28lb King Mackerel, Large Amberjack, Hammerhead Sharks, Barracudas, and Flounder!
Forecast called for 2-3 ft every 6 seconds with the wind blowing later in the afternoon. The forecast should of said 4-5 ft every 3 seconds! The goal of today was to do some offshore fishing for the first half of the day and some flounder fishing the last half. The ride out was nice but as the wind picked up so did the waves. We stopped about 14 miles from the Inlet and put the lines in. It started out slow and right before we were going to leave the downrigger went off and it was a smoker! A few minutes later, the line went loose and the fish was gone. Continued on and 5 minutes later a fish took the short bait until it let it go, probably a small king. I don’t like starting out missing the first two fish. A few minutes later and another reel goes screaming, I know this one is a nice fish. After about 10 minutes we get it to the boat and gaff it, nice king mackerel. By looking at the fish I know this is probably the second citation in under a week. I did not weigh it till later in the day on my digital scale and it said 28 lb 4 oz. We picked up a nice spanish in this same spot and when the bite slowed we moved on out farther offshore.
We arrived to clear water and flying fish everywhere, I just knew we were going to get into some Mahi Mahi. We caught a couple of sharks and then we had a huge barracuda take the bait, jump a couple of times and then pull the hooks. The wind was getting stronger and all the other boats that were around had already left. Right before we started to reel up the lines, the downrigger goes off. I handed the rod to the gentlemen on board and let him have a nice fight. After 45 mintues we finally got it in the boat, it was a large amberjack (also known as “reef donkey”). I decided to go back in Masonboro because how rough it was and take the waterway back to Carolina Beach. By the time we got back it was already 3:30 so we did not have much time to flounder fish. I caught some bait and debated on where to fish, the ocean was horrible and the river wasn’t looking any better. I decided on spot and we fished there for about an hour before we had to leave. We ended up catching a 3 lb and a 2.5 lb flounder and 3-4 hammerhead sharks. All in all, we caught a little bit of everything and we defiantly missed our fair share of fish as well.
