TUESDAY, JULY 15, 2008
Offshore WB 7/13 mahi, kings, grouper
By Keep It Reel
NC Waterman
WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH - After a failed attempt at live bait, we cleared the inlet around 7 am and pointed it to an area of live bottom and ledges about 35 miles offshore. The plan was to troll ballyhoo for "sailfish", and if it was slow, drop to the bottom. Ran out a comfortable 33 knots in a gentle rolling 2-4 foot swell with a tiny ripple from the 5 knot wind...perfect conditions. We nearly got our spread out when a 30+ king sky rockets on a rigger bait, burns about 100 yards off then spits the hook. We figured we're in the right spot. About 10 minutes later we land a nice gaffer cow dolphin. Dump the spread back out and found a bull a little bit smaller.
We noticed the water temp had dropped some so we headed a little inshore to see if there was a change. After few more minutes the rigger pops, I grab the rod and the fish rips off 20 yards, starts shaking his head, then proceeds to dump....and I mean smoke.... half the TLD 25 (250 yards) as we frantically try to clear lines. The fish slows down, shakes his head again, then the hook pulls. ?hoo. We notice that the temp has dropped and it turns out the strike was on a 0.8 degree temp change. There was no color change, no rip line, nothing visible, but the change occurred over about 10 feet. We worked it hard for a long time with only a cuda to show for it. We give up on trolling and decide to drop to the bottom on some nearby ledges. Our arsenal of dead bait, cut bait, butterfly jigs, and lead head jigs yields one decent red grouper and a bunch of smaller fish that were cut in half by a 40 lb cuda that hung around the boat. We did get a good video of it chomping a pinkie. We did get one bailer dolphin past him. Headed back inshore to a beautiful 5 foot ledge that has yielded nice gags in the past. It couldn't be prettier on the bottom, but could only pull one 25 inch gag and lots of grunts and sharks. I finally get around to putting a lightline out and about 2 minutes later it starts singing. There are about 15 20 pound AJ's under the boat, so I'm thinking that's what I have except for some of the blistering runs the fish makes. He stays deep, fighting just like a jack until we finally get him boatside and put some steel into a nice king.
Not a great day considering the time and effort we put in, but not a bad day either.
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