An Inner Banks Slapper Run (7/9)

[Latimeria]

I was planning on taking my boat out today, but last night my buddy Brian (aka Slapper) called and said he wants to get his boat out and to jump on board.  He's been working on his boat for a while as he bought the hull from NJ, Motor from Connecticut, trailer from Virginia, and had it all shipped to San Diego.  He ripped out the old IO, put a new transom on and attached a plate for the outboard.  It's slowly coming together, but is a really sweet ass boat he's piecing together and building.



Water was 68 degrees outside the inlet, but the temp jumped 5 degrees by the time we got to the 9-mile.



Lots of bait around and lots of birds and dolphin, but no signs of tuna.  Got to the 302 and there were a bunch of boats huddled around a single paddy including a dive boat which looked like a mess.



We headed west and found some paddy's of our own and saw leaping dorado.  Every paddy had at least a few, but we couldn't get anything to go.  Tried live bait, slow trolling, chunking, jigs....  they were not interested.  Some were a little bit bigger like 12-15 pounders, but there were no real numbers on any mat.  Water was about 73 everywhere out there.

We were trying the new speed trollers, but couldn't find anything resembling a tuna.  They will be up here soon enough if the weather holds out though.


Miles and miles of birds and bait.... We deep dropped and fly lined through it, but nothing was around... or at least nothing wanted our bait.  We also saw quite a few BIG flying fish around also.



Every direction was hundreds, if not Thousands of terns along with way too much bait.  It sure looked fishy though!





We had to call it early and trolled on the way in before pulling up lines and heading back to the barn.  On the way in, we were boarded by fish and game to do a fish check and a license chack.  Had our licenses, but nothing in the kill bag.  I asked them what they've seen so far today and it was not much.  Just a couple of paddy yellows and a half dozen dodo.  Oh well, I was thinking about taking my boat out tomorrow, but the Over the Line tournament had MB swarmed with people, and not sure I want to deal with it before I go on vacation this week.  I need to get my FW gear together.  LOL

The "Ass Slapper".... At least that's what I think he said his boat name was.  hahahaha



No fish, but a great time out there on the hunt.  I've fished a few times with Brian from locally to down at Castro's Fish Camp in Mex, but today was fun just catching up and drinking some beers between trying to fool one of the picky dorado.

Thanks for reading and until next tide!

[sasquatch]

Sounds fun. Leaving the bar early tonight for a boat ride tomorrow. Hope to have some fish porn for y'all.

[vdisney]

Tell him the boat looks good,  but I'm curious.  Why'd he ditch the I/O for an outboard?  I've always been a fan of fresh water cooled I/O's, I've had a couple of them.

[Tim524]

Cool boat, The name sounds familiar  Hard to believe you of all people got skunked Looks like a fun outing 

[Latimeria]

Sounds fun. Leaving the bar early tonight for a boat ride tomorrow. Hope to have some fish porn for y'all.

Good luck Steve!

[Latimeria]

Tell him the boat looks good,  but I'm curious.  Why'd he ditch the I/O for an outboard?  I've always been a fan of fresh water cooled I/O's, I've had a couple of them.

He bought it for the hull. The motor was seized and the guy sold him the boat for $3K. He had a vision of what he wanted and voila! 

[Latimeria]

Cool boat, The name sounds familiar  Hard to believe you of all people got skunked Looks like a fun outing 

Found out all the fish caught yesterday were plugged with tiny shrimp. Makes sense why there were so many terms and non biting fish. It would have been quite bumpy in my my rig.
It's time for you to go offshore! We'll buddy boat out there and tell for some monsters!

[KogaHead]

The Squatch will limit out tomorrow!

[Latimeria]

The Squatch will limit out tomorrow!

He did as well as I did. LoL