Spring bite is on as fishing heats up

As local world famous author Robert Rourke wrote in the best book ever written, “Old Man and the Boy,” a story of a boy growing up fishing and hunting in Southport with his grandfather, “March is for remembering, and the rest of the year is for making new memories.”

Such was the case this past weekend as many new memories were created for anglers fishing the Gulf Stream to the inshore rivers, from monster wahoo to sea bass to trout, redfish, flounder.

Leading the way to glory is the Frick-Foster team fishing Jeff Martini’s wahoo tourney out of Little River, S.C. To say they put one on the board is an understatement, as their 88-pound wahoo basically blew the leader board away. They reported going 5-for-9 with wahoo, fishing at the black jack.

Next was Kendal Suh, who brought in a 70-pounder to the Ocean Isle Fishing Center. Other boats fishing reported good catches of wahoo and dolphin, as well as 30-plus pound sea bass, to finish off the Neptune platter.

Inshore, Capt. Kyle scored the first “Carolina slam” of the season, catching trout, flounder, redfish. Kyle indicated that with the water warming into the low 60’s, the bite turned on as expected, and he and his crew were there to harvest the crop.

Also to report, Barrett and I were fishing in Fort Pierce, Fla., and found out where our long-lost yellowfin tuna have been hiding. On advice of a good fishing friend, we fished the east side of the Gulf Stream and loaded up on yellowfins, up to 70 pounds. They have been experiencing the same problem with their yellowfin fishery as we have but have found the fish on the other side of the Stream. As soon as possible, we plan on checking our eastern side of the Stream and see whether the result is the same as we found in south Florida.

So folks, the green flag has dropped, and in the immortal words of my Grandpa Mac, “Gentlemen, start your catfish.” It’s time for us to quit telling the same stories over and over, and go make some new memories. Let’s go fishing!

BRANT McMULLAN is a charter captain and fishing columnist for the Beacon. Reach him at captbrant@oifishingcenter.com.