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.

We have been off the water for the past six weeks due to issues beyond our control, but we're back now, and ready to get you out on the water. We'll be trolling for Spanish mackerel, king mackerel, and on our longer trips, we'll also target dolphin (mahi-mahi). We can pick you up in Surf City or Hampstead to make your life easier. So just reach out, as we get our summer season back on track!