Saturday 4-22-06: Sorry this report is late, don't have an excuse, I just got lazy and am just now getting to it. We left the dock Friday morning with Bill Roberson,Chris Brafford, Joe Arthur, Jon Caton, David Arthur, and Joe Cotton. We were to start off king mackeral fishing. I figured this would be easy enough. Just two days before we were catching kings to the SW of the Tower.
I set our MAKO "YEAH RIGHT" on course to the spot we were at the other day. I told our crew to get comfortable, the first stop was 35 miles out. At around 8:00AM I pulled the throttles back on the HONDAS and was suprised to find that the area looked like "The Dead Sea". I made several circles to find nothing. The water looked good, the temperature was almost 70* but there was no fish or bait.
No need to start here I said, let's move on to another place. I put in some more numbers and off we went. As we got closer I realized another boat was already there. Not much happening here, was the report!! OK, I got a spot about ten miles from here. The way things are looking, I believe these fish may have moved to a little shallower water. We will be going with the swell so we can make short work of the 10 mile run.
By this time I was thinking to myself. I bet todays charter thinks they are on an expensive boat ride. I hate to have to ride like this, but if you make a bad call and don't find the fish, then regroup and don't waste time at that spot and go try to find them. We left the second place and now the pressure was on me!! Was I going the right way? Should I go farther offshore? Should I go to the East? maybe West? I got to find these guys some fish and not take all day!!
I arrived at the 3rd place. By not wasting time at the areas where we marked no fish or bait it was only 9:00am. Not bad for running 35 miles offshore then another 5 miles then another 10 miles. Upon arrival, I told everyone this looks good!! Capt. Chris baited up the rods and put them out, I set the trolling speed at around 1.1 mph on the GPS. As we crossed over the high spot, I said, these fish are feeding. No more did I get that out when the first rod went off, FISH ON!!!! someone yelled!!!!
The bite was starting to heat up, we put 5 kings in the boat rather quickly, then just as it started, the bite went off. We trolled on and kept circling the bait to no avail. The reports from the other boats were that the bite for them had also shut down. So, with this info. we decided to quit wasting time and go bottom fishing. We were in luck, I was real close to some of my favorite bottom structures. We got anchored up and the bite was on!!! We hit four places and at each one the bite was fast and furious but they didn't last real long, maybe an hour and a half at each one. But as the bite would taper, we went to another place. That evening, the tide went slack, the bite shut down and we came home, but, not before we had a good catch of fish for everyone!!!!
Another good day of fishing with a great bunch of guys!! Thanks for being patient with me while I was hunting the fish!! Sometimes they seem to not want to play fair!!! Goes back to the old saying "it's called fishing, not catching" But we did find some of them, they can't all hide all the time!!! Enjoyed it guys, looking forward to our next trip!!! Todays Gulfstream trip was blown out, tomorrows trip has been blown out, Mondays Gulfstream trip is in question right now. The weather forecast does not look good for a week at this time. If we get to go we will let you know how we did right here. I am beginning to wonder if the winds are ever going to settle down where we can get back offshore more consistantly. Yeah, they will eventually, but until they do, just make the best out of what you have by fishing inside and just be glad we are free and can go fishing, period!!!! Be sure to check out the pictures on my site under "FISHING REPORTS & CATCH PHOTOS" page!!! Till next time, FISH ON!!! Capt Butch Foster, Capt Chris Foster, and "Private Bodie" the fish dog, says HI!!!!!. YEAH RIGHT SPORTFISHING CHARTERS, Southport,NC.
(910)845-2004. www.yeahrightcharters.com
