Wrightsville Beach Offshore 11/7

[KeepItReel]

My friend and I took our 3 year olds offshore Saturday....that's right, its not a typo. Left the dock at a leisurely 10 am and first stop wa 8 miles off the beach. The ledge looks great, we get anchored up and it became obvious that we really didn't need to anchor. We had a few bites from seabass and ringtails, but no grouper. Tried another spot where they were biting well last year this time. With no luck. We decide to get some live bait hoping that was the problem. Stop at the 10 mile boxcars and jig up some beautiful sardines. Several boats fishing there not much going on as far as I could tell. Move offshore a couple miles to a little rock. The amount of bait at this spot was insane. Our live baits are only bringing up seabass. I finally made the comment that the bite was so slow that we hadn't even caught a shark. Not one minute later we double up on sharks...which the girls enjoyed. I really can't believe we haven't had a lightline bite yet...it is November right?? water temp was 68-69 degrees, bait everywhere...what gives?. Finally we try one more spot as the girls are getting a little testy. The baits are getting destroyed by more seabass and grunts and finally we catch a 12 inch gag. Decide to call it a day and start heading in and come across a huge pod of bait...probably 100 yards long and stacked up all the way to the bottom, I tried to take a pic, not sure if it shows up well. We drop some ballyhoos back and make a few circles with not even a sniff...unbelievable. I'm marking some large fish below the bait so I drop a jig down and hook up to something substantial...finally. Felt like a grouper, but who knows what it was since it came unbuttoned half way to the boat. We cruise on in about 3 pm. I don't know whether to blame it on the moonphase, tide, slack current, location, poor fishing skills or what. I can't blame it on the kids since they were troopers and did not slow us down much at all. I used to think I knew how to catch a grouper, the last few trips have been humbling.

[Ponce]

Hey that looks like a great day on the water to me. Looks like the girls did very well.

[clt_capt]

Thats really awesome that you were able to get the kids out and they hung in there.

[RJD]

You got a great crew there. Mine would not even get on a boat until she was nine and she's twevle now and still has a hard time keeping lunch down.

[KeepItReel]

Fortunately conditions were perfect and we were prepared with lots of treats. The only bummer is on the way home my daughter looked at our empty fishbox, then looked up at me and said "Daddy next time I want to go fishing with SeaBiscuit or Squid.".....it broke my heart.