Slow start to the season, but we're just

Had a great time today with Rebeca, Brendan (I hope I remembered that right), and Max. At 3 1/2 years old, Max was a total trooper on his first offshore fishing experience. It was tough to get the hang of cranking on the reels, but with a little help from mom and dad, the fish made it into the box... and that's really what counts! The seas were a little choppy, but the swell was small, and once we backed down to trolling speed it really wasn't bad at all. The wind was on the rise, though, so I was a little glad that this was a short, three-hour Kid's Trip. We picked up our first Spanish pretty early on, and then picked at a few more singles until we got closer to the shoals along Rich's Inlet (NC coast). Then we started to see more bluefish, which are fun to catch but not the target species for the day. We sent them back to grow while we continued to hunt for the Spanish. As we were heading back toward home, a bunch of birds started working just off the shoals, and the Spanish were ripping and jumping all around. One of the Clark spoons had been bitten off by a blue without tripping the planer, and I have no idea how long we'd been pulling an empty line around. I finally thought it was weird that the other rod had been getting regular hits (we only ran two rods, to keep it simple) and this one hadn't had a bite at all. I reeled it in and had to laugh as the loose leader flapped in the wind. I told Max I was going to put on the "secret weapon" and rigged up a little Pet Spoon with red scales. I don't remember where I picked that up, but it was the last one in my box, Some days they out-perform the Clark spoons, but because of their tiny size, they get bitten off pretty easily. At any rate, I had no more sent it out than it got a big strike. Max, with dad's "help", brought in the biggest Spanish of the day. We made several more passes, but couldn't entice another Spanish to bite. We did get a couple more blues, including one that snipped off my "secret weapon" spoon right behind the boat. A pod of dolphins showed up then, and the surface action disappeared. Then it was time to head in. The bite slowed down and Max had experienced enough. We pulled in the lines and went back to the dock with eight nice Spanish to make up several tasty family dinners. The wind is coming up tonight, so it may be a while before conditions favor another trip. I'm glad we got this one in, and that I got to meet the Mighty Max!

Had an excellent half-day trip with Lathan and his crew. Could hardly ask for better conditions, with 2' swells and just enough breeze to keep it from getting too hot. Took a bit to find the fish, but once we did the fun really kicked in. At first there were a couple of stray Spanish, but then we ran into the blues. Some folks don't want these fish, but when you fix them up fresh, they are pretty tasty. We were chasing birds and fish on the surface, and suddenly found ourselves on the shoals in pretty shallow water. All of a sudden three lines went off. The fourth line was rigged with a small Rapala shallow diver. I call it the "hail, Mary" line, and run it in case we cross paths with a hungry king. Most of the time, nothing hits it, but it's fun to put out and it gets everyone excited. Well, today something did hit it, and it hit hard! Our angler did a good job of working on the fish and finally got it to the boat... A solid 20+ pound king! As usual though, the fish wasn't done and made a couple of hard runs away from the boat, keeping itself just out of reach of my gaff. On its last run, it managed to cross under the motor and the line parted. Five disappointed groans echoed across the water. Shortly after that we found the Spanish. They were all pretty good size for July fish. We pulled all the way to Wrightsville, ending up with 17 Spanish and 8 blues.

Belated reports are better than no reports, eh? Well, here it is. Had back-to-back short trips on Saturday, starting with Sean, his wife, and their two youngsters on a 3 hr Kids' Trip. It's the time of year, apparently, and the short Spanish are all over the place. But we managed to pick through the culls (and the bluefish) and grab a small handful of keepers. The smiles tell the tale! Later in the afternoon, I did a custom trip for a group of young men who were celebrating the end of bachelorhood (three out of the four of them). Their charter earlier in the week had been cancelled due to the wind so I took them on for a blast of an evening. The Spanish were more cooperative and there were some bigger fish in the mix as well. Still, no giants in the mix. Highlight of the evening was when a king took off with a 00 Clark Spoon. It must have stuck right in the corner of his mouth because any other time they'd just bite it right off. Client stuck it out and after an impressive battle (all things considered), I had the fish all the way to the 20' leader. Unfortunately, that's when he apparently remembered he had a mouthful of razor sharp teeth, and he clipped right through that 30# mono. Fish gone. Spoon gone. Oh well. I expect they'll be telling that story over drinks for a few days! Sunday's booking bailed out on a gorgeous day, so I took advantage to get offshore with my brother. I was hoping to get into the dolphin again, but it was slower going this trip. Ended up about 28 miles off where we picked up one slinger and missed some peanuts right behind the boat. Leave it to me not to have a pitching rod aboard on this trip! Also managed to stick about a 15# king along with a smaller one, so at least we came home with meat. Long term is looking a little bumpy for the coming week and the 4th, but we'll see. I've got spots available on the weekend for nearshore, and some slots open for 3/4 day or longer next week (weather permitting).