Day 1, 24th September
Met up with Captain Mike of Liveline Charters at 0530 sharp, weather was amazing in fact I’ve never seen North Carolina this flat.
Raymond, Sherman, Ben and myself hopped on the 31ft Contender and we started making our way to the AJ’s ground.
As usual the bean bags made everyone slept like a baby on the way out. Halfway through the destination a sailfish started its acrobatic display of jumping and chasing baitfish on the surface about 400yds from the boat.
I decided to give a few cast with poppers but no takers…
We dropped our jigs when Mike gave us the signal and as soon as we lift the jigs up from the bottom… all the reels started screaming from the stern to the bow.
Yes, that was just the 1st drift and I was thinking to myself, it’s gonna be a painful day…and a painful day it was… every drift we made was a fish on, the quantity made up for the size with all the fish averaging 35lb – 70lb.
For the next couple of hours we were landing fish after fish with a blackfin and false albie mixed in. we ended the day with a nice Mahi. What a day it was.
Day 2 25th September
Today the wind felt like blowing...it was a bumpy ride out and we went South (correct if I’m wrong Mike) in search of the mama reef donkeys.
When we got to the Mecca of AJ’s we were greeted by storm clouds and nasty swells. All of us drop our jigs anyway, Mike was telling us “they should be here” as he squint his eyes on his Raymarine screen.
And hell yeah he was right. First drift and a 60inch followed by a 64inch (probably the biggest fish on Mike’s boat this year) and a high 50s inch fish came to the boat for some quick photos and release.
The current was ripping and we were drifting fast. Another 63inch fish was landed and released followed by another 60inch and numerous 50s.
It was mayhem when some of the fish decided to swim round everyone’s lines and we were all going merry go round up and under trying our best not to cut each other’s lines.
We called it a day after 4 hours of fishing and headed back to the dock with smiles on everyone’s face.
I could see from the smiles, everyone was thinking to themselves “Yes! I broke my personnel best!”
Me, I was smiling to myself…”Ray, Ben…you guys thrashed my best!” I’ll be back…
Till the next trip, thank you Captain Mike Jackson as always you never fail to amaze me.
To the guys, “thank you for making the trip happen” I’ll see you guys on the water soon.
Tackle use,
Rods – MC Works 538XX and 516SS, Valley Hill EXP55XXB and EXP56XB, Smith 52EX, Fisherman 5121
Reels – Studio Ocean Mark L120 Lo, Shimano Talica 12II, Shimano Torsa 20, Shimano Stella 20000SW, 10000SW, 8000SW(SOM No Limits 16000 spool) Daiwa Certate 3500, Accurate Boss Extreme 500,
Jigs – Shout, Deepliner, Smith, Komo jigs.
Cheers,
Paul.
