Oct 21 Slow Inshore Fishing in Improving Conditions

Fishing was hard this morning. High Winds from the past 2 days and heavy rains had created lots of problems on the inshore fishing grounds. This morning, the water was filthy, the wind was blowing 18 kts from the west, and the Ocean was confused and angry... Our dilemma was, how far out was the cleaner water where we might find Albacore and was the forecast of diminishing winds and seas accurate?? So we stayed around Beaufort Inlet early and the fishing was very hard and slow. Brent did manage a 19" Speckled Trout. We also caught a handful of Puffers and lots of garbage. The most exciting moment of the morning was Ken's Atlantic Stingray on light tackle. Then we went riding, east and west, for 70 miles.... We pretty much found nothing. We never found an Albacore, a Bluefish, or a Red Drum. We tried all sorts of radical approaches. Reports from all over were poor, but I believe we probably should have started fishing 15 miles out and that would've been a long, cold, wet ride early in the morning. King Mackerel fishing was probably our best bet in hindsight!  Finally, the last fish of the day was a 4 lb Black Drum that Ken pulled out from under a dock at Crab Point and Mark lost a nice Red Drum beside the boat. Ouch. Brent's highlight was the awesome new rod and reel that I failed to find him a fish to pull the drag. My apologies to this fine crew and this hard day of fishing. By the way, conditions did improve throughout the day and by late afternoon, it was beautiful on the water. Total Catch for the Day: 3 Speckled Trout, 1 Black Drum, 1 Spot, 1 Bluefish, 6 Northern Puffers, 1 Atlantic Stingray, 1 Croaker, 1 Southern Sea Mullet, 1 Spottail Pinfish, 1 Rock Sea Bass, 8 Black Sea Bass, 15 Pinfish, 20 Hogfish, and 2 Inshore Lizardfish