Southport/Ocean Isle Beach BFT ????????

[Ace1st]

Yeah..........Its typical BS at Southport and OI, those pictures of fish, they're photoshoped!! You know theres a line up there bout Swansboro and them BFT's aint allowed to cross it searching for groceries.

Yeah...Boys you keep believing there not around Frying Pan Shoals, who wants two hundred boats sitting on the Knuckle Bouy every morning, not me, Hey, I like my odds, 8 or 10 boats within site, couple fish landed 4 or 5 more hooked up but broken off. I'll take that all winter long! You boys stay up there round MHC and dont cross that line at Swansboro....just like them TUNAS!

Now you Southport/OI HATERS, dont pay no attention to them pictures, they're probably not anymore of their brothers and sisters swimming out there round FPS.

[burricane]

Sometimes I feel like we're focusing on the wrong side of the equation entirely. I give all the credit in the world to anyone who can go out there over the last three years, fish hard for bluefin tuna commerically, and end up in the black at the end of the season. There are some boats who have done that, but overall??? In the meantime, everyone trying to go out and put blood on the decks is missing the fact that this is an outstanding recreational fishery. I live, work, and fish in Ocean Isle Beach, and every day I hear frustrated bluefin hunters saying are disappointed because they caught two fish and the largest went 67"? What? This is an outstanding time to go out and catch a "short" bluefin. My roommate had four the other day. What charter or group of anglers wouldn't like that? And I don't care where you are, Morehead City, Topsail, Southport, Ocean Isle. There are obviously fish in both places. I see pictures I've taken all over this thread and others (thanks for the publicity Capt. Jon Tennant). If you have a commerical license and can sell the legal fish you catch, great. If you are set up to charter fish and can put a crowd on a couple of shorties in a day and release them, even better. But at the end of the day, if you are going out and catching fish when you could be stuck inside over the Christmas break with the in-laws, watching crummy early bowl games, go ahead and get over the fact that you're not killing three a day to sell! You probably weren't going to get rich anyway, Just appreciate the fact that it's December and you can fish 50 and 80 wides sometimes in sight of the beach. In a couple of years, when these fish are extinct or regulated to the point where we can't target them at all. These very well may be the end to the "glory" days.

[SeaBiscuit]

But at the end of the day, if you are going out and catching fish when you could be stuck inside over the Christmas break with the in-laws, watching crummy early bowl games, go ahead and get over the fact that you're not killing three a day to sell! You probably weren't going to get rich anyway, Just appreciate the fact that it's December and you can fish 50 and 80 wides sometimes in sight of the beach. In a couple of years, when these fish are extinct or regulated to the point where we can't target them at all. These very well may be the end to the "glory" days.

Very well said burricane. No reason to be anything but grateful for this wonderful NC fishery, which is, unfortunately, going away. Anyone fortunate enough to have experienced it before it was a commercial fishery surely understands.
Cheers,
SeaBiscuit

[Squid]

Sometimes I feel like we're focusing on the wrong side of the equation entirely. I give all the credit in the world to anyone who can go out there over the last three years, fish hard for bluefin tuna commerically, and end up in the black at the end of the season. There are some boats who have done that, but overall??? In the meantime, everyone trying to go out and put blood on the decks is missing the fact that this is an outstanding recreational fishery. I live, work, and fish in Ocean Isle Beach, and every day I hear frustrated bluefin hunters saying are disappointed because they caught two fish and the largest went 67"? What? This is an outstanding time to go out and catch a "short" bluefin. My roommate had four the other day. What charter or group of anglers wouldn't like that? And I don't care where you are, Morehead City, Topsail, Southport, Ocean Isle. There are obviously fish in both places. I see pictures I've taken all over this thread and others (thanks for the publicity Capt. Jon Tennant). If you have a commerical license and can sell the legal fish you catch, great. If you are set up to charter fish and can put a crowd on a couple of shorties in a day and release them, even better. But at the end of the day, if you are going out and catching fish when you could be stuck inside over the Christmas break with the in-laws, watching crummy early bowl games, go ahead and get over the fact that you're not killing three a day to sell! You probably weren't going to get rich anyway, Just appreciate the fact that it's December and you can fish 50 and 80 wides sometimes in sight of the beach. In a couple of years, when these fish are extinct or regulated to the point where we can't target them at all. These very well may be the end to the "glory" days.

Very well said, Chris....