Spring fishing is heating up

The weather forecaster took a swing and a miss on the weather for Friday evening. While the outlook called for light winds and gentle seas, the reality on the water was a bit of a different story. With Jake, his wife, Dana, and their boys, Wyatt and Cole (6 and 4 years old, but I can't remember which was which... so I called them Thing 1 and Thing 2), I was a little worried that the choppy seas would be too much. But we made a go of it. Jake had mentioned that he hoped we could see some dolphins, and this time they obliged, feeding in a deep spot behind a sand bar in Topsail sound. It wasn't Marine World, but they put on a pretty good show, slapping their tails and then popping up their heads to look at us. Finally they swam off with the rising tide to hunt the marsh creeks, and we kept moving. We crossed the bar at Topsail inlet in some sloppy conditions, and it was still kind ugly on the ocean. I did a check-in and everyone wanted to keep going, so I rolled out the lines. I had barely put the first Clark spoon out and was getting the second line when we had our first fish. It turned out to be an undersized Spanish, the first of several we would catch that evening. The boys were pretty tickled, though, and since they were fishing for fun and not to fill the cooler, I don't think it mattered. Given that this was mostly about the youngsters having fun, and the boat was a little crowded with beanbags and youngsters' stuff, I decided to run just two lines. That was probably a good choice, because even though the fish were small, they were hungry! It was all I could do to get fish off the lines and get them back out before another one was hooked up. About an hour into the three hour trip (Kids' Trip), mom started feeling a little under the weather, so Jake asked if we could head in to calmer water. Since that's exactly what the Kids' Trips are designed for, I told him we could go inshore, anchor up and fish in the sound for a little while. Or if he'd rather, we could just do a little tour. The kids heard the options and were loudly unanimous... FISH SOME MORE! We pulled in another small fish, and then something thumped the other line. This was a nicer fish for sure, and Thing 1 did a great job bringing it to the boat. It turned out to be a chunky Spanish and a keeper without a doubt. Since they did not want to keep any fish themselves, I asked if they'd mind me taking it home. I thanked Thing 1 for catching my dinner, and we pulled the trolling lines and headed for calmer water. Back in the sound, I found a good place out of the channel and away from the crowds and anchored us up within easy casting of a grass bank. I rigged up a couple of store-bought chicken rigs with some shrimp and pitched it out. I didn't really expect anything of substance, although there's always a chance. As it turned out, the kids had a ball doing battle with bait thieves, and Thing 2 was first on the board with a small croaker. After I dehooked the fish, I let him hear why they're called, "croakers," before releasing it. It took Thing 1 a little longer to get a hook set, but he finally connected on a pinfish. I gave them a moment or two to feel how they got their name. Time and shrimp ran out almost simultaneously, so with a hearty farewell to the fat bait thieves, we pulled the anchor and headed for home.

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.