Perseverance Pays
Junio 13, 2021 Hampstead 1 foto

Trip Summary

Took a group of active duty Army guys out for a half-day charter. Planned to get offshore and look for some kings, but with 15mph northeasterly winds at sunrise, the ocean was far too rough to run far. Made a shift in the plan and trolled frozen cigar minnows over some nearshore structure. First strike was on the downrigger, and looked like a pretty solid fish, taking a lot of line in an initial run, and giving our angler a real battle... his first time with a big, saltwater species. Sadly, just before the fish came to the boat, it threw the hook and swam off. Another short strike followed a few minutes later, but did not hook up. The downrigger went off again, and I could tell by how it went off that we had a shark. Turned out to be about a 2-1/2' Atlantic Sharpnose... a fun catch, but not the target species. If he'd been a little bigger, though, he'd have gone in the ice box. Those are really tasty fish! Things got slow until we picked up a king on one of the surface lines. This one came into the boat, but was, sadly, one inch short of legal size. This would also be the last king for the morning, as things really slowed down. The seas were really making it hard to do much of anything, so we decided to run inshore and try to catch some Spanish mackerel. The guys wanted to take something home to eat, and Spanish are a great option. It was slow going at first, until we finally found the hot spot. I had already extended the trip, but clouds were building and the seas were getting rougher, so we pulled in the lines with 17 Spanish on ice. These guys were a real hoot to fish with, and kept me cracking up for pretty much the whole day.
Phillip Loughlin
Hampstead, North Carolina, United States
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Katfish Kayak And Fishing Adventures have a simple motto: If you don’t want someone to bring the fish to you, let them take you to the fish. They offer traditional fishing charters but also provide a mothership for Kayak fishermen. They can take you...

Other reports from this captain

2023 Military Appreciation Day (MAD) eve
2023 Military Appreciation Day (MAD) eve
Septiembre 9, 2023
This past weekend, we wrapped up another MAD (Military Appreciation Day) fishing trip out of Southport. For those who haven't followed, this event brings local captains, professional and recreational, together with active duty military from all branches. To show our thanks, we volunteer to take these guys out for a day of fishing. By the way, if you have a boat and you don't participate, I highly recommend it. There are events in Morehead City (June), Southport (Sept.), and Charleston (Oct), so you have options. This year, I had a crew of four US Army troops aboard the Canyon Wren, with my brother JD playing the role of mate. The weather looked iffy (yes, that's a waterspout over Oak Island), but somehow the storms held off and we were able to get out. The seas were a little sloppy, which kept us from running out to the deep water, but the nearshore fishing was on fire! I put lines out just out of the river mouth off Ft. Caswell. There was bait everywhere, and the predators were waiting. We had the first bluefish aboard within a couple of minutes, and then we picked at the fish one by one as we went down the beach. The blues gave way to Spanish mackerel, and we started pulling them aboard at a pretty regular clip as I cut figure-8s through the productive areas. By about 13:00, the seas had started really calming down, but as we had to have the guys back to the dock in two hours, there really wasn't time to run offshore. I'm not sure they cared too much though, as we had 50 Spanish mackerel in the ice, and had probably fought and lost at least that many more. We had stayed busy! Back at the docks, volunteers cleaned the fish for these guys and set them up with heavy bags of filets to take back to base. I expect there will be some serious fish fries going on in Fayetteville this week. As always, the event was big fun, from the Friday night captains' dinner to the post-event banquet. There's a reason I look forward to it every year.
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