Well, like every year, the king fishing has been hot, hot, hot right on the beach up there. Then a nice front and NE comes through and messes the bite up. Tourney was this past weekend out of Southport, NC. Boat managed great in the seas though.
Beaches below Cape Fear face east-west, so sheltered from the ENE seas for a mile or two off the beach. Luckily some of the inshore bite remained, just not as hot as it had been. Bait was pretty easy to get right on the beach (they had all the wind up there, but not as much of the rain we got).
We weighed 3 fish, not worthy of big fish money, but managed a small $125 for a special weight prize. Funny, we won with a fish that was .05 lbs off the weight. We also had an 18.25, dead on the winning weight, but another boat beat us with exact same weight, 23 minutes before us. Everyone thought the 40 lber caught day 1 by a local would take it, but someone brought a 41 lb on day 2. Heartbreaker, but not a bad day with second. Met the local who got second, good guy. Old friend of mine got 4th place too. Tourney usually won by mid/upper 40’s when weather not a factor.
Many fish in the low teens caught, but several over 30’s. almost all boats fished within a mile of the beach from Cape Fear to Shallotte inlet. Several big fish in 30’s came in from these areas as well. Bite should be smokin again by now.