July 19 - 21, 2007 - BARTA Boys & Girls Club Billfish Tournament!!!! Well, sloppy seas were the order again for this fantastic event - but we managed to win our division. 1 of our 10 yr old anglers, Davis Brown from Georgia, managed to catch his first ever billfish - a nice sail!! Not only that, he managed to do it standup (with a little help form Dad) in sloppy seaas. All 5 kids aboard got medals for catching either kings, mahi or both. We were very proud of these young boys, hanging tough through a bit of mal-de-mer and still having great attitudes and catching fish. THEY are exactly what this event is all about.
June 11 - June 16, 2007 - Big Rock Tournament!!! What a great event!! Wonderful friends from Miami, Jim "The Beast" Bartlett and his crew came up to compete alongside with us. We trolled hard all week looking for one bite - one huge blue marlin. It was just not meant to be but we had a great time trying. We had a white hit us on Monday but never got a hookup, then we had a nice 300-350# blue hookup on Wednesday but it jumped off. Saturday we went all out trying to win and ran 100 nm off the beach to the far side of the gulf stream - MAN, what a gorgeous day despite not catching the big one!
May 19, 2007 --- Military Appreciation Day Event!!! What an awesome day, great weather, great fishing and a fun group of service men aboard for a great cause!!! We were honored to have 1 fella from the Army and 2 from the Air Force with us today. They showed up early and were ready to go. First fish on with the 3rd line in, with steady action through the day. These guys really took instruction well and were all handling the fish like pros by the end of the day. Nice catch with a couple of 30# bulls!
May 2 - May 6, 2007 --- World Cat Owners Trip to Venice Marina, Venice Louisiana - Lots of fun, interesting style of fishing!! Lots of nice tuna and tons of great bottom fishing around the rigs in the Gulf - this was a first for me but won't be the last!
4/21/2007 -- CALCUTTA WAHOO CHALLENGE!!!! We fished in some less the perfect conditions on Saturday and brought in 1 of only 14 fish weighed for the entire tournament. Our crew of 4 folks who had never fished together before with us managed to pull it all together and help us catch 4 hoos on the day with the largest weighing in at 32.6#, good enough to take 5th place overall and 3rd place in the NCW TWT. Can't wait for the Fall event!!
3/31/07 -- Makeup trip. Slick calm ride out. Lines in @ 6:15, first fish on @ 6:16. Slow day overall but with some nice action. Landed 2 wahoo, 2 kings and 3 AJ. Had several heavy bites on the planer rod - 1 of which straightened out a 9/0 hook!! Spring fishing is firing up in NC - don't miss out!
3/25/07 -- Put together a last minute makeup trip and headed offshore, even though we new we had a nasty NE wind coming in for the afternoon. Made our way to the Rise and put lines in about 7:30. We did not find great conditions early so we headed up the beach. Finally found the spot around 10:30 and went 3 for 3 on tuna (2 yellowfin 35# and a nice blackfin). We also picked up a small king and had a few other bite offs. The weather guesser was off a bit and the wind switched in the morning and picked up quickly. By 11 or so it was getting pretty snotty. We put in some high speed stuff around 11:30 and pulled it to near the 14 buoy before calling it a day and heading in. Facing some nasty stacked up seas and 20-25 kt winds - but the World Cat handled it great. Man, I LOVE this Boat!!!
3/23-3/24/07 -- had a 1/2 day rigging school scheduled with some new friends from Roanoke. They trailered their boat down to Beaufort and we spent Friday afternoon going over ballyhoo rigs and rigging their boat. Then Saturday morning we took a run out on their 24' McKee and did some fishing! We managed 3 nice wahoo, including 1 33# fish, and 1 king.
1/12/2007 --- Had a couple of great guys who bought our trip we donated to the CCA banquet. We decided to spend part of the day chasing bluefin, and managed 1 quick hookup and saw a giant jump at but miss our long bait - very exciting to see a fish that large jump! Caught a couple of albacore, and finally a 20# grouper on the planer rod! Afterwards we finished the day out with some bottom bouncin and caught tons of black sea bass, ringtails and a couple of beeliners.
November 2006 - January 2007 ---- not much activity for us through this period this year. Schedules and weather prevented several of our trips. My mate CL took a great fishing trip to Hawaii. We did take a couple of Bluefin trips and managed a couple of hookups but never put one in the boat. We plan to go after them hard next year though!
10/20 - 10/21 -- Calcutta Wahoo Challenge! Very nasty condtions on day #1 with 8-10 foot seas and 25-30 kt winds, many boats stayed in! We managed to get to our spot and finally made it back to the scales with a 30+ # wahoo - enough to land us in 4th place after day 1. Second day was a little nicer. We changed spots and never really got on track, though we did bring in another hoo for our lady angler - ended up around 25#. We did not finish in the money for the tourney but had a respectable showing. To the best of our findings, we ended up 7th overall largest fish, 2nd on 2 day aggregate and 3rd on lady angler.
10/7 - heavier seas but still very fishable. Most of the crowd laid at the dock today. Got back out to our spot and quickly hit another wahoo. Picked away at it most of the day and ended up with 2 wahoo and another handful of mahi.
10/6 - had Jim "The Beast" Bartlett from Miami and his family aboard with us, man what a great fishing team they are! Greeted with beautiful slick seas for the run out. Picked up a 22# wahoo right after our first set, then the bite was off for a while (full moon!). Just after lunch it turned back on, just as we hit a weedline in 25 fathoms. Tons of wahoo bites and landed a couple more. Bunch of smaller mahi with an occasional gaffer mixed in. End of the day we had a monster pull off 100 yds or so from the planer rod set on about 30-35# drag before finally pulling the hook - plenty exciting though!
10/5 - left Town Creek and headed offshore on our way to Ocracoke for the World Cat owners rendezvous. On the way up we caught a nice litle king while making the first set. Worked our way along the edge heading up the beach and picked away at the mahi and a few wahoo bites all the way. Ended the day with a king, 2 wahoo (1 was 34#) and a handful of mahi.9/9 - 1/2 day nearshore today. Started at the inlet and ended up working on out to the Cape. Picked away at the spanish and blues all morning. Ended up with a nice catch of larger (16-18") spanish and blues.
**Took the boat off line for the rest of the month for maintenance and to get it ready for the fall and winter season.
8/26 - had a makeup today. Slow fishing for the fleet overall. We hung out with a group of boats around the 302, but worked a line from inshore out to the 50fathom. Caught a nice wahoo and a couple of mahi.
7/29 - Had the Hall family from Virginia aboard today. Less than perfect conditions but some determined anglers. Started a little inshore with tons of short strikes. Found a nice weed line further offshore later in the morning and immediately caught a nice 25# wahoo - great job standup by a young (15 yo) lady angler fighting her first ever "big fish". Quickly after we tossed in a couple of slinger dolphin, and released a 30# cuda. Another bunch of short strikes, most seemed to be wahoo bites. The wind picked up around mid-day and a little seasickness shortened the day so we headed in slowly to make it easier on the ones in pain, but kept a couple of high speed lures in. The 80 started screaming and just as we pulled the throttles back it went slack, whatever it was bit thru 275# multi strand cable!!
7/20 - 7/22 - Fished in the 3rd annual Barta Boys & Girls Club Billfish Tournament (we have fished all 3 years now). Managed a couple of mahi for 1 of our jr anglers, a decent wahoo for out other jr angler (my son) and also caught a nice sailfish for our lady angler (her 1st billfish). Had a nice blue marlin nearly spool a Tiagra 30wide before finally cutting us off - but ya can't be upset with a 7 y.o. angler!! We managed 8th place for our wahoo and were just bumped out of the top 3 spots by about 30 minutes by another boat who hooked up before us. Marginal weather, especially Saturday, but the World Cat took it all in stride and we had a great time.
The Billfish bite is awesome right now!!! Don't miss the opportunity to get in on some of the best billfish action we have had in a long time!
7/15/06 - Ran the boat up to Bath NC on Friday 7/14 to an employee/demo day for World Cat. Beautiful ride up the ICW to my buddies house in Bath. Ran demos ALL DAY Saturday, then we got clobbered by a bad set of thunderstorms in the afternoon with a lot of lightning, which kinda killed our plans to drum fish all night on the sound. We did run over to a spot close to the house and managed a few small drum. Ran home early Sunday morning - another beautiful ride on the ICW!
7/03/06 - Inlet was a little bumpy with the falling tide but the seas laid out nicely once we got 3 or 4 miles offshore. Made about 27 or 28 knots out and ran to the south. Quickly had several strikes and before long had boated 3 mahi. Had a BIG wahoo hit the planer line and nearly dump a 50 with a lot of drag before finally pulling him off. The bite slowed after that, we found 2 other great looking areas with decent sized weed patches and a ton of flyers and a 1-2 degree temp break - but no fish!?!? Fished until 4 then ran in at 29-30 kts. Good/Bad news - we came thru the inlet just after the "Tall Ship" parade and the waterways were a congested mess. We then had to wait for them to dock 4 or 5 of the blowboats over near our marina - but at least we got some good looks at them without having to stand in line!
There are plenty of smaller "bailer" mahi to be had further inshore but my groups from Saturday and Monday all were looking for a nicer class of fish and we also were keeping some larger rigs in for a possible billfish.7/01/06 - Absolutely beautiful conditions!! Ran up to the north to avoid the crowds. Did not find a lot to fish around (like most of the fleet) but managed a decent day. Had lots of strikes throughout the day but did not have a great hook-up ratio for some reason. Ended up with 5 nice mahi and a 24# wahoo. Stopped on the way back to let the guys pull on some Amberjack we had seen over a wreck - result 3 lost fish and 1 broken 50# class rod!!!! Man, those things sure put up a fight. The party was tired and all got a nice nap for the ride home.
6/17/06 - Another beautiful day offshore. Made 28 knots or so out and back. Tough fishing day for the most part. Jumped off a nice mahi, then had some excitement with a billfish working on a long rigger bait. Also saw a nice group of large tuna busting the surface but could not entice a hit. Ended up with 4 or 5 nice mahi.
6/10/2006 - Beautiful day inshore fishing. Managed a few blues and some nice spanish. Finished the day off swimming at Cape Lookout.
5/29/2006 - Weather forecast missed again! Rough conditions and slow fishing made for an interesting day. We managed 3 mahi before having to call it a day early due to mal-de-mer from 1 of the guests.