September 22, 2007

The winds have finally quit blowing from the Northeast, after about 3 ½ weeks, and I finally plan on going offshore again tomorrow in search of something tasty. With that in mind I figured I better send out a fishing report in order to get caught up to date with my reporting amid hopes of needing to write one for tomorrow’s fishing trip. This report will be short on text but long on pictures because I still need to get the boat ready for tomorrow’s trip along with some other afternoon projects and work.

August was a fantastic Grouper month for me. I caught three of my personal best Grouper this August; Gag, Red, & Scamp Grouper. I have definitely tweaked my feel and techniques for these delicious bottom dwellers and have been eating Grouper quite steadily.

In early August I went out with my good buddy, Parrish Sasser, on his dream machine…his Southport boat. In a previous fishing report I had mentioned, or drooled, over what a nice riding boat this is. Let me reiterate again that is the best riding boat I’ve been in for its size.

We also had my buddy Taylor Perdue and Parrish’s buddy John on board. That morning we headed about 35 offshore and started filling the boat with Dolphin. I think we probably ended up with close to a dozen before the bite just turned off. Here’s a picture of Parrish with one.

After the bite shut down we ran on out to 45 miles offshore, trolled with minimal success and then dropped the hook for some Grouper. I quickly put 4 nice Red Grouper and a Scamp Grouper into the box. For whatever unknown quirk of fate, the other guys just couldn’t get one in the boat. These guys are all great fisherman and I think it was just an oddity. I had a great time with these guys.

On another August trip with my gorgeous wife Melissa, we headed out 15 miles for a few hours after church to catch some dinner. We pulled up to a nice looking ledge, dropped a test line down before deciding to set anchor, and up came a Gag Grouper. Needless to say we dropped the hook and went to catching more Grouper. Melissa enjoys bottom fishing but she didn’t feel up the task of fighting big Gags that day. She read a good book, gave me encouragement, and just looked beautiful (sorry…no picture). I was glad to have her and her limit on board.

Within an hour I had caught our limit. One of the Gags had a weird deformity on it where it looked like something much bigger may have tried to take a chunk of him, or perhaps a slightly off target spear had torn out of its back during a spear fisherman’s fight for it.

We were going to be eating Grouper for awhile after this catch.

Other fishing trips this past month included some Flounder gigging. My buddy Kenny Sessions was kind enough, or perhaps evil enough, to get me hooked on Flounder gigging this summer. There’s nothing better than having a Pro as a teacher. After a good trip with Kenny in his boat this summer, I equipped my skiff for stabbing trips of my own. While I’m still learning the ins and outs of gigging; I have had some success.

On another August offshore adventure, I had Colin Rice and the boys, Palmer and Peyton, on board the Reel Dream. It had been a real slow day of trolling without much to show for our efforts when I remembered that I was in my Grouper groove and it was time to put some scales in the fishbox. I can’t remember how many we caught that day but I do know that no one was going to starve.

I even managed to catch a king on my Grouper Rod.

And then this morning Phil Pastino and I went for a short excursion in the skiff in search of something to put some of his homemade blackening season on. Phil has a killer recipe for blackening season and it was time to catch something to sprinkle it on. We each managed to catch our keeper Red Drum. For those of you outside NC, our regulations allow one Red Drum per person and it must be within the slot limit of 18 to 27 inches. Phil caught a nice 24 ½ incher.

I managed to get one in the last 15 minutes of fishing to give his Redfish some company in the cooler. My fish barely measured at 26 ¾ inches (perfect) and this fish also had a deformity. It’s bottom jaw was not fully grown as you can see in the close up picture.

We also managed several flounder this morning, including a nice one that we estimated at 22 inches that came off at the boat. We’ll get him next time.

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to read my fishing reports, thanks for the encouraging words, and please keep sending me requests to put your friends and family on my mailing lists. Here’s a quick story about my fishing reports and website. Just last week I had a person email me about buying one of Phil’s properties thanks to my fishing reports. She had driven by the property and fell in love with it, then she looked up the owner on the tax records and discovered it was Phil. She Googled Phil and found him in the fishing reports on my website and emailed me about buying his property. It just so happens that Phil is trying to sell this property. Ironic huh?!

Now I’m going to get the Reel Dream ready for an offshore excursion tomorrow and to make some blackened Redfish for dinner. Go Catch Some!

Captain Scott Erickson