Post by Brian on Nov 3, 2014 20:53:20 GMT -5
I was at Cape Lookout chasing false albacore Oct 25-30.
To say it was an Epic trip is an understatement. What made it memorable is that the fish were huuuge. Normally we catch 5-12 lb fish. We though 16lbs was a big one. This trip we caught dozens of 18+ lb fish. The whole trip blurs together and we lost count of the fish we caught.
In general, the first day and a half the fish were feeding on tiny "snot" bait and were extremely picky. The fly fishermen call these "sippers". My fishing partner and I have some tricks up our sleeves, so we hooked quite a few, 10 or so each day that they were picky but it was a lot of work and not the exciting run and gun fishing that I love.
The last part of the trip was off the hook. Some of the best fishing I've seen with tons of birds, boiling feeding frenzies and double hookups on every shot. We had some "double-doubles" after I called our buddy boat to some hot fishing and they drove up to us while we had a double hookup and they immediately doubled up on their boat too
We also got onto a pattern of what the local guides call "pelican tipping". I don't want to say anymore, but it was very productive.
To take a break from the fatigue that sets in after catching a ~20 lb false albacore every cast all day, we broke up the trip with live baiting for sharks... Not sure that was a smart thing because each time one of us hooked into a 6-7 foot blacktip that wore us out. It took me 2 days to recover from a 45 min battle with mine... On the trip down I had talked big about how I was going to wrestle one up onto the front deck for a photo op.... After the shark (and I) was whipped, we just cut the leader The custom fighting chair in the front of my boat was a lifesaver for these brutal tests of wills between man and shark.
We also tried for king mackerel one day using live bluefish. I put out a king rig and a shark rig. My buddy put out a spanish rig with a short, light leader.. My buddy's rig got cut off maybe by a king. My shark rig got hit by something that absolutely *smoked* off a bunch of line, then dropped the bait.. I reeled back the bluefish which was cut into 3 pieces held together by the backbone... I'm convinced that was a king because I don't think a shark is that fast and a shark should have totally severed the bluefish, not left me pieces still attached to the head.
At one point we stumbled across a cloud of black sea bass on sonar... Caught one every cast then lost them and could not relocate.
On a slick calm day we cruised the shoals looking for red drum but only found skates, blues, flounder and a huge school of sheepshead (that we couldn't catch). I need a tower on my boat.
We found a pattern where we could hook as many 3-4 foot sharpnose (I think) sharks as we wanted on gulp minnows.
A lot more, but I'm out of steam... I'm going back next weekend, but I think the cooldown has pushed them out
To say it was an Epic trip is an understatement. What made it memorable is that the fish were huuuge. Normally we catch 5-12 lb fish. We though 16lbs was a big one. This trip we caught dozens of 18+ lb fish. The whole trip blurs together and we lost count of the fish we caught.
In general, the first day and a half the fish were feeding on tiny "snot" bait and were extremely picky. The fly fishermen call these "sippers". My fishing partner and I have some tricks up our sleeves, so we hooked quite a few, 10 or so each day that they were picky but it was a lot of work and not the exciting run and gun fishing that I love.
The last part of the trip was off the hook. Some of the best fishing I've seen with tons of birds, boiling feeding frenzies and double hookups on every shot. We had some "double-doubles" after I called our buddy boat to some hot fishing and they drove up to us while we had a double hookup and they immediately doubled up on their boat too
We also got onto a pattern of what the local guides call "pelican tipping". I don't want to say anymore, but it was very productive.
To take a break from the fatigue that sets in after catching a ~20 lb false albacore every cast all day, we broke up the trip with live baiting for sharks... Not sure that was a smart thing because each time one of us hooked into a 6-7 foot blacktip that wore us out. It took me 2 days to recover from a 45 min battle with mine... On the trip down I had talked big about how I was going to wrestle one up onto the front deck for a photo op.... After the shark (and I) was whipped, we just cut the leader
The custom fighting chair in the front of my boat was a lifesaver for these brutal tests of wills between man and shark.We also tried for king mackerel one day using live bluefish. I put out a king rig and a shark rig. My buddy put out a spanish rig with a short, light leader.. My buddy's rig got cut off maybe by a king. My shark rig got hit by something that absolutely *smoked* off a bunch of line, then dropped the bait.. I reeled back the bluefish which was cut into 3 pieces held together by the backbone... I'm convinced that was a king because I don't think a shark is that fast and a shark should have totally severed the bluefish, not left me pieces still attached to the head.
At one point we stumbled across a cloud of black sea bass on sonar... Caught one every cast then lost them and could not relocate.
On a slick calm day we cruised the shoals looking for red drum but only found skates, blues, flounder and a huge school of sheepshead (that we couldn't catch). I need a tower on my boat.
We found a pattern where we could hook as many 3-4 foot sharpnose (I think) sharks as we wanted on gulp minnows.
A lot more, but I'm out of steam... I'm going back next weekend, but I think the cooldown has pushed them out
