Fishing

I’m an offshore fisherman at heart with a passion for tournament fishing. This week the pinnacle of offshore tournament fishing in Brunswick County arrives by way of the Jolly Mon King Mackerel Tournament. The Jolly Mon has become one of the largest, most festive and lucrative fishing tournaments on the East Coast and is highly anticipated by competitors and their families each year.
So, what makes the Jolly Mon into the unique community event it has become?

Now there’s a headline to this column you seldom read. When does that ever happen? I think Mother Nature has finally decided to have pity on us fishermen who have barely survived through the spring. But those of us who endured are being rewarded with record-breaking catches.
The cobia fishing has been the best I have ever seen in my 20-plus years of fishing. Cobia were once just a by-catch of king mackerel fishing, but now they have become a legitimate fishery that can be targeted.  
A couple keys to success are:  

Flounder have been a prime target in our backwaters this week. The weather conditions have also allowed small boats to get out on the beach a few days this week, targeting schools of Spanish.

It seems this spring we’ve been writing about the slow start to the season and how the unstable weather has kept frustrated fishermen stuck on the dock waiting for our three favorite words: light and variable.