August 8th OI report

[offshore]

What can you say about a great day on the water!! Seas were the perfect condition with a light N-NE breeze all day. The water had cooled down from the previous week and there were no hard temp breaks running SE of Oregon Inlet. The only mission for the day was to Bill Fish . It sounded like most boats were heading to the 750 line north. Chris and I decided to stick to our plan and pointed the sharp end SE out of the Inlet and let her roll .We decided earlier to try something a little different and Start bill fishing at the 400 line then work north. Lines in the water early and started working in 50 fathoms. We worked shallow, deep, south, and north of the 400 without a sniff so we decided to start a troll north towards the point where we heard a few boats had a little action that morning.
About half way there we found a little life and worked the area getting picked clean on a few passes and put a nice gaffer in the box. Even though he was not the target it broke the Ice for the day. Steadily worked north and late in the afternoon 3:15pm finally arrived SE of the point with 5 or six boats a few miles away.
As boats were leaving we decided to stick it out and agreed to stay till 4:30-5:00. We Immediately started marking bait and shortly after marking bait we had a two Whites working the long riggers. Before we could drop a dink back one of the Whites hooked up on the port long Islander Mistress and started to put on quite a show. After a 15 minute fight and about twenty jumps later Chris reeled the white to the side of the boat where we released the white in great shape to fight another day. All lines back in the water and circled back around to the mark and had another white come in on one of the dink baits, Chris dropped back but the fish vanished into the blue. It was getting close to 4:15 and we decided to work the area, there was just way to much bait to leave. We made a few more passes and another White came in on fire attacking the starboard dink bait which was only 30ft behind the boat. I popped the clip dropped back to the white and came tight only for him to turn and throw the hook!! Crap another off the hook!! Only a few minutes later a Sail comes in like a blood hound sail in the air bill thrashing to the port dink bait. Chris drop's back and hooks up the sail but only for a few minutes and the sail comes off!! By then it was 5:00pm and time to head in. Hated to leave the fish but did what are goal was to have at least one release for the day. We had 5 shots at bills but only managed one White and two gaffers for the day. I did learn some valuable lessons that will change the way I rig and set rods up for Whites and Sails!!! I applaud the guys that fish for sails and Whites it is tougher than we think it is!!...........Tight Lines Mark

Here are a few Pics... Got some great video as well!! It will stand in line with the other video from this year come at a later date!!!

[Golden Dog]

Nice job guys! That's the flattest looking day I think I've seen this year.

[vettnman]

Nice!!! Glad to see Chris on a fish. I gotta agree with Josh, I haven't see a day that flat all year

[jfishnc]

Nice work guys. Definitely looked like a great day on the water.

[TunaTeaser1]

Pretty work there Mark.

Friday we didn't see a billfish all day as we fished north of 000's. Saturday started off at around the 880 and caught a couple dolphin, busted what I'm pretty sure was a bigeye off on the dink rod after he bout spooled us. We were asking for it but it was either bump up the drag or get spooled...then jumped off a white later on.

Fishing today was really good. 65 billfish were released just in the Alice Kelly. I fished on a 23' boat and we got it handed to us pretty good but caught a few dolphin, broke off a nice wahoo (bit through the wire too...?), and caught a sail. We started south of the bite and were just in to small a boat to make a big move but slowly made our way north and released one. 11 yr old brought him in like a champ. I'm excited to be fishing several more days this week as I'm hoping the good fishing will continue.

[dawiggs]

Pretty work Mark and Chris..
We also went Saturday and decided to go NE out of Oregon Inlet.. Found a what looked liked a piece of carpet and got 6 nice gaffer mahi! After lunch found pretty 83* water and lost a sailfish.. Fished til 4pm and was 40 nm from the Inlet. All in all a nice day on the water..Weather looks good so plan to out later this week...
dw

[offshore]

Dave and Alex we tried to raise you on the radio a few times but figured we were just to far apart. Anyone hear where most of the Bills were caught today. As hot as the bite was where we were late Saturday someone had to catch a few at that location...Mark

[offshore]

Chris by the way hows the Thumb!!!

[blueh20pc]

Yeah, my thumb was pretty raw this morning. So I've already got a few of these on order:



Fishing like we did Saturday afternoon, I'm sure I'd go through about two pairs a trip.

I dropped back to that sail on a TLD 25 and hooked the shit out of him. He was mine. I waited counted one two three, started ramping up the drag and pulled up the rod a little bit, he was on! Got two good cranks and a decent bend as Mark went up front to turn port, and off she came. Shoulda counted to four!


We had one helluva time getting those whites to bite, or sails, who knew. They would come in and slash underwater before we could even tell. Most of the time they would come in and you'd hear two clicks on the drag of a TLD 25 set at freespool dragging a dink bait at 10 knots in the propwash. By the time you could turn the clicker off, it was gone, and so was your dink bait. We had a few dinks that got eaten right up to the gill plate on the ballyhoo, LEAVING THE HOOK DANGLING! Unbelievable, I mean, really surgical precision of stealing the bait by the fish. And it wasn't like I was in the front of the boat napping, I was glued to the spread most all day, and I didn't have any sunglasses. My eyes are bloodshot still. My costa's are somewhere inside of Evilgli's Wellcraft.

Anyways, I learned so much yesterday about billfishing, I don't know where to start. Rods, rigging, bait. It's all a different game than fishing for meat. Different tactics and you really have to be on your toes and pay attention to your spread. I really wish we had a third person yesterday, we would've hooked up a lot more. We had the shots, but just couldn't execute due to manpower.

I had a great day on the water and learned one helluva lot from Mark in just one day. Bridling spanish macks, rigging, etc. He prolly doesn't realize it, but I'm a sponge when it comes to fishing a new way for different species. Thanks Mark for one great day on the water and my first Whitey!

[blueh20pc]

Also, wish I would've taken a picture of the fishfinder where we ended up in the afternoon.

I've never seen a bigger ball of bait in 150 feet of water in all my life. It looked like someone colored a big green/red circle on Mark's screen. Unbelievable bait!