1st "headboat" trip,,,

woodmoose

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
thanks to btsharky I got a good deal on a trip on the Carolina Princess,,,,,wanted to go early but after grouper season opened up,,,,so I went this past Tuesday

out of dock at 0600 and back at 1702,,,,we went out farther than they normally do (per Captain) to see if we could do well,,,,3 1/2 hours out,,,,,

I had a great time,,,,even with 40 people fishing it wasn't "too" bad (some knuckleheads but overall fun),,,,,,

mostly triggerfish and vermillion snappers,,,

4rCeIBikjKEvsWpRZSZ-vX-IpDKac7M0z_MbfC41s4hcjAqXKqP_XvndojG6c79ckrw9V7LOk96gPQ=w293-h220



SJNCMcc66r9fYaecsKk0KBzGUmXVGhIU_306JPIh910P7etGka0koJF_br7qDPGfgEMEGK2HVQpWcQ=w293-h220


A_bR8UFp2R3AzvqPy3SSaa4ZVU9lfPPY60b_OmZI0bmSdVsRvxs7YTIfox_sLcP-6He0mWbUbMrdMg=w293-h220


big fish of the day was this 22 lb red grouper

zwyQfAhAX0Mp8BM6ryjKQrY4t6EjNURAjTIXLTlff0CMIffedhtADcy0Iwu4vQ6qaqBn7Rj4sWZ-Xw=w293-h220


V3qucZFizAXVtJazB80My6xeAJ4wirF0qQR3evA9rN-lJc7Jp7g1sZ_i8iWRA3r6eHBsd45_2NaY9w=w293-h220



seen a couple of amberjacks caught (live bait) and some American Red's (thrown back),,,,,

learned some things,,,,,need my own rod (the one I used was a beater!!),,,,bring some cigar minnows,,,,,,,

anyhow,,,thanks again btsharky,,,,I have one more pass to use!!! this may become a habit!!
 
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ibgreen

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
Hey Woodmoose! I am going out of Calabash on a 24hr trip the 20th. 2 day limits on those.
 

Mr.Gadget

Old Mossy Horns
Been on that boat several times.

Yep
need some own bait, good rod, good knife and plyers.

And if you want a spot at the back be there the night before.......
It is a fight with some but there are some really nice people.

When I showed up on my trips people and crew help carry cooler and gear.
Its a bitch to get a cooler up top on the cooler deck.
40 to 50 qt cooler with drinks, snacks and keeps all your stuff in one spot.

Little shoulder bag for tools and gear if you carry your own gear.


Wonder if they let braid line on the boat?
Most head boats will not.
Most will only let you carry one rod also.

Just asking to help anyone that wants to carry their own rod.
 

nchunt101

Ten Pointer
What type of rod would you suggest? It has been years so I wnet out on a head boat but I imagine something like a Tld 15 would work for a reel.
 

Mr.Gadget

Old Mossy Horns
I would take a 30 or 40 like the Saltist.
You will want 40 to 50# line just to turn them and keep from breaking off.
For a rod some of the newed 5 to 6 foot jigging rods will work great just no gimbal. If it has that you will want one of the padded covers for it.

When I was going most were using the standard boat rod and a 4/0 penn.
 

Wildlifer

Old Mossy Horns
for the price and durability look at a tiger lite rod and a penn 330 gti

Really depends on budget. We have a few of these combos for charter trips and they work great.
 
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hawkman

Eight Pointer
I went out of the one near Atlantic Beach. (Captain Stacy?). Same fish mostly. Saw mahi but none were caught.

Didn't know you could bring your own rod or bait. Is that allowed?

There was a "biggest fish of the day" bet/pool going on. My uncle won with a nice grouper he caught. However, the crew trolled lures the way home looking for Mahi or something.

I need to do this with my kids for sure.

I remember it being hot and I was almost seasick on the way home. I think I laid down in the engine room or some room that smelled like exhaust on the floor with my arm under my head.
 

nchunt101

Ten Pointer
Thanks for info. Will fresh menhadden/mullet work. From what I recall the bait on the boat was far from fresh ie rank and was some sort of frozen mackeral.
 

Wildlifer

Old Mossy Horns
Thanks for info. Will fresh menhadden/mullet work. From what I recall the bait on the boat was far from fresh ie rank and was some sort of frozen mackeral.

prob Boston mackerel or something. Bait would vary depending on what your targeting. Squid will catch pretty much everything especially all of the smaller reef complex species. You'll do better with grouper using whole baits of menhaden, cigar minnow, pinfish, or Boston mackerel. If you are using a double dropper rig try baiting the top hook with as much squid as you can and the bottom hook with a whole bait. Try to ignore all the pecking and wait for a good pull. You'll attract a lot of little fish with the squid and peak the groupers curiosity, he'll swim over and take the whole bait.

With any fresh bait or fresh frozen bait you have make sure to give it a good salt down on your ride out to toughen it up.
 

btsharky

Twelve Pointer
Wish I could have made that trip woodmoose but maybe next time. I never use the gear that they provide and don't buy cigar minnows either. I prefer live bait for the grouper. Caught an 18 pound scamp last summer on a live grunt and boy was he tasty!! Glad you had fun.
 

bryguy

Old Mossy Horns
Been fishing headboats up and down the coast all the way from the Florida keys all the way to hatteras. Couple of things I have noticed and that make a difference. Fresh bait is best. The fresher the better. I do not like to use boat squid. I always but the white squid that comes in the one pound or 5 pound boxes. The wings that the boats in morehead have gone to are horrible bait and the bee liners and triggers do not seem to bite it well at all. As far as grouper go, honestly the best bait you can use is a medium size lively pin fish. They will catch grouper better then anything else. Don't know why, but a live pinfish on the bottom is like crack for grouper.
As for braid, I don't know about the princess, but the Stacy will let you fish braid. Steve will bitch and moan about it but the Morris is fine with it. Anytime you guys want to try a little different trip, shoot me a pm and I'll be glad to go if you get a group together


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btsharky

Twelve Pointer
Princess has no problem with braid and has a much nicer crew in my opinion. Fished her today and caught about 75 fish (myself) of all kinds. All day was a good bite.
 

woodmoose

Administrator
Staff member
Contributor
Princess has no problem with braid and has a much nicer crew in my opinion. Fished her today and caught about 75 fish (myself) of all kinds. All day was a good bite.

Good deal

I need to hang out near you on a fishing trip!
 

ibgreen

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
Well I went out of Calabash on the Atlantic Star. It was the first 24hr trip they have ever done and for me it will be my last. The boat is of nice size and has great potential. The interior seating was horrible! They were metal plates that used carpet with vinyl as the padding. Luckily I was able to lay an old blanket on deck with my bag as a pillow and get some rest. The nighttime fishing lights did not work, the head mate was clearly a meth head and kept going into the engline room for a hit of something. Even if the boat was perfect, i will only in the future go on headboats from Carolina beach and north. To have a 24 hour trip and not one single grouper caught on a boat (plenty of b-liners and such) tells me that the spots we went to were worn slam out. It took us 5 hrs to get from Calabash to our first stop on the west side of FPT. Ended up giving all of my fish to an 80 year old man who was planning a church fish fry.
 

Redneck Rocker Dude

Old Mossy Horns
Well I went out of Calabash on the Atlantic Star. It was the first 24hr trip they have ever done and for me it will be my last. The boat is of nice size and has great potential. The interior seating was horrible! They were metal plates that used carpet with vinyl as the padding. Luckily I was able to lay an old blanket on deck with my bag as a pillow and get some rest. The nighttime fishing lights did not work, the head mate was clearly a meth head and kept going into the engline room for a hit of something. Even if the boat was perfect, i will only in the future go on headboats from Carolina beach and north. To have a 24 hour trip and not one single grouper caught on a boat (plenty of b-liners and such) tells me that the spots we went to were worn slam out. It took us 5 hrs to get from Calabash to our first stop on the west side of FPT. Ended up giving all of my fish to an 80 year old man who was planning a church fish fry.

We went out on the voyager 24 hour trip a year or 2 ago and it was awesome. We killed the fish from 2 am until we headed back to the dock at 4 pm.


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JONOV

Twelve Pointer
Thought I'd bump/hijack this a little bit.

Due to a death in my family, I had to cancel my bachelor party and the fishing trip we had planned with that.

So, with everyone together in town for the wedding, me and my groomsmen and a couple others took the Vonda Kay out of Wrightsville Beach out on Friday for a half day trip. There were 8 of us, total, and we caught some good fish. I think there were 24 total, so not bad for a short morning of fishing. When you do the 6 hour trip you spend as much time driving out there and relocating as you do fishing, it seems like, but the captain and mates worked hard and we had a great time. And caught fish. And they got me back in time for the rehearsal. I certainly think its a good value to get out and do some fishing you might not otherwise do.
 

MtnMan

Ten Pointer
thanks to btsharky I got a good deal on a trip on the Carolina Princess,,,,,wanted to go early but after grouper season opened up,,,,so I went this past Tuesday

out of dock at 0600 and back at 1702,,,,we went out farther than they normally do (per Captain) to see if we could do well,,,,3 1/2 hours out,,,,,

I had a great time,,,,even with 40 people fishing it wasn't "too" bad (some knuckleheads but overall fun),,,,,,

mostly triggerfish and vermillion snappers,,,

4rCeIBikjKEvsWpRZSZ-vX-IpDKac7M0z_MbfC41s4hcjAqXKqP_XvndojG6c79ckrw9V7LOk96gPQ=w293-h220



SJNCMcc66r9fYaecsKk0KBzGUmXVGhIU_306JPIh910P7etGka0koJF_br7qDPGfgEMEGK2HVQpWcQ=w293-h220


A_bR8UFp2R3AzvqPy3SSaa4ZVU9lfPPY60b_OmZI0bmSdVsRvxs7YTIfox_sLcP-6He0mWbUbMrdMg=w293-h220


big fish of the day was this 22 lb red grouper

zwyQfAhAX0Mp8BM6ryjKQrY4t6EjNURAjTIXLTlff0CMIffedhtADcy0Iwu4vQ6qaqBn7Rj4sWZ-Xw=w293-h220


V3qucZFizAXVtJazB80My6xeAJ4wirF0qQR3evA9rN-lJc7Jp7g1sZ_i8iWRA3r6eHBsd45_2NaY9w=w293-h220



seen a couple of amberjacks caught (live bait) and some American Red's (thrown back),,,,,

learned some things,,,,,need my own rod (the one I used was a beater!!),,,,bring some cigar minnows,,,,,,,

anyhow,,,thanks again btsharky,,,,I have one more pass to use!!! this may become a habit!!

That top pic is where I fished from this past Thursday. Full boat and a MAD HOUSE. 12 year old kid that fished on my left was a pure a hole. But hey his Grand Paw was a damn good teacher. Kid learned all he knew from him. We caught plenty of fish but had to throw most of them back. There was an older gentleman and his wife on board. They got sea sick and couldn't fish. When I found out their situation I told my friends about them and we gave all we were going to keep to them. They said they were gonna tell their grand kids they caught them all. LOL. I tried to pay for having the fish cleaned for them but they said they would take care of that. We took a pic of them holding "Their" catch and left them smiling and happy.
 

bshobbs

Old Mossy Horns
Catch a bunch of pinfish, groupers tear em up. Any thing like menhaden (pogy/bunker), finger mullet, spanish sardines and cigar minnows will work.

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