Perfect weather and hungry fish

I had the pleasure of having Gale and Ellie on the boat with me this week.  Gale called me and said she was in town, and looking to get out and chase a few fish.  She told me that she fly fished but had only done it twice in the last 3 years, so she might be a little rusty.  I recommended a trip out of Beaufort for spanish and blues, and maybe an albie if they were there. 

I met Gale and Ellie at first light and we dropped the boat in the water, and laid out the morning's plans as we motored through the no wake zone.  When we hit the inlet we could see birds working outside so we made our way over to some schools of busting fish.  I pulled out a spinning rod for Ellie and got the 6wt out for Gale.  Honestly I wasn't sure how much success we would have on the fly rod since Gale hadn't thrown one in quite a while.  What I witnessed next, pleased me to no end.  I watched Gale take the rod, stretch the flyline, lay the line on the deck, step up to the front of the skiff and double haul a cast better than most men I know.  Both ladies were hooked up on fish within the first cast or two.  From that point we chased schools of spanish and blues for the next hour or so, until thing started to slow.  Gale and Ellie put a good amount of fish in the boat in that time, along with a handful in the cooler. 

I'm not one who leaves fish to find fish, but once the action slowed I made the decision to make a run down the beach towards Bardens Inlet.  The water was glass calm, and the little poling skiff made a smooth run down Shackleford towards the Cape.  There were no fish sightings, minus all the dolphins, until we got about a mile from Bardens Inlet.  We saw some fish busting, and as we made our way over, we saw that they were albies.  I switched Gale's 6wt for an 8wt with an epoxy fly, and had them both cast to the fish.  Unfortunately the pods of albies didn't hang around long enough for us to get a good shot at them, but now I felt good about our chances of catching one during the trip. 

We poked around in Bardens Inlet but didn't see much, so I decided to run down the west beach towards the jetty.  We saw nothing along that stretch but once we passed the jetty, we started running into pods of busting fish.  There were lots of small pods of albies that were up and down quick.  I call these teaser schools...the ones that bust until you get within casting distance and then they disapear, only to pop up 50 yards away 5 seconds later.  Although they were moving quick, if you could get a lure near the school, they would gladly eat it.  Gale handled the albies like a pro, not only casting to the schools well, but clearing the line and fighting them perfectly.  Along with the albies that Gale caught, Ellie was able to entice one into eating some metal, but it broke the line during it's run.  If anyone catches an albie with a chartreuse jig hanging from his jaw...that would be Ellie's fish.  As the tide went slack, and the bite slowed, we called it a day and ran back to Beaufort.  It was an honor to have these ladies on my boat and I can't wait to fish with them again.

After I dropped the ladies off, my friend Kristen, who was waiting patiently at the ramp jumped aboard and we made a run back to the Cape for round two.  I was hoping that the albies were going to fire back up when the tide started running again.  We found a few pods busting mullet, but the fish that were off the jetty earlier were nowhere to be found.  I ran to the shoals and we ran into a square mile of nothing but dolphins.  They put on a show for us, doing backflips and headstands in the water.  On the ride back towards the jetty, we ran into several schools of spanish that were more than happy to eat flies and metal.  Along the way, we were able to pick up a few Jack Crevalle along the beach. 

After we fished the jacks for a bit, we ran back to the spit and found a few albies busting mullet again.  Outside the spit in front of Shackleford we started seeing schools of alberts going after glass minnows.  Not long after that, the spanish showed up in force and we had a heyday with them.  Kristen cleaned up on the spanish, and caught her personal best.  I even got in on the action, and although I love watching other people catch fish, it's always nice to get to hold a doubled over fly rod.  The action was red hot, and we had to leave the fish biting when we ran back to the ramp...saying goodbye to one of the prettiest days I've seen in a long time.