Finally got a break in the rain on Friday in Wilmington. The wind forecast was spot on, and it was a light offshore breeze all day and night. After work, I loaded up the skiff for an overnight trip out of WB. I’ve been relentlessly pursuing a NC tarpon (fruitlessly) for the last six+ years and was hoping this would be the night, especially after so many have been hooked off the local piers recently.
Launched the boat at 7:00pm with a buddy, and had a livewell and cooler full of huge pogies by 7:15pm. Things were looking good. First bait in the water was a light lined pogie, and it didn’t take long to get tight. The fish instantly jumped, completely vertical, and I caught a quick glimpse of a silver shape against the setting sun. After being pretty convinced this was the one, the fish jumped again and I realized it was a spinner shark. Dang.
Continued fishing that spot without hooking the target species, and switched spots around 10pm, putting a couple of live pogies out under floats. Hoooked shark after shark on the pogies up top, so decided to put a couple of baits on the bottom. Kept one bait out and under a float . Although there weren’t any tarpon hookups, we did have some fun catching 10+ overslot redfish over the next few hours.
I installed a new Lowrance FS 9 a few months ago, and have been playing with the side scan feature a little bit. Don’t see the need for it in shallow water, but figured this could be a useful time to try it. Around 2am, we idled in a zigzag pattern up and down the beach in 12 to 25 feet of water, hoping to mark a poon. No luck doing that either. Headed back to the dock at about 4:30am, always makes me laugh a bit when the folks heading offshore are launching their boats, and I’m just getting back to the dock and look like a complete mess.
This pursuit has made me question myself so many times, spending 100’s of hours and countless night on the skiff, battling thunderstorms and so on. Every year I chase them, I seem to see more and more fish, and figure their patterns out a little bit more, but just haven’t connected. I once read “the greater the curse, the greater prize”, but this curse is proving pretty damn hard to break! Hopefully one day I’ll be able to succeed and lift this giant weight off of my shoulders. Til then, I’ll keep trying.
I’d imagine it’s a pretty niche group of idiots who chase these fish in our region, if you have any advice or questions feel free to shoot me a message.
