Blustery weather and a bigeye

Our TAG team took advantage of another morning of good weather, and headed back to The Point with a much smaller entourage of boats as dawn broke over the Outer Banks.  We anticipated that fishing conditions would deteriorate by mid-afternoon – with forecasts calling for light morning winds (5-10 kts) increasing to 20-25 kts, risings seas, and rain.

   

As the fishing cooled and the weather intensified, Captain CP attempted to enhance the sluggish bite by chunking menhaden (aka 'fatback", "bunker", "shad", or "pogy") and reloading the flatlines with these enticing baits.  Although these efforts didn’t elicit a bluefin bite – they caught the attention of a ~ 130 lb bigeye tuna – a rare catch for late winter fishing off the Outer Banks!

Alan ("Big Country") Scibal prepares pogies for chunking.

Unfortunately, the weather forecast was right on target. By 2:00 p.m. the winds had increased to 20+ kts and the skies had grown heavy with rain.  We called it a day and headed back to Oregon Inlet, hopeful that optimal fishing would return soon.

Surfers enjoy the waves at Nags Head while we wait to tag tuna.