Tidelines – April 12, 2012
My wife is expecting our third child (a third boy—her request for a girl has been denied again) in less than three weeks, so my Fisherman’s Post workload has been a little more pressured than normal since the start of the year.
My goal has been to get my life as organized and caught up as possible before the ensuing chaos that a newborn inevitably brings, so I’ve been working harder and longer than normal to help make sure the business is running as smoothly as it can before any leave of absence.
This three-month heavy workload coupled with the reality of sleepless nights ahead in the very near future had me looking at spring break a little differently. I didn’t want a good fishing trip, rather I needed a good fishing trip, if not a great fishing trip, to serve as both a reward for my labors and to refuel me moving forward.
What I needed was Capt. Rick Croson of Living Waters Guide Service out of Wrightsville Beach to take me to the Gulf Stream.
Rick has been a friend and ally since before the first issue of Fisherman’s Post in 2003, and we’ve had plenty of memories from our numerous fishing trips together through the years. If I were to have a fishing highlights reel, Rick would have several cameo appearances, including my first hog snapper, a 100+ lb. amberjack, my first red and gag grouper on a jig (and my second, third, fourth, and however many more we caught that day), a 50+ lb. Christmas cobia, and bottom fishing days where we had to wade through fish filling up the bottom of the boat.
And now, thanks to our spring break trip, I can add blackfin tuna caught on topwater poppers to that memory highlight reel. In addition, many of you will agree that just as important as the fish you catch can be the company you keep on a fishing trip. So this Gulf Stream trek became even more of a memory highlight when the timing worked out so that visiting uncles (Uncle Tony and Uncle Marty) and my brother-in-law J.J. could join Rick and me.
This recent trip wasn’t one of those times on the water where the bite was red hot all day long. We caught an early small blackfin and a couple of mahi on the troll, but then the bite on the troll shut down. When we started jigging, we were getting hook-ups, but we were also getting “sharked” before we could bring any of the fish boatside.
Then towards the mid-afternoon, the time of day when you have to start looking at the watch and calculating the time needed to run back in, we saw surface eruptions up ahead.
I think Rick hooked up on his first cast, and my popper got crushed on my second. There, in the bow of his 27’ Onslow Bay, with a meaty blackfin pulling drag, one that I had seen sky completely out of the water (and I would almost swear that fish looked me in the eye) to inhale a prototype popper that Rick is designing himself, I felt both rewarded for all the long hours this year and refueled for the next exciting chapter of my life.
The following hour or so was filled with the mayhem of gaffing fish, crossing lines, fish taking anglers for laps around the boat, topwater assaults in front and behind and beside us, and the hoots and hollers that follow a tuna crashing a popper on the surface in 200+’ of water.
The next day, as family and friends were eating fresh blackfin, I suggested that we name our third boy Rick Croson Hurley. My wife continued eating with a smile and suggested that we wait until the hospital to set on a name.
I hope you enjoy this issue, and I hope you are enjoying our warmer than usual water temperatures and early fish arrivals. Get out there and work on your own highlights reel, and, as always, please send us your photos so we can get you posted in the newspaper and share your experiences.
