With the day off and a bunch of trips booked, i decided to spend the afternoon checking out the water conditions so i couild personally verify the reports of beautiful water from shack to the shoals. The rumors held true and the water was gorgeous – i caught several spanish (1 on the fly) outside of beaufort inlet and faught a 5 foot long houndfish for nearly 10 minutes before releasing him. Such a great fight – they really are a “poorman’s sailfish” – i wish i could target them!
Once i passed the rock jetty i ran into HUGE balls of baits – almost entirely silversides getting pecked apart by the birds. It wasn’t long before I ran into fish and before you know it, i was boating big summer blues on the fly rod – all between 1 and 3lbs. Great fish, good fish – and then the spanish appeared. I had my first hit when i was scanning the horizon with the fly dangling in the water just a foot from the boat – ended up boating a few more fish before deciding to head out to the shipping channel. The water was simply gorgeous!!!
On the way to the channel i ran into several large schools of big threadfin (greenie) shad and sabikied some for king bait. In a few minutes, i had to two lines out and i was trolling the shipping channel in search of big spanish and kings. The action was a bit slow and after thirty minutes of trolling i had not produced a hit – just then i get a phone call (from a client) and my call waiting beaps – and of course, like clockwork, one of my reels SCREAMS. Fought what i think was a 20-30lb king for a few minutes before the hook pulled (when my phone was again ringing).
What are you guys waiting for? I have plenty of open dates!
