Memorial Day I was invited to make a trip to the blue water aboard the "Surprise", leaving out of Cape Fear. Weather was perfect, seas were great and the fish were chewing pretty well. We were pulling a spread of ballyhoo and squid and the Dolphin just loved them. The fish on Monday were decent fish with the big fish of the day weighing in at 21lbs.
Pictured below is Oscar with his first Dolphin on his first trip to the stream.
Saturday I ran a pre "Barry" trip with Steve and Eric from Hickory, NC. They flew in Saturday Morning arriving at ILM about 0930 and were at the docks and underway by 1030. I wasn't sure what to expect with Barry's pending arrival, but I was pleasantly surprised to find relatively calm seas. Seas were 3 foot about every 5 secs, but with little wind, they were fairly glassy.
We put lines in about 18nm off the beach and had a Dolphin on before I could get the 3rd line in the water. I handed the rod to Steve and he caught his first Dolphin.
We fished on out to the 23 mile rock area and caught a King Mackerel and a couple of False Albacore before turning around and making our way back toward the hill. When we got within 1/2mile of where we caught the first Dolphin, we hooked another. Guess I should have stayed right there.
Inshore, Speckled Trout have been bitting well in the creeks of the lower Cape Fear River. I know of one 6lber being caught on a top water plug. Flounder are picking up as well with a report of an 11lb Flounder being caught in Snows Cut this past weekend. Black Drum are biting well near the wall at Buzzard's Bay, but the Redfish bite has been tough. Big Cobia are being caught around the Masonboro Inlet Jetty. Big pogies seem to be the bait of choice, though a 77lber was caught on Johnny Mercers Pier that ate a bluefish.
The fish are here and it's time to go. Catch 'em up!!!
