Black Bass Blast

Morehead City fishermen have plenty of great black sea bass ‘turf’ within a short ride of port.

The forecast for a windy day was not the greatest for an offshore bottom-fishing trip, but that didn’t deter Bob Bruggeworth from driving to Beaufort to join his friend Gus Villanova at Town Creek Marina, where Villanova keeps his 25-foot Carolina Classic, His Mistress.

“My freezer’s empty,” said Bruggeworth, a New Bern resident and retiree from the telecommunications industry. “When it comes to eating, nothing beats a black sea bass.”

Bruggewrorth and Villanova, who is also from New Bern, enjoy fishing inshore waters and the open Atlantic. With the preliminaries taken care of, they headed out through Beaufort Inlet for the first day the black sea bass season was open in 2011, wanting to get a jump on other anglers and commercial fishermen.Click here to read more on Black Bass Blast