Saturday morning my sister-in law and I hit the river in search of bait and fish. After about 30 minutes of bait searching we decided to go artificial and see what we could do. We drifted several banks and flats casting a variety of plugs and grubs near the mouth of the Brunswick River and had no luck. We decided to make a move and started fishing some structure near downtown Wilmington and was able to bring one 20" Striper to the boat. The little bass hit an all white Rapala X-rap. We got the skunk off the boat and it was time to leave. It was off to the annual Airshow at Wilmington International.
Sunday morning had plans to run to Ar370 in search of Bonito. The alarm went off at 05:15 and the lighting and rain put a quick stop to that trip and man I was bummed all day. At around 17:00 the phone rang and an afternoon run was on. Boarded my buddy's 17' Whaler and we were off to the Liberty Ship. I showed up with only my Scott 8wt. and my Thomas and Thomas 10wt and guilted my friend into a fly rod only trip. The wind was blowing SW 10-15 knots and a 3-5' swell meant fishing would difficult. "These are perfect conditions for the Bonito to appear," I said. Past years the best Bonito blitzes have occurred went the sun is going down and the seas are sloppy. We approached the wreck and two large "schools" of birds were working the surface South and West of the buoy. We started upwind to get a long drift and sure enough the sea was alive with Bluefish and Bonito ripping the surface as bait fish showered the air trying to escape as the birds worked them from above. We could not get our flies in the water fast enough as the school pasted us by. We drifted another 100 yards and returned upwind. Another drift produced several strikes for Allen but not positive takes and all I had were some tugs on my 6" one fly
(more on that in a later post). Another upwind run and as the boat turn with the wind the water erupted with bait, blues and Bonito right in front of the boat. I loaded the back cast and as I let go of the double haul the 10wt. unload completely. I looked down and the guides were empty with only a 12" tag of the running line hanging from the reel. Daggum Bluefish bit my line on the previous drift and now I lost the sinking head, leader and the One-Fly. Lucky for me I had my 8wt, loaded with an intermediate Cortland 555 rocket and a green and white clouser, but I could only get down to the blues with the drifts going fast and the topwater bite turning off as the sun had gone below the horizon. We made two more drifts and ended up with about 15 blues and $60.00 worth of lost gear and the sight of a setting sun and slashing Bonito all to ourselves.
Rip'em up and let some go
Capt. Danny Wrenn
96 Charter Company
Wimington N.C.
910.619.2224
