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I heard earlier this week that the king bite off Topsail Island had been heating up, so I have been looking forward to going today. Gery and I left around 6 am out of New Topsail Inlet . We had lines in the water by 6:30 and the first bite of the morning within minutes of putting out the spread. We were all smiles and sensed it was going to be a great morning. The first fish came unbuttoned and the second bite was a short strike. Speaking of strikes, we were 0 fer 2 so far............But then our luck changed and we had a good solid hook up and our first king of the day is in the boat. A few minutes later another lines goes off. Gery is fighting the fish and I'm clearing lines and driving. Then another reel goes to buzzing, we are doubled up! We managed to get both fish to the boat! Wow, we are really stoked now. It's 7:30 and we have 3 kings in the boat! It is slow for a while, a shark gets on and then gets dispatched back into the deep blue. Things are quite for a half hour or so but just as we are thinking the bite has tapered off the long line starts singing, I take it out of the holder and hand to Gery to fight. As soon as I do that, the port medium long line goes to singing so I'm fighting that fish, now we are doubled up. Then the starboard long line goes to singing! We have a triple header going. We ended up getting two of the kings to the boat including our largest of the day, a nice 18 pounder Gery landed.
30 minutes before low tide, the bite just dies. It stayed dead for over an hour. just as we were about to move, we get a strike. This one turns out to be a 28" Spanish Mackerel, sweet! Once we get it in the box and get our spread out, another line goes off. Gery is fighting the fish and I'm positioning the boat when all of a sudden, the boat quits turning. The helm wheel turns but not the motor, feels like the cable is broke inside the steering box. We lose the king about then as well.
I called sea tow and with in 30 or 40 minutes Capt. Doug arrives and gives us a tow back home. He did a great job towing us through the inlet (which has a sand bar all the way across again), hats off to Capt. Doug! We are all smiles though, we have 5 kings and a nice Spanish in the box and a very pleasant day morning of fishing and friendship!
.. sounds like a great day except for the mishap.
