Went out sat from Harkers Island fishing ctr. on sat morning . We left the dock at about 0545 and headed for the 90' drop (about 28 to 30miles offshore) off of Cape Lookout NC. About a mile before the 90 we put lines in and started trolling . There was not much action for us for about 45 mins or so, then the a rod went off . First in the boat, skunk gone. we worked that same spot with the plotter and picked off a small dolphin. We decided to head NE on a weedline that was out there. we worked it for about 10 or twelve miles and picked up some more fish but nothing to keep us in one place, we were just getting one here and there.As we went farther up the line the weedline started to thin out some, boats and debris. About twelve miles from where we started we seen what looked like a large root sticking out of the water. We trolled north past it and had a double header of nice phins. Put both in the box with some great helmsmanship from Tricky Ricky and some good angling from my son Casey and "CAJUN PHIL". "The TRICK" is the man standing on the left, and CAJUN PHIL is sitting in the yellow shirt.
We made a pass by the root again and had a big hit, I decided I would fight one so I took the rod and we boated the large phin on the right side of the photo.
We worked that root some more to no avail so we decided to start trolling back in some . Tricky Ricky put us on a plankton line and we started down it . The starboard rigger goes off and we have a BIG phin on. Casey got him to the boat twice but that bull would not come to the gaff. The bull made a last ditch effort under the boat and he was out of gaff range. The leader 130 lb. broke in the eye of the hook. Welll needless to say but everyone ( especially CASEY) was really down.
We put em' back out and started trolling again on the same line. About 5 min. later I seen a LARGE fish streaking across the water towards the starboard rigger. The clip pops and line starts streaking off the reel then just stops . Casey grabbed the rod and started to drop back to him but no deal.. Then the strabaoard short goes off the same way but still no hook-up.... well I hate we missed the BIG phin and then whatever that was attacked the starboard rods but that's fishin'.
We decided that we were tired so w headed in and called it a day.
Final tally ........ 8 for 11 on strikes ..... 113 NM traveled...... 88 gallons of gas and 1 1/2 gallonns of oil.
We made a pass by the root again and had a big hit, I decided I would fight one so I took the rod and we boated the large phin on the right side of the photo.
We worked that root some more to no avail so we decided to start trolling back in some . Tricky Ricky put us on a plankton line and we started down it . The starboard rigger goes off and we have a BIG phin on. Casey got him to the boat twice but that bull would not come to the gaff. The bull made a last ditch effort under the boat and he was out of gaff range. The leader 130 lb. broke in the eye of the hook. Welll needless to say but everyone ( especially CASEY) was really down.
We put em' back out and started trolling again on the same line. About 5 min. later I seen a LARGE fish streaking across the water towards the starboard rigger. The clip pops and line starts streaking off the reel then just stops . Casey grabbed the rod and started to drop back to him but no deal.. Then the strabaoard short goes off the same way but still no hook-up.... well I hate we missed the BIG phin and then whatever that was attacked the starboard rods but that's fishin'.
We decided that we were tired so w headed in and called it a day.
Final tally ........ 8 for 11 on strikes ..... 113 NM traveled...... 88 gallons of gas and 1 1/2 gallonns of oil.