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2005 Fishing Reports July 16, 2005 - Carteret County King Mackerel Tournament
Onslow Bay Open King Mackerel Tournament
The Sea Drag’n fishing team went into the OBO KMT beat up and tired from the Atlantic Beach KMT were it battled 6-9 foot seas to bring home a 11th place Friday finish. The team was undecided until Monday before the tournament whether or not to fish. First mate Brent had obligations and could not make the trip down and the rest of the crew had obligations. I had to work late shift, but Al Sr. talked me into fishing. He and I fished the tournament last year without any other of the crew so we decided to try and make it happen. I went down on Tuesday and prepped the boat and gear, taking a little time to scope out the bait and water conditions. Dad drove down Friday with Mom and stopped at his favorite food buffet before signing us up at the tournament in Swansboro. I worked until 2 am then drove over to Topsail and picked him up. We got to AB around 5 am and had the Sea Drag’n floating by 5:30 am. A co-worker, Nick Taylor and his friend Steve were invited to join us for the trip. Nick was a beginning King fisherman whom had never used live bait to fish. Both were new to the sport but turned out to be good help on the boat. First stop was Harkers Island were after two warm up tosses the bottom of the Privateer was slicked over with pogies. We cleaned up and were breaking the shoals of Cape Lookout by 7:15 a.m. After an 18 mile run up the ocean side of core banks we settled down with about 5 other boats on some hard bottom near Drum Inlet. Lines went out and we all settled back enjoying the light west wind and calm seas. The water had not completely cleared since Hurricane Ophelia, but it was clear enough to catch fish. Water temp was at 79 and with the west wind; I expected the fish to be knaughing at the boat. continued on next page |
