Shakespeare
05-05-2009, 08:51 AM
I took a couple of days off last week to get an early start on the CCC Challenge (http://www.carolinaskiffowner.com/showthread.php?t=5842). I left out early Thursday morning and picked up an old high school buddy of mine on the way through Greensboro. Gary has not been fishing in a bunch of years so he was more than glad to get out of the house and get away for a few days. On the ride down we caught up on all the news about about past friendships, girlfriends, and so forth. We rolled through Kinston about noonish and of course there's always the obligatory stop at the Neuse Sports Shop. Man... I gotta start keeping away from that place as the tackle monkey gets on my back real bad in there. *001*
Heading back out and down the road we stopped in Havelock to grab a sub and to call 1stSarge to get the latest scoop. We then mushed on to Atlantic Beach with a stop or two at a couple of the B&T's. By the time we got unloaded and the boat in the water it was about 4:00PM. Being that it was getting a little late in the day we decided to hang around the State Port where we picked up a bunch of returnable BSB's and a couple of mullet. Shoot we were so glad to be on the water it didn't matter what was biting.
http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee78/CSO_Shakespeare/FortMacon_090430/DSC01044.jpg
Friday was our big day because the forecast was calling for SCA's that afternoon onwards. We needed to make hay while the sun shines, so to speak. We headed out of Beaufort Inlet early that AM to be met by some pretty good size rollers and a lot of whitecaps. We wanted to drop a line at AR315 but the further we headed into it, the worse it got. So we decided to scuttle that plan and retreat. The water wasn't near as bad near the shipping buoys and to the east so that's where we setup some trolling lines to try to hit some Spanish. After a couple of passes we found the hook up spot and got about four in just a few minutes time. We then had a tackle malfunction and had to straighten that out and by the time we were back on it, things seemed to have dried up. I told Gary that I was going to make one more pass then pack it in. As soon as I rounded one of the green buoys a couple of porpoises broke surface and about 5 seconds later we had a double. I thought that we just hit pay dirt but the lines got tangled up again and we had to fix that mess and unfortunately we lost the school. Oh well... now it was time to pack it in. We rounded out the day with 6 Spanish, a nice sized blue, and some mullet. Nothing remarkable but just good to be out and catching something.
http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee78/CSO_Shakespeare/FortMacon_090430/Picture023.jpg
Saturday was wicked as far as the wind was concerned. We tried to get out early to the Haystacks to catch the falling tide. After about 15 minutes there I picked up a bite that had line screaming off my reel. I was grinning ear to ear thinking that I had something to enter into the Challenge, I fought this thing about 20 minutes and eventually got it close enough to the boat to see that I had hooked a damn skate. *004* Oh well... there will be other opportunities. By this time the wind was screaming through there so we needed to head towards a sheltered area near the port. It was low tide and the fish were not to be had. I told Gary that we were just going to have to wait it out. After a couple of hours we started getting some bites and hooked into 3 nice sized grays and a few blues. Not the greatest day but still fun to be out with an old buddy doing stuff that we both enjoy.
http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee78/CSO_Shakespeare/FortMacon_090430/DSC01048.jpg
http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee78/CSO_Shakespeare/FortMacon_090430/Picture027.jpg
We went out a couple of hours on Sunday yet with the wind still rocking through there. We picked up a bucket load of croakers but tossed them back in as I just didn't want to mess with them.
Well that's it folks. A good weekend but no records were set, that's for sure. A little note here... I sure have been seeing the CG working the turning basin pretty hard with random boat checks. Not sure what's got them fired up but I can't remember seeing them this active before.
Mike
Heading back out and down the road we stopped in Havelock to grab a sub and to call 1stSarge to get the latest scoop. We then mushed on to Atlantic Beach with a stop or two at a couple of the B&T's. By the time we got unloaded and the boat in the water it was about 4:00PM. Being that it was getting a little late in the day we decided to hang around the State Port where we picked up a bunch of returnable BSB's and a couple of mullet. Shoot we were so glad to be on the water it didn't matter what was biting.
http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee78/CSO_Shakespeare/FortMacon_090430/DSC01044.jpg
Friday was our big day because the forecast was calling for SCA's that afternoon onwards. We needed to make hay while the sun shines, so to speak. We headed out of Beaufort Inlet early that AM to be met by some pretty good size rollers and a lot of whitecaps. We wanted to drop a line at AR315 but the further we headed into it, the worse it got. So we decided to scuttle that plan and retreat. The water wasn't near as bad near the shipping buoys and to the east so that's where we setup some trolling lines to try to hit some Spanish. After a couple of passes we found the hook up spot and got about four in just a few minutes time. We then had a tackle malfunction and had to straighten that out and by the time we were back on it, things seemed to have dried up. I told Gary that I was going to make one more pass then pack it in. As soon as I rounded one of the green buoys a couple of porpoises broke surface and about 5 seconds later we had a double. I thought that we just hit pay dirt but the lines got tangled up again and we had to fix that mess and unfortunately we lost the school. Oh well... now it was time to pack it in. We rounded out the day with 6 Spanish, a nice sized blue, and some mullet. Nothing remarkable but just good to be out and catching something.
http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee78/CSO_Shakespeare/FortMacon_090430/Picture023.jpg
Saturday was wicked as far as the wind was concerned. We tried to get out early to the Haystacks to catch the falling tide. After about 15 minutes there I picked up a bite that had line screaming off my reel. I was grinning ear to ear thinking that I had something to enter into the Challenge, I fought this thing about 20 minutes and eventually got it close enough to the boat to see that I had hooked a damn skate. *004* Oh well... there will be other opportunities. By this time the wind was screaming through there so we needed to head towards a sheltered area near the port. It was low tide and the fish were not to be had. I told Gary that we were just going to have to wait it out. After a couple of hours we started getting some bites and hooked into 3 nice sized grays and a few blues. Not the greatest day but still fun to be out with an old buddy doing stuff that we both enjoy.
http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee78/CSO_Shakespeare/FortMacon_090430/DSC01048.jpg
http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee78/CSO_Shakespeare/FortMacon_090430/Picture027.jpg
We went out a couple of hours on Sunday yet with the wind still rocking through there. We picked up a bucket load of croakers but tossed them back in as I just didn't want to mess with them.
Well that's it folks. A good weekend but no records were set, that's for sure. A little note here... I sure have been seeing the CG working the turning basin pretty hard with random boat checks. Not sure what's got them fired up but I can't remember seeing them this active before.
Mike