I just couldn’t stand it…I had to go troll in my boat for some carolina gold. The game plan was not to rush and more importantly, not get beat up. Randy Dandy and I left Charleston harbor around 7am and had our spread out down south in 180’ by 9:15am. There wasn’t too much life around or weeds or much of anything else, but we gave it a shot as we deployed the live bait king rods spooled with 20# mono on 320GTIs (that’s right, we tried it very light today). 45 minutes later, nice dolphin on only to come unbuttoned…continued to work and a few minutes later, a nice bull comes to the boat. Still rusty, I miss on my first swing of the gaff, then leader the fish to gain some control and bye-bye goes Mr. Bull. Ended up having 2 more short strikes, but they would not eat despite the drop backs. The life (schools of baby flyers) and action we had was in 240’-280’. The only lures that drew attention were natural color small bubblers. So, we pulled lines in around 2pm to start heading in to bottom fish. Set-up shortly and first few drops some nice fish come over the rail. That action ended as we were soon swallowed up by the infamous Atlantic Scampnose. You’d hook a fish and get it 10-15’ off the bottom then it was shark bait. Ahhh. Rode in at 25mph until we hit “the storm” 20 miles out from the rocks. Opted to drink a Full Throttle and manned up, riding in at 25mph in blinding rain and cold winds. In the end, still had a great, safe day on the water.
On a side note, if anyone needs a person or two for trolling next Thursday or Friday, please let me know.
“The problem that infuriates you the most is the one you are meant to solve.”
NorthChucky, yeah, it wasn’t a great day, but we took a bunch of sour lemons and made some pretty good lemonade. The ocean was nice for us, even had a dry ride in until we hit “the storm”.
Marlin…hmmm, I post just to share information rather than to brag, mislead, or joke around. That’s all.
BrainH…yep, our plan was to troll until dark, but we knew the ocean was going to build later in the day and had to start working our way in, especially with the slow bite. I didn’t see your report and was curious as to how ya’ll did as well. Hope ya’ll dodged that storm, but I doubt ya’ll did.
“The problem that infuriates you the most is the one you are meant to solve.”
Nope, we didn’t miss it. We got all of it and then some. Thank goodness we were on Billy Freeman’s cat. It just ate up that chop.
We ended up with 2 tuna, 3 dolphin and 18 grupa’s! Trolling was a little slow but we started trolling late so we have missed the bite.
Cape Horn 24OS Sold!
twin 150 Optimax
I don’t want to be rich,
I just want 1 dollar more than I can spend!
Andy, giving it a good shot is all you can do some days. I remember having a killer day on your boat back in 2009 before your family grew. I don’t think we weighed it but the GTI’s made it a fun fight. This was one of about a dozen.
14’ Pamlico 140 Angler w/ rudder
Kayak, SCUBA, or both.
