Started out the season with a fun trip to the Gulf Stream, followed by a half-day nearshore trip. The Gulf Stream offered the rare combination of favorable winds and flat seas. I couldn't turn that down, so I called my brother and we hit the water at first light. It's always a long ride to get there, but on a day like this it was as pleasant as a ride on a lake. We didn't have the lines in more than 10 minutes before the first strike on the shotgun line. The cedar plug did it again, and in moments my brother was playing tug-of-war with a blackfin tuna. I slowed the boat a little to make it more manageable when the other long line went off. A nice slinger dolphin (mahi) got airborne and the fight was on. I set the autopilot to keep the boat in a line and we brought the fish to the boat. It took a little while to find the fish again, but when we did, two lines went off... this time both lines had dolphin and we brought them to the boat. I checked the fish finder and looked around but there was nothing to tell me where those fish had been hiding. We circled around a bit, but could not repeat the hook up. After that, things got slow, despite a few short strikes and a lot of sargasso weed tangled in the rigs. Finally, I spotted something that looked like trash floating on the surface. As I got closer, I realized it was a small piece of plywood, covered with barnacles and surrounded by tripletails (none big enough to catch). One of my baits drifted by, and a green streak flashed out from the shadow and a nice, gaffer dolphin cleared the water... hooked up! We needed to get back to the dock, so we wrapped it up after this last fish and headed for the hill. With a following sea, we ran flat out, cutting the three-hour, 64 mile ride down by a half hour. What a day! The following morning, I met my group at 06:30 and we set out with another beautiful day in front of us. I put out lines just as we left the inlet, and the action started almost immediately as we passed through a big school of mostly undersized fish. Even though these weren't keepers, it was a good sign. I had to do a little searching to find the bigger fish, but once we did, the action was almost non-stop. We frequently had fish on all four lines at once, which kept my crew and me pretty busy. It didn't slow down until I had to stop and clear some tangled lines. By the time I was ready to get going again, we were well down the beach. I saw a few birds though, so I put lines back in. In a minute or two, we were on again. This time it was Atlantic bonito. These are, in my opinon, the best eating fish you can catch in nearshore waters around here and they're only here for a few weeks of the season. The fish were thick, so I made the call to switch from trolling to throwing jigs. Bonito on light tackle are a thrill, as these fish are basically small tuna, and their size belies their strength. Honestly, while I expected some action I had no inkling it would be this hot. Fish were coming into the boat almost as fast as I could get them off the hooks. Finally, I asked the clients if they were satisfied and ready to start releasing fish. They were reluctant, but when I showed them the huge pile of fish in the ice chest and they realized how cleaning they would have to do, I think the decision was made. We fished a while longer and released several more fish, and then packed it up and headed to the hill. Final tally for the trip was 16 Spanish mackerel and 20 Atlantic bonito. The season is just getting started!

This past weekend, we wrapped up another MAD (Military Appreciation Day) fishing trip out of Southport. For those who haven't followed, this event brings local captains, professional and recreational, together with active duty military from all branches. To show our thanks, we volunteer to take these guys out for a day of fishing. By the way, if you have a boat and you don't participate, I highly recommend it. There are events in Morehead City (June), Southport (Sept.), and Charleston (Oct), so you have options. This year, I had a crew of four US Army troops aboard the Canyon Wren, with my brother JD playing the role of mate. The weather looked iffy (yes, that's a waterspout over Oak Island), but somehow the storms held off and we were able to get out. The seas were a little sloppy, which kept us from running out to the deep water, but the nearshore fishing was on fire! I put lines out just out of the river mouth off Ft. Caswell. There was bait everywhere, and the predators were waiting. We had the first bluefish aboard within a couple of minutes, and then we picked at the fish one by one as we went down the beach. The blues gave way to Spanish mackerel, and we started pulling them aboard at a pretty regular clip as I cut figure-8s through the productive areas. By about 13:00, the seas had started really calming down, but as we had to have the guys back to the dock in two hours, there really wasn't time to run offshore. I'm not sure they cared too much though, as we had 50 Spanish mackerel in the ice, and had probably fought and lost at least that many more. We had stayed busy! Back at the docks, volunteers cleaned the fish for these guys and set them up with heavy bags of filets to take back to base. I expect there will be some serious fish fries going on in Fayetteville this week. As always, the event was big fun, from the Friday night captains' dinner to the post-event banquet. There's a reason I look forward to it every year.

Had a great three quarter-day trip with Greg and his daughter, with excellent weather conditions and fairly cooperative fish. Nearshore waters are pretty hot, so decided to run out into deeper water about 23 miles offshore. With light winds and seas, it was a good run getting out. I marked fish a mile or two short of my objective, and keeping in mind that you should never overrun the fish, I stopped short and put out king mackerel rigs with cigar minnows as bait. We slow trolled through the area, and shortly had our first strike. Not a king, but an energetic mahi broke water and made several great jumps behind the boat before being muscled in by the young lady angler. With the skunk off, we picked at the fish for the rest of the day, putting four more mahi in the boat, losing one boatside (the captain missed a gaff shot), and wrestling with a few sharks as well. It was not a blitz of fish, but for this time of the year with the hot water (82 degrees) it was a pretty, darned, good day.