July 26, 2007
It was my birthday so needless to say…I was going fishing offshore of Topsail Island and the North Carolina Coast. My birthday activity was decided well in advance this year because I have not maintained the frequency of fishing trips that I have in the past several years due to a number of factors including work, the course for my captain’s license, my overall schedule, and the unusual ability of the nasty side of mother nature to coincide with what little free time I’ve managed to find. This day the weather cooperated.
It’s probably pretty easy to tell that I haven’t been able to fish as often I like because my fishing reports, few as they are, are getting longer to make up for the lack of frequency.
I had asked Curtis and Taylor to come along for an enjoyable day on the water in the Reel Dream, knowing that both of them have good experience; Curtis fishing on my boat and knowing my styles and methods, and Taylor fishing every chance he gets on his own boat (Reel Return). I was looking forward to a day without any rookies, newbie’s, or other higher maintenance anglers since the day on the water was my birthday treat to me. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love teaching people to fish, seeing their excitement with new experiences, sharing my knowledge, and the personal fulfillment I get from making sure they have a great day on the water. However, sometimes it’s nice to not have to worry about anyone other than yourself having a good time and this was one of those days.
We launched at the Surf City boat ramp around 5 am and headed towards New Topsail Inlet. I had decided to start out at 23 Mile Rock since it was the middle of the week and the area had had a few days to settle down since being a parking lot of boats the previous weekend (like most weekends). 23 Mile Rock is a popular ledge and area about 23 miles off of Wrightsville Beach, although it’s more like 29 miles for us out of Topsail Island. I had considered the Cripple Rock area because it had been hot earlier this summer, producing lots of sailfish and dolphin, but its early fame this summer has led to a lot of over fishing and that spot has cooled off considerably the last couple of weeks according to my closest sources.
Within a couple miles of cruising offshore we noticed a rather dark and nasty looking thunder cell directly in our path to 23 Mile Rock. It was moving off to the northeast out of way but we were going to have wait for it to pass so we dropped some lines in the water and started trolling in the general vicinity of 23 Mile rock and the obvious frog strangling downpour looming ahead of us. After about ½ hour the storm had moved off enough to provide us a clear shot on out to our destination.
Upon arriving at 23 Mile Rock we were the only boat on site. I had figured that even the few boats fishing midweek out of the Wrightsville Beach area would stay away from the area for awhile because from their vantage point south of Topsail, it would appear that the thunder cell was at or very near 23 Mile rock.
We redeployed the trolling lines with a wide variety of offerings, mostly my best producing lures tipped with ballyhoo. We trolled and trolled without even so much as a knockdown for a long time. Finally we had the occasional bite off but no hook ups. Everything looked good, I was marking plenty of bait on the sonar, the ledge looked great, the wind and chop was about right; but nothing to show for it in the fishbox. Luckily we were enjoying each other’s company immensely.
Around 10:00 or so another big downpour was heading our way and looking nasty. We discussed a few alternate locations and I finally decided on punching it on out to WR2. Based on the track of the approaching storm in relation to our position and WR2, it looked like it would slide between us and the coast. The offshore fishing reports from the past week had been extremely lack luster and knowing that most of those reports were probably from within a 30 mile range, I was hoping for different results further out. WR2 was another 20 miles from 23 Mile Rock, or about 45 miles off Topsail Beach and I’ve been having good results out there and had lots of confidence in it. Any Pro will tell you that confidence in what, where, and how you’re fishing is one of the top secrets to successful days on the water.
We arrived at WR2 to find some of the clearest, prettiest blue water and the weather was about perfect. We deployed our trolling spread once again and searched the area for a bite. I honestly can’t remember where we caught our two trolling fish, whether it was at 23 Mile Rock before we left or the couple hours we trolled at WR2 but we did manage to put a fat little King Mackerel in the boat and a sandwich size Dolphin. We had a couple other hookups but each time they quickly came unbuttoned or never really had the hook, we assumed they were Kings and/or Dorado’s. Because the trolling bite continued to match the reports I’d heard all week we decided to try for some bottom fish sometime early afternoon.
I positioned the boat over one of my favorite sections of the ledge out there at WR2 and Curtis dropped the anchor perfectly. My prediction of anchor set in relation to the wind, waves, and current was right on the money…the sonar was lit up with fish.
We had brought our Butterfly Jigging rods with us and both Curtis and Taylor wanted me to show them how to fish it because neither one of them had really tried before. Fishing the butterfly jig is definitely an art form and getting the action down correctly is critical for success. I had watched the video on Shimano’s website over and over again and practiced repeatedly before I finally had the right technique when I first started.
With Curtis and Taylor watching I dropped my jig to the bottom, engaged the reel, and started the jigging technique while explaining what I was doing and how it affected the jig. After working the pink butterfly jig off the bottom about 30 to 45 feet on the first drop I explained, “This is about the time something hits it†and right on cue the rod doubles over. Curtis remarks to Taylor about my jigging, “he does that everytime!†Imagine the smile on my face from that compliment and confidence as the drag screams off the reel. After a really good fight I bring a small Amberjack into the boat, about 31 inches, and released it back into the water.
I hand my rod to Curtis and Taylor grabs his own rod and they start dropping Butterfly jigs. After a short break (a cold beer) from fighting the Reef Donkey and giving some advice on technique to Curtis and Taylor, I grab my other jigging rod that is readied with a big skirted lead head jig, trailer hook, and I bait it with a cigar minnow for a trip to the bottom in search of a Grouper. Meanwhile Curtis and Taylor are still practicing their techniques.
I think my jig may have been on the bottom all of 3 or 4 seconds before I was struggling to bring a nice fat Red Grouper into the boat. It’s into the fish box for him. I rebait and repeat…3 to 4 seconds on the bottom…up comes an even bigger Red Grouper.
At this point I feel like I’m putting on quite a show by bringing up big fish in each of 3 casts (it’s my B-day and I’m in a good groove) so I ask Taylor if he’d like the setup I’m currently using. I hand the rod off to him and he drops it down to the bottom and it is not long at all until he’s locked up with a Grouper. This Grouper takes refuge under a ledge or cave and is not budging and after Taylor continues to try to work it free for a minute a two I offer to take the rod and wait the fish out while he tries out his Butterfly Jig some more. I keep the line just taunt enough to feel what’s going on down there and after a few minutes I can tell the fish has swam out from under the cave and I take a couple of quick turns of the handle to make it sure can’t reach it’s sanctuary again and hand the rod back to Taylor to bring in his fish. Another nice Red!
Meanwhile I’ve rigged up a traditional Grouper Rig for bottom fishing and hand it off to Curtis to get in on the Grouper action. Non-stop Butterfly Jigging can wear out anybody after 6 to 10 drops without any breaks.
After getting his fish in the ice box Taylor is sending his bait to the bottom again on my rod and locks up with a powerful Grouper that again takes refuge under a ledge or cave. After unsuccessfully trying to forcing it out, I offer to wait the fish out again while Taylor goes back to his rod and his butterfly jig. Several minutes later I feel the fish is free and start forcing him off the bottom again in a hurry and I can tell that this fish isn’t in the same class as the others…it’s a battle royal that the big fish wins when my rod snaps in half and breaks the line. I’m in total amazement; I’ve never had a rod of that weight class snap before.
After rigging both Taylor’s jigging rod and my other jigging rod that Curtis had been trying with the butterfly jig with more of my special Grouper jigs, it was time for another beer…I mean break, as I fantasized about the size of the Grouper that snapped my rod.
For about the next hour we continued to catch Grouper with the two remaining jigging rods rigged with the Grouper Jig heads. Taylor and Curtis kept me busy retying new rigs as they lost them to the bottom, Barracudas, or other critters. Taylor caught a Scamp Grouper that was short by an inch or two, a Gag Grouper that was equally short, a nice Grunt, and another keeper Red Grouper. Curtis caught a keeper Red, a nice Grunt, and a short Gag that he had to save from a Barracuda that was trying to eat it on the last 15 feet to the boat. While Taylor was taking a break I used his rod to add another Red to the fish box.
It seems like out of nowhere the current suddenly started running hard, when before it been almost slack, and the bite died for us. About the only other thing caught worth mentioning at this spot was a Moray Eel. This was a first for me and having heard numerous horror stories about people getting severely injured while taking these things of hooks, I was approaching the situation with extreme caution. The Eel had wrapped itself up the leader as we held it boatside in the water. I was trying to use the gaff to unroll the leader from the Eel so I get hopefully get my rig back when the gaff slipped out of my hands into the water. After several failed attempts to snag the gaff with a spare rod, and the current taking it away from the boat at an ever increasing speed, I decided to go in after it…I couldn’t lose my lucky gaff and we never would have found it by the time we got the anchor up.
Curtis reminded me take off my sunglasses and when I turned around to dive in it was really starting to get away. I reached gaff, swam back to the boat, and Curtis helped me up onto the dive platform. As I was swinging my leg over the tuna door to climb into the cockpit, a wave rolled the boat in just the wrong movement and back into the water I splashed. I was laughing so hard (because my off balance fall was even humorous to me) that I could barely get back into the boat with Curtis’ help. Luckily I had some extra motivation to get in the second time because as I went under water during my fall, I spotted two barracuda hanging out under the boat.
With me back in the boat safely this time, I still had to deal with that darn Moray Eel. Taylor and Curtis had grabbed the cameras and took a few pics. Notice how mesmerizingly blue that water is. This time I decided I could simply replace the rig and I cut the leader.
With the bite having disappeared with the arrival of the strong current, we decided to pack up around 3:15 and head closer to shore for a ledge I had numbers for that usually produced nice Gag Groupers. Upon inspecting several of traditionally good ledges without any good sign of life on the bottom from the sonar; I decided to head over to AR368 on the way toward shore.
After getting anchored up correctly over the sunken barge at 368 on our second try, we dropped some baits…but nothing except bait stealers. Taylor had managed to snag one of the bait stealers so I put it out on the light line behind the boat in hopes of a king or dolphin.
Curtis managed to hook into a good size Amberjack and got it to within 15 feet of the boat with a few others from the school following it to the boat. It looked to be about 40 to 50 pounds…that is until the barracudas hit it taking the rig, fish, and all. The presence of the Cudas in the area seemed to scare off the rest of the AJ’s and our fun was over. The Cuda’s circled the boat as we watched them stake things out.
We quickly decided to call it a day and as I was bringing in the light line I was surprised that nothing had hit it while it was out there for about 30 minutes. However, as it got closer to the boat a couple of the Barracudas came in for a closer look at it but they wouldn’t hit it. I cast it out to the Cudas a couple more times and while they would come to investigate it, they wouldn’t eat it. On the last cast to them I decided I’ld try one of my Cobia techniques for getting a finicky fish to hit it; I cast it up in the air so it smacked the water hard with a big splash and then burned it back to the boat has fast as I could reel, like it was a fleeing baitfish, and sure enough one of those Barracudas ate it. That Cuda then put on quite a show, circling the boat with one jump after another. After wearing him out, I snipped the wire leader as close as I could, brought him for a two quick pics, and back in the water for a release. I love it when you target a sighted fish and end with success.
We had a beautiful ride back into New Topsail Inlet. It had ended up being a great birthday with a box full of fish and plenty more fun catches released. I had two great guys on board with me that share the love for fishing. For the day we had a King Mackerel, a Dolphin, 6 nice Red Grouper, and two nice Grunts in the fish box and we released 3 more Grouper, an AJ, a Cuda, and many bait stealers. Even the ones that got away were quite entertaining.
Go catch some, Scott Erickson
