Monthly Archives: May 2014

7th Annual Bayliss Triple Crown – Victory!

My friend Patrick and I fished the Bayliss Triple Crown tournament yesterday (5/26).  This was the second time I have fished in the tournament.  It is a great event with great people, and all for a great cause.  This year, the typical trout, flounder, drum slam was replaced with a bluefish, flounder, drum slam.  Trout season can open back up as soon as June 15th.

We started off the morning looking for a puppy drum.  We managed to put one in the boat pretty quickly.  Since it was a decent fish that we knew we wouldn’t be able to improve on a whole lot, we decided to try and get the bluefish.

I’ve never fished so hard for a bluefish in my life.  When you don’t want to catch one, you can’t keep them away.  We trolled the inlet, fished sabiki rigs, casted spoons,  you name it.  Everything I knew about catching a bluefish – we tried it.  After almost 2 hours of chasing a bluefish, we decided to run back inside and maybe try and catch a flounder.

Somehow, I managed to catch about a 7 inch bluefish on my gulp.  I watched him following the bait all the way to the boat.  Im not sure he was even hook because right when I pulled him in the boat he flopped right off into the bottom of the boat.  Ive never been so happy about catching a bluefish.

Now it was time to get the flounder.   We ventured back to a flounder hole that I usually only access by kayak.  It was very shallow getting in, and I had Patrick on the front of the boat and my Outboard trimmed way up.  Finally got a flounder to hit – and put a 16″ in the box.

I can’t say our slam was a very impressive one, but it was the ONLY one.  We took home the crown and a cool $200.  The softshells and grilled tuna at the weigh in are just the cherry on top of a great day.  Big thanks to Bayliss Boatworks for putting on such an awesome event!

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Cobia w/ Capt Marc

My uncle and I headed out on Capt Marc Kerns of Rock On Charters boat this afternoon for some cobia fishing.  We left the inlet around 12:30 and headed south to the warm water.  We hooked a 50+ pounder right when we hit the temp change, but broke the line at the boat.  We stayed around the area and popped them off here and there.  It was a great time, and big things to Marc for letting us run his boat down there.  Cobia on the grill tonight!

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Pups, trout, flounder, and chum.

This morning I had Jim and Joan with me, and what a great trip it was.  I can’t say the fishing was all time, but it was just plain ol’ good company.  We ended up releasing about 5 small speckled trout and a throwback flounder – and we managed to find a school of puppy drum and pulled 4 out of it.  They took home their limit of reds….. Looking forward having them back next year!

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My afternoon trip was a bit of a bummer.  A very nice family joined me for what would of been a great afternoon of fishing. Unfortunately for the Dad, he had eaten some bad seafood the night before. I will say he was quiet a trooper for lasting as long as he did.  We through back a few small trout and a sea mullet before we had to call it a day.  Hopefully I can have them on board next year and we won’t be chumming the water the whole time =) Thanks guys, sorry again!

 

72lb Cobia from the Kayak! *video*

WOW!  The fishing is absolutely on fire! Inshore, offshore, nearshore, from the shore, you name it!  Drum (big and small), Cobia, Mahi, Black Drum, Trout, Flounder, Bluefish –  all kinds of stuff happenin’ on the Outer Banks right now.

Matt and I packed up the Hobie Kayaks and headed south to chase some Cobia.   We had actually went for a short trip the day before and I managed a small one, but saw a ton.  They were on the move and didn’t seem to want to bite anything.  Conditions were shaping up for the next day, and we knew it was going to be game on!

We got out there around 9:30am and started looking – it didn’t take long to see the first brown bomber.  I casted on the fish about 10-15 minutes after launching, and put a 20lber in the boat.  I was ready to bag a big girl now.

We were seeing fish, but not THAT many. . . We just kept peddling south. Eventually we started to get among all the boats, and started seeing some fish again.  I caught another shorty somewhere in there, and threw him back.  My brother puts a nice 30+ pounder in the boat. 

After about 30 minutes of cruising around the area that seemed to have the most life (turtles, rays, lots of hammerheads) I saw the big girl cruising out in front of me, and heading straight towards my kayak!  I actually got a little too excited and made an awful cast way off to the side of her.  I guess it wasn’t that bad since she turned on it immediately and crushed it!

The fight went on for about 20 minutes before I got her to the kayak.  She was pretty beat by the time I got her next to the boat, and was surprisingly pretty easy to handle at that point.   After a few whacks to the head with a hammer – I stuck a gaff in her lip and Matt and I put her in the back of my kayak.  I was pretty bummed with my video and photos, but I threw together what I had for a short little edit.  Check it out, and thanks for checking www.SaltMinded.com!

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Frank & Co.

Had an AM trip with Frank, his Pops, and their friend Fred and….. You guessed it, PUPPY DRUM!  Found a few schools of pups and doubled / tripled up a bunch.  These fish are so much fun on light tackle.  We had them crossing under the boat and all that jazz.  Fun time with these guys.  We went searching for a trout or flounder for a bit, but with no luck we headed back to tug on some more drum.  Thanks a lot guys – great trip!

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