MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2008
Saturday Amber Jacks
By bmac
NC Waterman
NEW RIVER INLET - Started out early out of NRI. managed to cast net a dozen perfect size pogies and a big horse mullet before heading out to AR 355. Sight fished a school of big AJ's there for half and hour with live pogies, and I couldn't get them to bite! Couldn't believe it. Threw on the big ol' mullet and every fish in the school went after it. Hooked up with a big 40+ pounder and fought him hard for 15 minutes before he popped the line. Got an idea... re-rigged the pogies on a smaller hook and a 50# flouro leader carolina rig with a small egg sinker. Bingo. Re-learned an old lesson. Live bait has to look natural. You've got to right size hook and leader. Relearned another old lesson too. AJ's are brutes, and it sure is nice to have a two speed reel when you're on the wrong side of 50. After catching 2 nice size AJ's on the live bait, I switched to a California style metal jig. I grew up catching Pacific Yellowtail on these, and I figured their first cousins would probably like 'em too. Yep. They loved 'em. Hooked two more on the blue & white Tady 4/0, and I was done. Those fish pretty much whupped my middle age tail, so I moved on looking for kings. Trolled the alphabets for a few hours with only one knockdown on a Yozuri DD. Saw lots of bait on the sounder. Clear, 80 deg water. Saw a flying fish about 5 miles out of the inlet. Ended the day on a sour note. Left my TLD 30 II in freespool with a big swivel on the end which I failed to secure. 3 miles later, I look back and there's a hopeless backlash of spectra. Not very smart Capt! Relearned another important lesson. Secure everything before you get underway. Oh well. Kept one 25 - 30 # AJ. Grilled some last night, and it was excellent. Probably burned 65 bucks worth of gas and lost about 80 bucks worth of line. At those rates, I'm eating better than Donald Trump. At least I'm paying more for it.
|
TODAY'S TIDES FOR MOREHEAD CITY:
){kind=link}