The marine forecast took a turn for the better today so Gery and I decided to do some king fishing. We had passed on entering the Wild King Classic at Wrightsville Beach cause the forecast seemed a little iffy yesterday morning for a 19' boat. But this is the Saturday for my fishing Clubs monthly inner-club tournament so we fished in it.
Finding bait was no easy task, at least not decent sized menhaden. We did manage to finally get some, not as many as we would have liked but it was closing in on 8am and we wanted to fish. We had some ballyhoo for back-up anyway. There were four - five footer rolling in New Topsail inlet and across the shoals but we made it out with no problem. It was smooth sailing from there with 4-5 foot swell on a 10 -12 seconds and almost no wind.
We fished near shore for an hour or so with nothing to show for it. So we headed out about 12 miles offshore and started trolling. After about 20 minutes the downrigger line goes off - not a big run and not out and away from the boat. but what ever it was felt big. We were thinking it acted like a shark but weren't giving up on it just yet.
Gery was on the rod but couldn't gain any ground but yet it wasn't running, he said it felt like dead weight. So I cleared the rest of the lines and put the boat over the top of it. That worked as Gery started gaining some line. Finally after 30 or more minutes we get a look at it - COBIA! We landed it and passed high fives all around - nice fish. The fish was foul hooked in the belly and that was why it was like a dead weight pulling it in. We hooked up again shortly after but what ever it was went straight down and SHREDDED my fluorocarbon leader on the rocks.
We didn't have any more hits there so we moved to another spot, then another. Finally at that last spot we caught a decent king. We'll take it to weigh in at the club tonight and eat some of the cobia for dinner tomorrow. The club is having boiled shrimp and boiled corn for dinner - Yummy!
Finding bait was no easy task, at least not decent sized menhaden. We did manage to finally get some, not as many as we would have liked but it was closing in on 8am and we wanted to fish. We had some ballyhoo for back-up anyway. There were four - five footer rolling in New Topsail inlet and across the shoals but we made it out with no problem. It was smooth sailing from there with 4-5 foot swell on a 10 -12 seconds and almost no wind.
We fished near shore for an hour or so with nothing to show for it. So we headed out about 12 miles offshore and started trolling. After about 20 minutes the downrigger line goes off - not a big run and not out and away from the boat. but what ever it was felt big. We were thinking it acted like a shark but weren't giving up on it just yet.
Gery was on the rod but couldn't gain any ground but yet it wasn't running, he said it felt like dead weight. So I cleared the rest of the lines and put the boat over the top of it. That worked as Gery started gaining some line. Finally after 30 or more minutes we get a look at it - COBIA! We landed it and passed high fives all around - nice fish. The fish was foul hooked in the belly and that was why it was like a dead weight pulling it in. We hooked up again shortly after but what ever it was went straight down and SHREDDED my fluorocarbon leader on the rocks.
We didn't have any more hits there so we moved to another spot, then another. Finally at that last spot we caught a decent king. We'll take it to weigh in at the club tonight and eat some of the cobia for dinner tomorrow. The club is having boiled shrimp and boiled corn for dinner - Yummy!