Went out today with Dave DuBuisson of the Pecan Tree Inn in Beaufort (www.pecantree.com) hoping to cash in on some of the albie action of yesterday. Fly and spin gear in hand – we set out with albies on the mind.
The biggest problem today was the wind – there was none! It was glass calm with only the occasional swells of Jeanne rolling in. With no breeze to keep things stirred up it – The weather was too beautiful for the fish!
With Albacore, when its nice and calm it can be hard to stay on the pods of fish – they spook easier and thus you get little time to work with them.
With few fish on the beach, we motored out to the wrecks out beyond 320 (330, hutton, jerry’s reef) – along the way we found many, many small groups of little albies busting baits. Every mile we traveled gave us more shots at fish – but our windows of opportunity were small and it was very difficult to produce a strike. But we did manage some bites and landed this little 6 pounder (pictured below). With the albies scattered we worked some of the sardine balls on one of the wrecks and found some nice fat spanish working the bait – the action was short lived but we produced a nice fish for dinner. Also, following our baits and tormenting us were dozens of VERY VERY LARGE AMBERJACKS – serious 60-100lb AJs were following in our small baits. We had none of the proper tackle (or bait) needed to tangle with those reef donkeys so they left us drooling as they slowly circled the boat.
On the way in we encountered pods of bigger albies working the beach – but again, it was very hard to stay on the fish. We managed some hits and a break-off before we called it a day.
A bit slower than yesterday but with beautiful weather (for a change!) and good company, can you really ask for anything more?
