Tidelines – November 12, 2015
If some is good, then more is better? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it? Late October is for grouper?
I’m not sure what idiom to apply (and I’m pretty sure that last one isn’t even an idiom), but on the last two Fridays in October, the Fisherman’s Post crew went on a couple of near identical grouper fishing trips that had us thinking it was de ja vu all over again.
Capt. Rod Bierstedt, of Onmyway Charters out of Carolina Beach, and Publisher Gary Hurley, with three gags caught on a Friday in late October. The gags bit cigar minnows and squid about 25 miles out of Carolina Beach Inlet.
Our hosts on these two Fridays were first Capt. Rod Bierstedt, of Onmyway Charters out of Carolina Beach, and second Capt. Lynn Perry, of Shearwater Charters out of Wrightsville Beach. And since I’m coming off a comparison unit in a writing class I teach at Cape Fear Community College, please allow me a little compare and contrast time with our two captains and our two fishing trips.
I’ll finish my article by making a claim—which was the better fishing trip and who was the better captain.
For comparison starters, both trips were threatened by weather up until the morning of the trip. With Rod we met and made the final call to go at a BP Station on Carolina Beach Road less than a mile from the turn to his community boat dock, and with Lynn we met at Seapath Marina and hemmed and hawed a bit on the fuel dock before ultimately heading out.
The Fisherman’s Post crew with three gags caught about 16 miles out of Masonboro Inlet on cigar minnows and squid. They were fishing on a late October Friday with Capt. Lynn Perry of Shearwater Charters out of Seapath Marina in Wrightsville Beach.
In regards to contrast, our weather with Rod turned out to be beautiful—small seas and little wind that laid down even more over the course of the morning. With Lynn? Bigger seas and heavier winds that seemed to pick up as we headed further offshore and the morning wore on.
With Rod we headed out of the sometimes sketchy Carolina Beach Inlet, zigzagging some breakers and moving around questionable buoy placements before hitting the deeper, calmer water. Lynn cruised in a straight line out of the well-defined Masonboro Inlet.
Rod took us 25+ miles out before we anchored on a large ledge with a good amount of relief, and the marks we saw on the scope had Max and I excited to get some squid and cigar minnows down on the bottom.
Lynn pulled back on the throttle at about the 16 mile mark—I don’t think he was dead set on this spot, but the wind and seas were telling us that 16 miles was plenty far enough that day. Neither Max nor I saw any marks on the machine, but Lynn said this was “a little scratch of hard bottom” and that he had almost always had success here, both bottom fishing and trolling for kings.
Rod’s spot first produced an assortment of bottom fish, from grunts to sea bass to American reds, along with a triggerfish the size of a hubcap. Lynn’s spot began with just grunts and sea bass. And while we would have liked to hook a trigger, I’m indifferent to American reds—cool to catch as they put up a strong fight, but heartbreaking to release.
On both trips, though, once the grouper bite turned on, we quickly limited out.
Rod took Max and me up on our invitation to fish with us, instead of sticking to his normal charter boat captain role of client support. And while Rod is an old hand at king mackerel fishing, on our Friday together he showed us that in addition to trolling a dead cigar minnow, he can also successfully drop one down to a gag. Rod landed our first grouper of the day, as well as our last grouper. His last grouper of the day was also our biggest of the day.
Lynn had rougher seas and one and a half more people to deal with (Joshua joined Max and me on Lynn’s trip), so even though Lynn was invited to fish with us, he decided it might be better to fish just a little and play support more. So no grouper for Lynn, but that just opened the door for me as I was the one to land both the first and the last gag grouper of the day, with the last fish also our biggest of the day.
So who was the better captain and which was the better fishing trip?
Come on. I’d sooner tell you which one of my own sons I love the most. I don’t mind offending my boys as it will be years before they take me grouper fishing; however, I’m hoping to go offshore again with both Rod and Lynn in the near future.
And I encourage everyone else to do the same. Give both a call (ad copy for both at the top of this page), go fishing with each of them, and then tell me which one you think was better. If you tell me, then I’ll tell you who’s my favorite son.
