Black Sea Bass 3Feb08

[1stSgtUSMCRet]

I'd been watching the wind & sea condition forecasts all week leading up to Sunday. Forecast was W winds 5 to 10, seas about 3 feet with an E swell. That was about right as I headed out of Beaufort Inlet at 0730. Fastest comfortable ride I could set into the head sea was 12-14 MPH with my DLV 218. Destination was 28 miles offshore. I was alone on this trip (the wife doesn't like going offshore with any sea conditions forecast over 3 inches ) and it being Super Bowl Sunday, I didn’t find anyone wanting/able to go out.

After getting my course dialed in, I poured a cup of coffee and settled in for the 2 hour run. Noticed a few (for hire) sport fishing yachts a few miles off my port bow, running out of the Cape on a line towards Big Rock, but other than that, I saw no boats until I was 15 miles offshore. Looked like a boat on every rock at the NW Places, as I steamed by them headed for warmer water. It was about this time, I ran through my first school of feeding alberts. For the next several miles, all along my course, birds worked over the small and scattered schools of these false tuna. Except for that, the trip out was fairly uneventful. At 0900, I broke out a roast beef sandwich, poured another cup of coffee and had a morning snack.

As I approached my destination, I could see one other boat (three anglers on a 24 ft Grady, Walk-Around Cuddy) anchored a few hundred yards off the rock. Visibility was about 12 miles and I could see no other boats from any direction - gotta love NC winter fishing .

The run back in on the following seas (what little there was of it) was at a steady pace of 26-27 MPH. All in all, I had a great day, but unfortunately no one else on board to enjoy it with. Caught about 30 pounds of bass, lost a couple grouper, (I think) and can't wait to get back out there again.

Dave

Livewell full of bass. They're all alive, belly up as they may be, they'll stay alive for hours provided I give them a shot of fresh sea water from time to time. Before making the run back in, I'll transfer them all to a cooler and dump the ice on top of 'em. I prefer to keep them alive (if I can), to conserve the ice I take along in the cooler - you lose a lot of "cold" every time you open the lid on a cooler.




Here's a shot of the last bass I caught before calling it a day. The reel next to it should give some scale to the size of this bass. It was close to citation size, (I think) though I didn't have it weighed.




Here’s a shot of the “catch” in the cooler, just before I dumped the ice on ‘em.