August…What a month!
Okay, so it has been a while since I posted but I have an excuse! I was so busy with trips and fish that I did not have the time!
August was my busiest month this season, and the most successful. Fishing in late August I found a little spot that was just full of fish and bait. Went there for nearly every trip (was a little far on the 1/2 days) but with the new boat it made getting there a breeze. Once there the king mackerel and mahi fishing was consistent. Fishing cigar minnows on Hank Brown rigs and Pirate plugs, and ballyhoo on dink hooks we had an average of 6 kings a trip, 2-3 mahi, and one sailfish. The best trip saw 2 guys do battle with 10 kings and 6 mahi! Most of the kings were 8-12lbs with a few pushing 20lbs, the mahi ranged from slingers to one beast over 20lbs.
We tried the bottom there and got a few snapper and groupers, the AJ’s seemed more prevelent there but when the weather cools who knows? Speaking of grouper we took the PLAN 9 on a few grouper trips this month. One trip was to some of the further out ledges that I fish, dodged squalls all day, east wind, bad current….scratched out a few reds, had a bunch of 18″-22″ seabass and some big pinkies, a few kings, one over 25lbs and ran home dodging squalls again. The next grouper trip we did we went south, good move! Fishing in the red and white area we worked a few ledges for a great catch of reds and scamps to 26″, had mahi around the boat most of the day, the fish kept us busy that day!
Fished a few trips nearshore and continued the catching. Found nice 16″-20″ spanish on most trips with a few 2-3 lbers mixed in. We fished these on light tackle, 12lb test with yozuri deep divers working in 40-50 feet of water off Wrightsville Beach and Masonboro Island. Had a few shark trips which were also productive, anchoring and chumming we averaged 3-5 sharks a trip most were 3-5 ft long but had a few to 7′, also on light tackle, 20lb test which gives makes fish in that size range very sporting.
Thankfully Hanna gave us just a glancing blow and it looks very good for the upcoming fall. The bait is starting to stack up and move out of the creeks. The butterflies are here, the drum should be biting well soon. All the signs that the fall fishing is right around the corner are popping up, just cannot wait!!!!!
Tight lines,
Captain Jim