Tuesday afternoon fishing is back!
After being tired of ‘sitting this one out’ due to wind or rain, we decided to take a peek at the ocean after my half day in the office. The forecast was for ‘unstable clouds with hail storms’ on land, the offshore forecast was four to eight foot seas with 10 to 15 kts SW. The edisto buoy reading was 4 foot every 13 seconds. The satellite weather wasnt working on the Garmin -subscription issues (?) we didnt figure out before pushing off.
The sunny skies changed from the drive to the office to the boat. It was gray south of us, and heading our way.
The game plan was to leave Murrells Inlet immediately, as the storms displayed on Jays cell phone were coming up the beach, and didnt seem to expand too far offshore. We were heading towards the Inshore Hole to bottom fish, and maybe push on depending upon the weather.
The seas allowed us to run 50 - 55 mph with ease. We reached the Inshore Hole and started fishing in the rain. We were wearing our rain gear and winter clothing. It was like fishing in January. And the sad part was we werent catching. We had a difficult time finding any bottom structure to fish over. The sky was gray and raining all around us. We moved to the Goldfinch, and were about to drop lines when we saw a clearing in the sky. This was our moment - we ran to the Scarp!
Lines in at 2pm - fish on, first Mahi of the season. Then another and another. Bam Bam Bam! Water temp 73.4, pink and blue, and pink and white were hit.
The tuna were next, small, then medium, then large. All black fin. All on pink.
Next, the day maker hit- 50+ lb HOO, BELLY HOOKED on a pink and blue fluorocarbon seawitch, landed after an epic 30 minute fight.
We saw our first flying fish, and then one more black fin landed.
We had a few short strikes, a smoker HOO cut off the rig, and a HOO flew out of the propwash and stripped the naked ballyhoo without touching the hook.
Lines up at 5.30, home at 7.00. Once we left the Goldfinch, the sun stayed out the
Nice Job Jason.