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I've had this day on the calendar for close to a month, and with the weather of late in NC, you just never know if things will come together.
Unlike Wed. night, I had no trouble falling asleep after my first Extreme Measures bottom trip.
4:00 came VERY FAST, and Bill and I headed to the Run-Off for another adventure w/ the Beast.
Brian Hunt, Dan, and Justin joined us from down in Raleigh and we headed away from the dock. There was barely a ripple until we hit the ocean where we were greeted by a light swell. Finally some good weather for the fleet of Morehead.
We made it to the magic spot and set out the spread. The water was gorgeous and things were gonna happen. The relatively clear sky was broken by a single far off squall.
The first bite of the day came from a blackfin that Justin put in the box nice and quick.
Bridge rod 1-cockpit 0
A little while later and the bridge pole started screaming again, and Brian handed down what ended up being Dan's first pelagic fish, a ~35lb wahoo. He was pretty thrilled with a cuda or some sharks mobbed the sucker at about 100 yds, and disabled his propeller.
Bridge rod 2-cockpit 0
Brian Hunt was next up when a King took the bridge rod too.
This one ended up without a prop too.
Bridge rod 3-cockpit 0
After a while we sent the planer down, and it didn't take long for another king to find the bait, along with a jack.
Bridge Rod 3-Cockpit 2
As the day wore on we found a nice break with plenty of cover for mahi's. The day before a number of boats had picked up some nice gaffers in the area, and it didn't take long for a few mahi's to join the box.
One was a heck of a bleeder.
Can't remember who caught what on the next little flurry.
The rest of the fleet had been picking away at Mahi's too and there was a great sign of Blue ones roaming around the same areas. The water was a beautiful blue, and around 75 degrees. HE had to be lurking somewhere.
While passing the time with a little bojangles chicken Dan, Justin and enjoyed the A/C in the cabin. They wondered why I had only cranked one fish in for the day. I simply told them that someone needed to save their energy for the Blue Marlin we were going to catch that afternoon.
The chicken got the best of me and I fell into a deep food nap.
Like usual I was rudely awakened, and ran into the cockpit to grab a dink rod and hand it off to bill as we were attacked by a triple of mahi's.
Not a bad thing to wake up to.
It wasn't but 20 min later when a Blue one paddled in to kill the popper head on the end of the rasta squid chain. The senator teaser reel screamed and Capt. Brian began barking orders.
THERE HE IS!!!
LEFT FLAT.......GET THOSE DINKS OUT OF THE WATER!!
Brian Hunt and I snatched the Dink rods away, and the Marlin decided he wanted to kill every damn thing in the spread.
LEFT SHORT......RIGHT SHORT.....HE'S ON.....CRANK CRANK CRANK.....50 yds of line has left when it goes slack. I look up to see his dorsal cut across the spread to the left when I hear the Bridge Rod start screaming.
I jumped in the chair and took the hand off and went to work. The Tiagra 50 was screaming as the crew cleared the spread.
With the groan of the engine, the black smoke, and splashing water we rushed after the fish. He cooperated as well as an Blue Marlin can, and with great boat handling, and some good team work in the cockpit we had the fish to leader in about 10 min. He put on a decent show along side of the boat, and Justin was right there with the camera snapping plenty of pics.
John took wraps and eased the fish to the right corner. The hawaian eye was grabbed and the #8 wire parted sending the fish on his way.
The Run-Off got it's first Blue of the year, and John's(O-Sea-D) first release of a Blue after a long streak of angler error and bad luck.
There were high fives all around, and we ended the day on a high note.
We had a great ride in on a flat calm ocean with a gentle swell.
At the dock we were greated by the beautiful Harrington ladies and some murky brown low tide water. Perfect for sending John on a little swim!
We offloaded the catch, took pictures, and cleaned our catch....Thanks for the help Birdhunter, and good meeting you.
John started cleaning the boat, but there was one more thing to do before parting ways. Capt. B called him down to the Gulf dock, and Brian Hunt and I had the honor of doing the toss.
So when you're ready for a little bluewater adventure of your own, Give Brian a shout and get down to Morehead City.
You can't find a harder working team of guys than Brian and John, and the Run-Off has proved once again that those pointy fish just love coming in and seeing what she's all about.
I wonder who's gonna be flipping those couch cushions today. The next make up trip can't be far away, and if you can't find 5 buddies to come with you. Call me.
THANK YOU FOR ONE HELL OF A DAY FELLAS.
I'm damn proud to call you two my friends.
-D
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