The old adage about March, in like a lion, out like a lamb may be true more often than not. But on yesterday's fishing trip the March weather was like a lamb and the fishing ROARED like a lion! What an awesome day to go fishing. The winds were less than five knots, there were no seas to speak of and the sun shone bright all day. It was a little cold, especially on the ride out but tolerable.
We headed out about 6 am with Rick Croson who operates Living Waters Charters out of Wrightsville Beach. My buddies Jodie and Randy were alongas well.
We headed for the Steeple, a place near the Gulf Stream, about 62 nautical miles from Masonboro inlet. The water temperature was only around 66 degrees, a little cooler than we had hoped but we could see some great marks on the bottom machine so we dropped our jigs down. Today we were fishing exclusively with Roscoe jigs.
It wasn't long before we had the day's first Amber Jack screaming off line, Jodie pulled him to the boat after a long tough pull (they are nicknamed Reef Donkey for a reason) and then released it. We estimated it weighed about 70 pounds. That scene was to be repeated many, many times throughout the day. Jodie also hooked up a Bull shark that we estimated to weigh about 250 pounds or more. Then Randy hooked up on our first "meat" fish of the day, a nice 25 pound cobia! That was his first ever cobia! Then Jodie hooked up on a cobia, this one weighed over 65 pounds! We were getting wore out by all the AJ's so we decided to try a different area a few miles away.
That area was alive. We saw 3 or 4 big turtles and the sonar screen was just plan LIT UP with fish all up and down the water column. We caught 3 tiger sharks all weighing in the 250 plus range, man what a mouth full of teeth, mean and ugly! And what a work out on a jigging set-up. Soon Rick and I both hooked up with cobia, Jodie caught another and then I landed a 55 pounder. We ended up with our limit of 8 for the day! Some friends in another boat fishing near us with Roscoes also caught their limit.It seems the cobia really liked the Roscoe jigs.
In between all the cobia, a nice African Pompano was landed and of course plenty of AJ's and some Almaco Jacks. We were having a great time but really were hoping for a grouper or two. But of all the boats out in the area that day we only heard of 2 being caught, seems the grouper just hadn't been chewing. Just as we said it's about time to head for the hill, Jodie hooks up loses and then re-hooks up with what he thinks is a grouper. A few minutes later he proves to be right by landing a 41" gag grouper! This is one huge fish and a great way to end the day!
Roscoe proved to be a real fish producing machine! Today's catch on Roscoe rigs included cobia, grouper, amber jacks, almco jacks, and African pompano. All three colors, pink, blue and brown all caught plenty of fish. We headed back in calm seas and hit the ramp a little after 7 pm. What a great way to start of March fishing!
