounds. The biggest fish of the day we estimated at about 125-130 lbs! It was 70 inches long and had a 40 inch girth. The smallest fish was only 40-50 pounds! Tom had never jigged before but that is one awesome way to start. WE finished the day out trolling and boated 2 more wahoo and missed a couple short strikes. It was an incredible day on the water with the tally being 4 wahoo, five snowy grouper, a little blackfin and about 8 or 10 monster AJs.

[cbaker77]

A few more pictures...

[HOLWACHAGOT]

That is a great day on the water. Congrats on the Snowy Groupers. You guys had a horseshoe with you today.

FYI- It appears that the NC record for Donkeys is 125#. If your fish was estimated b/w 125-135...well...I guess you know what I am gettin at.

That is a HUGE donkey!

Thanks for the report and pics.

Holwachagot

[shoefish]

Damn those are some huge AJs! Those must have been a blast on that gear. I like the Heisman by the way

[striper101]

FYI- It appears that the NC record for Donkeys is 125#. If your fish was estimated b/w 125-135...well...I guess you know what I am gettin at.
That is a HUGE donkey!
Holwachagot

I did the math and that AJ came in at 140 lbs. You might have a record there!

Congrats on the great day you guys had! Awesome!

[wbfish]

Damn! Nice catch!

[SeaBiscuit]

Outstanding catch and report Chip and crew! Hard to fathom the fight on those big jacks! A young man's sport for sure!
How much water did you bring those jacks up from? Do they seem to survive on release?
SeaBiscuit

[Stormtrooper]

Nick the the depth was 275 -300ft and the only AJ fatality was a tail wrap.The big guy released after some TLC next to the boat.Join A.S.S now memberships going fast!

[cbaker77]

i would say at least 95% of the jacks survive. Some swim right away but the bigger ones seem to need a little more attention. The big boy was released to swim another day. It took 10-15 minutes to get him going but he swam off fine.

[JMS-ILM]

friggin' impressive!