Tweet
Just got back from Emerald Isle last night on a trip with some college friends. It was supposed to be a beach bumming/how much can we drink before passing out trip, but ended up shark fishing the majority of time due to the lousy weather. Day one I tried to launch in the surf by myself with a fully rigged Outback, very bad idea. Lost two expensive rods and my wedding ring right off the bat with a turtle, my first by the way in this boat. I guess I thought you couldn't flip an Outback, man was I wrong! Meanwhile the peanut gallery who witnessed the whole thing offered to help on the second attempt. Got passed the surf and was trying to get my last remaining rod out only to realize my reel is full of sand. Not wanting to ruin my nice Shimano, I headed back in and flipped once more in the waves for the crowd. Called it quits for the day and started drinking immediately, lol.
The following day I managed to get a surf rod together and went after the bluefish that were jumping out of the water everywhere! Caught two within 3 seconds of my bait hitting the water and had similar luck all morning. Biggest ones were 20-22", the majority in the 12-16" range. That night I decided to deploy my shark rod and rigged up a 14" bluefish to some steel leader. Took the bait out in my Hobie approximately 200 yards and it almost beat me back to shore. The biggest weight I had was 2 oz and we really needed a spider weight.
The next morning I found some spider weights and finally had everything we needed. Fished for several hours with nothing, finally the tide started coming in and things heated up. My buddy took the first shark, about a 4' sandbar shark which are very common in NC. Didn't put up much of a fight, but we got a nice video and released the fish. Watching him swim back into the surf was very satisfying. Loaded up another bluefish and back out 200 yards with the kayak. I did learn a lot about launching from the surf and landing in the surf. We went from 0% success to maybe 75% success towards the last day. The wind was strong the entire time we were there and the rain never let up, so any success I felt was good! Anyway, made it back to our tent, sat down, cracked a beer and the reel started singing. This time I knew we had something bigger, this was the one! Grabbed the rod, set the drag, got a nice hookset. The fish took off! All three of us saw the fish jumping at least 6' out of the water about 200-300 yards off-shore, he was pissed! Unfortunately I had a bit too much drag it turns out and my shock leader snapped about three minutes into the fight. Being we did not see the fish, no way to identify it for sure, but with the acrobatic display my guess was mako? We all figured the fish to be a minimum of 6', but he could have easily been closer to 8'. My friends first comment was "I'm never going in the ocean again", haha. We got another bait out maybe 30 mins later and fished an hour longer, nothing. It took me hours to finally fall asleep thinking about the one that got away. This was my first shark fishing trip and needless to say it will not be my last.
For anybody headed to the outerbanks and further south, there is life everywhere. Each time I went out I saw huge schools of mullet and schools of bluefish right behind them. I had several bluefish and shrimp jump out of the water and land in my boat. The pelicans and gulls were well fed too.
This trip has completely changed my view of what a properly outfitted kayak should look like. Simple is definitely better!
The following day I managed to get a surf rod together and went after the bluefish that were jumping out of the water everywhere! Caught two within 3 seconds of my bait hitting the water and had similar luck all morning. Biggest ones were 20-22", the majority in the 12-16" range. That night I decided to deploy my shark rod and rigged up a 14" bluefish to some steel leader. Took the bait out in my Hobie approximately 200 yards and it almost beat me back to shore. The biggest weight I had was 2 oz and we really needed a spider weight.
The next morning I found some spider weights and finally had everything we needed. Fished for several hours with nothing, finally the tide started coming in and things heated up. My buddy took the first shark, about a 4' sandbar shark which are very common in NC. Didn't put up much of a fight, but we got a nice video and released the fish. Watching him swim back into the surf was very satisfying. Loaded up another bluefish and back out 200 yards with the kayak. I did learn a lot about launching from the surf and landing in the surf. We went from 0% success to maybe 75% success towards the last day. The wind was strong the entire time we were there and the rain never let up, so any success I felt was good! Anyway, made it back to our tent, sat down, cracked a beer and the reel started singing. This time I knew we had something bigger, this was the one! Grabbed the rod, set the drag, got a nice hookset. The fish took off! All three of us saw the fish jumping at least 6' out of the water about 200-300 yards off-shore, he was pissed! Unfortunately I had a bit too much drag it turns out and my shock leader snapped about three minutes into the fight. Being we did not see the fish, no way to identify it for sure, but with the acrobatic display my guess was mako? We all figured the fish to be a minimum of 6', but he could have easily been closer to 8'. My friends first comment was "I'm never going in the ocean again", haha. We got another bait out maybe 30 mins later and fished an hour longer, nothing. It took me hours to finally fall asleep thinking about the one that got away. This was my first shark fishing trip and needless to say it will not be my last.
For anybody headed to the outerbanks and further south, there is life everywhere. Each time I went out I saw huge schools of mullet and schools of bluefish right behind them. I had several bluefish and shrimp jump out of the water and land in my boat. The pelicans and gulls were well fed too.
This trip has completely changed my view of what a properly outfitted kayak should look like. Simple is definitely better!
Comment