‘Lil John’s
Morehead City, NC
Left the dock around 4:00 AM and ran towards the Russian Wreck. On the way we heard the warm water had moved in from where it was our last day out. We started fishing short of where we planned. After getting every set we were having trouble getting an accurate sea temp reading. We marked a little, scattered bait, nothing to get excited about.
We got a call from a friend, who had two bites within minutes. We pulled our spread in and ran towards him…everyone has been very helpful here.We got in the area and reset our spread, the water looked great. There was bait from the bottom up to about 20 feet. After about 30 minutes we had our bite on a short rigger. The first run took us ½ way through our backing. We started clearing the other three rods, which are pulled about 450 to 700 feet back. When I say we…it was just me & ‘Lil John.
After clearing all our lines and planner we went to work on the fish. The fish was straight up and down within 50 minutes, then it took another 20 minutes to get him within range to get a flyer in him. John stopped cranking and hit him with the flyer. He did a great job handling the fish throughout the fight. After he had the gaff in him I was able to come down and help secure him and get him in the boat. The fish measured 91”, weighed 424 lbs and cored out at 360 lbs. We had a bit of a dry spell before this bite that ran for 9 days. There were about 10 to 12 fish caught today. We were happy to get a bite in what has been a tough season.
Tight Lines
Capt Keith
