Dismal morning weather didn’t deter these anglers
While fishing out of Wilmington last Tuesday, Austin Lancaster caught an 84.5-pound wahoo. That was the main highlight of the trip with Allen Brady and Brandon Whittington, but it was far from the only highlight.
The three anglers, all from Wilmington, started the morning at Creekside Yacht Club at 4:30 a.m. It was pouring rain with lightning all around, so they spent the next 30 minutes scouring over weather apps hoping for a break in the weather. They found it and left the dock at 5:15 on a 23-foot Sea Hunt.
“It took us about three hours to arrive at our fishing destination which was just north of the Same Ole Hole. The last hour of the trip was pretty snotty,” said Whittington.
Pretty soon, the anglers found a weed line and began catching mahi immediately.
“We stumbled upon the most magnificent weed line I have ever seen. So we dropped lures in the water and started trolling. We had not even been trolling for 10 minutes and had two mahi in the boat. In the next three hours, we caught eight more mahi, including two bulls. We lost four others at the boat,” he said.
They were trolling with pink daisy chain and blue/white skirt with ballyhoo. They also boated one wahoo and had another one break off.
“We had one break off because we didn’t back off the drag in time. Lesson learned,” said Whittington.
Anglers make wise move when action slows down
Things slowed down between 11 a.m. and noon, so they decided to abandon the weed line and head and make a move further north.
“This decision paid off big time! At around 12:30, we hooked up to a monster wahoo on a mahi-colored bird with wire leader on blue/white skirt bullethead with select ballyhoo — kind of a crazy setup,” he said.
The fish immediately went on a run, peeling line off the reel.
“The wahoo spooled probably 100 yards of line. Austin grabbed the rod and started fighting the wahoo. And what a fight it was! It was over 30 minutes of chasing, backing down, and following the fish. It finally showed us some color and gave us a gaff shot. I gaffed the fish. With Austin’s help, we pulled the monster over the gunwale,” he said.
With this huge addition to their haul, the boat was completely full of fish.
“We had no more room to store any fish, so we packed up and started heading for home,” he said.
Whittington was quick to give credit to Brady, and said it takes teamwork to make a day of successful offshore fishing.
“None of this would have happened without Allen running the rigging. He runs a beautiful spread. Teamwork makes the dream work. We all caught and reeled in fish, but Austin’s 84.5-pound wahoo took the cake,” he said.
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