Tidelines – August 4, 2011
I spent this past weekend pursuing the “high risk/high reward” tarpon that travel into NC waters to spawn in the summer, but unfortunately for me the high risk was much more dominant than the high reward.
I wasn’t alone, though. Of the 36 boats fishing in this year’s Oriental Rotary Tarpon Tournament, only six boats successfully released at least one tarpon over the two days of fishing.
Much of the dinner talk at Broad Street Grill just after the Captains’ Meeting was focused on the triple digit heat index predicted for Saturday, our first day of fishing. No one was excited about battling the sun the next day. They also weren’t particularly looking forward to the monotony of being anchored up, chumming, and soaking baits all day long.
However, after recognizing all the negatives associated with tarpon fishing in the Pamlico/Neuse area, most people also ended by smiling and saying that hooking a tarpon (or even just the chance of hooking one) was well worth all the pain and suffering. People who have battled the “silver king” understand, they say, and people who haven’t yet felt the fish’s power tend to be more skeptical.
I was the guest of Capt. Richard Andrews of Tar-Pam Guide Service out of Washington, NC, and he and I were joined by my friend Mark Johnson of NewBridge Bank. The three of us, as you can imagine, got to know each other better over the course of the weekend. If you spend a lot of time on the finite space of a 22’ Pathfinder, then the early talk of fishing ultimately fades away and is replaced by such topics as stories of youth, college exploits, the variety of entertainment available on the internet, and thoughts about the country clubs and vegans.
The long weekend also produced an appreciation for some of the subtleties of a fishing trip: enjoying a cool watermelon or cantaloupe, the shade of a sun umbrella mounted to a console rod holder when there’s no T-top or bimini, and the sight of blue crabs swimming by just under the water’s surface.
Traveling to fish, just like traveling anywhere to do just about anything, also means enjoying the local ambience. So when we got off the boat after a long, hot Saturday, our Pamlico Beach waterfront cottage—and its AC, fishing dock with loaded crab pots, and porch with a grill perfect for slow-cooking bratwurst—made it easy for us to focus on the good (we were lucky enough to free up our lives to spend a weekend on the water) and not focus on the bad (we traveled from the mouth of the Pungo River up past Bath in the Pamlico and didn’t spot even a single tarpon roll).
While the tarpon fishing was slow, I think each of us has already verbally committed to next year.
Elsewhere in the tournament world, the sailfish and king mackerel were anything but slow. The Eddy Haneman Sailfish Tournament out of Wrightsville Beach recorded a tournament-record number of sailfish releases, and the Raleigh Club’s KMT boasted a tournament winning 60+ lb. king and the top nine fish were all above 30 lbs.
The king mackerel bite in general this year has been practically non-existent, but in one weekend a leader board of quality fish can quickly change your perspective.
And that’s why I’m not yet done with tarpon fishing for the year. In a couple of weekends I’ll be spending some time near Cedar Island, and there’s a guy up there (a big, loud guy with a funny accent) that also enjoys the “high risk/high reward” of NC tarpon fishing.
My thought is that I’ve now paid some dues and am more deserving of a tarpon encounter. Still, I plan to bring a watermelon.
