SATURDAY 12-10-05: Today we were fishing with Brian and Lynn Stevens from the Raleigh, NC area. I was not sure how things were going to materialize today, the weather station at Frying Pan was giving us a report of 6' wave height with a 5' swell. As we were heading out to do some bottom fishing on some of the inshore rocks, I checked the weather buoy again and now it reported only a 5' swell every 10 seconds with the winds switching 180*. I knew the switching winds was good for the ride back, and the wave height being absent from the report meant we only had a rolling swell. That translates into a good ride and good fishing, especially since we wanted some King Mackeral!! Now, the weather buoy is "real time data", not a prediction, so you can base your plan of attack with confidence on its report. Don't try to "second guess"it. If you are at the dock and it reports 20 knot winds and a big sea and not a leaf is moving at the dock, don't waste your time and fuel trying to go out there, it IS doing what it says!!! OK, the conditions have changed offshore, let's go King Mackeral fishing!! I pushed the throttles down and set the "YEAH RIGHT" at a good cruise of about 18 knotts, this gave us a good ride that made it hard to stay awake!! In about an hour, I pulled back to a good trolling speed and checked out the first rock/ledge, put out some baits, I told Capt. Chris, our mate again today. He put out the first cigar minnow, reached for the second rod when the first rods clicker started to scream, FISH ON!!! came the cry from the *beep* and immediately our crew went into action, "Private Bodie" included!! This scenerio went on several more times, we put half of our King Mackeral limit into the boat before we were able to get two rods out. Finally, we were able to get three rods out and finished up our limit of Kings. Now, with our King Mackeral limit met, we were going bottom fishing. We were just starting to leave to go to the bottom when we noticed a fellow boater in distress and we responded immediately to assist. He was dead in the water and could not contact "SEA TOW" so we radioed the USCG and got them to contact "SEA TOW" and got them in route. We were going to stay with him until help arrived, but due to the kindness of the boat and crew of "MIDNIGHT WIND" they knew we had a charter and told us they would relinquish our position for us so we could complete our charter trip. I want to commend these guys, this is the way we are supposed to work together out on the water, they took over and kept the USCG updated every 30 minutes until help arrived on the scene!!! "Midnight Wind" if you EVER need any assistance on the water, the "YEAH RIGHT" is only a radio call away!!! THANKS AGAIN GUYS!!! Now, we were able to return to our fishing for today. About 2 miles away from our present position I knew of a ledge that usally had a good bottom fish population on it most of the time. We checked the tide schedule and we had about 2 hours before slack tide. Which worked out good, because we spent about 30 minutes with the disabled boat, we gave our fishermen an extra hour on their trip, I felt that was only fair!! (When the tide goes slack the fish will stop biting). Hoping the fish were there, that would give us enough time to limit out on those also. Well, THE FISH WERE THERE!!! As soon as we dropped down, the action began, and before it was time to head home, we had all the fish boxes in the boat full of triggerfish, Black Bass, B-Liners(vermillion snapper), Grey Snapper(grunts), amorings, sharks, spottails, King Mackeral, even caught false albacore and some Grouper, but they were under the legal length limit, the Grouper were, there is no limit on "boneheads". Now, that is quite an accomplishment for just two anglers, I hope they are not too sore today!! Brian and Lynn, we sure hope you two had half as much fun as Capt. Chris and I did, Thanks for the opportunity to fish with with you both!!! Another good day on the water with plenty of fish to catch and two GREAT people to share it with. Life is great!!! May GOD BLESS everyone as he has me!!! Till next time, FISH ON!!! Capt. Butch Foster, Capt. Chris Foster, and "Private Bodie" the fish dog, says HI!!!. See the pic's on my site!! YEAH RIGHT SPORTFISHING CHARTERS, Southport,NC (910)845-2004.
www.yeahrightcharters.com
