Fishing Report Archives

Report Filed: April 29, 2008

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On Friday I went fishing in North Carolina, out of this little town called Swansboro. We were fishing in the Gulf Stream, which at this time of year is about 65 miles offshore. I used to think that running 24 miles out was a long way until I went on this trip...wow.

The ocean conditions were pretty nice that day, the water was 75 degrees and clear blue, just like in the Carribean. For those of you who haven't done this before, fishing down there is really something. You use huge reels with 200lb test on them and you troll your gear right on the surface at around 8 knots skipping bait across the water. When a fish hits your reel just starts screaming and the rods you use are equivalent to what we use for halibut, short, heavy and really stiff. You have to give the fish a couple of seconds at the beginning and you can't try to stop their runs or they will just break you off...it's really something. Mahi Mahi or dolphin are fast swimmers and they'll jump right out of the water if you keep your rod tip up, (lesson learned don't keep rod tip up) and they are strong fighters. Another amazing thing about them is their colour-their skin is an incredible blue and green and it fades within a minute of putting them in the box-you wouldn't even know it was the same fish. It was so nice to be able to fish in t-shirts and shorts for a change, a guy could get pretty spoiled down there sitting in the sun, drinking beer with your shirt off waiting for a fish to bite. The problem is there's not a lot of days that you can fish out there when the weather is good. We were down there for a week and everyday but 2 were really windy.