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Just looked at the swell forecast.........Thursday is blowing up to 22 knots at 2:00pm and callin' for 7-8 footer's! Gets better from that every day until Monday with 5-7 knots and 2-3 foot swells. Next week looks like a good week! Too bad I have to work!
Over half my trips to the Cape were cancelled last year for this very reason. July 4 I was sitting in the Sanitary with white caps in the channel behind me
The weather really has been much better this year as compared to last. In my opinion. I'm hoping it continues.
I've always found that looking at a Saturday seas report on a Tuesday only gives you a general indication of what might lie ahead. Latest inshore for the inshore waters off Atlantic beach for Saturday is a N wind 5-10 with 3s and 4s subsiding to 2s. This looks encouraging to me. Since I'm fishing a tournament this weekend, we'll go out in weather I would not normally try when fishing for "pleasure". Not unsafe seas, just uncomfortable.
The wind is the offshore fisherman's enemy, especially where we live. That's what makes it so hard to plan trips with guests. Most who are inexperienced think we can simply plan a "deep sea" (they tend to call it that) fishing trip for a certain day and it will be fine. I've found that the likelihood of a future planned fishing trip actually happening is about 25-30%. Guests almost have to be "on call". You know the scenario. Its Friday afternoon and you call your buddy and say "Its tomorrow of nothing, we gotta go". And...you still could be wrong. You sometimes have to give it a shot. The inlet usually tells you whether you'll be fishing or piddlin' on the boat that day.
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Spring Fever - 2007 Regulator 26FS
70 West Marina
Wilson / Atlantic Beach, NC
Seaclusion, good to see you, haven't seen you on in a while..........thought maybe you'd been fishing all this time. Hope this weekend is better than last. Just sent you an email.
I hate to drive 4-5 hours from Jamestown then get blown out! But, the forecasts don't often provide enough information for small boaters like me. The wave period is really important but that is not included in the forecasts.
The forecast does mention a SE swell, so I hope that accounts for the 3-4 footers and has has a long period!
If its blowing but not blowing really hard you can run thru middle marsh and between Shackelford and Harkers and go out Barden Inlet. If you stay inside the hook you are protected on all sides. I was down last Thursday and it was 15-20 out of the SW. I did cross the shoals and do some fishing on the East side. Caught fish but got wet. Then I trolled for Spanish inside the hook and picked up some nice ones along with some Blues. Just a suggestion.
How right you are. I seldom pay any attention to marine forecast more than 48 hours old. One thing that I really would like to see is a good map of the NC coast with isobars. I know I know, there are many out there but I have yet to see one specific to our coast. Last week the W-Man called for 10-15 MPH winds at the Cape and all day Friday and Saturday it must have been blowing 25 or more. White cap city in Back Sound. Dang cobia fishermen must have been hard core but it paid off as I heard of two over 65lbs being caught. I guess that's what sucks about being 4 hours away in Winston Salem. I've fished there since 1990 and I usually just plan and go. I try to take at least three days off in front of a weekend provided my work allows, or just plan my PTO around a weeks stay. If I lived closer( which I intend to some day ) that would be a matter of "if the wind aint blowing" head offshore and go. If anyone knows a decent coastal map with IR loops containing isobar info, let me know.
It was fun going over cause I had the wind at my back, full pond, just riding the waves across. I fished the beach up to the lighthouse and trolled around for a couple of hours. When I was crossing back the wind had picked up and the tide had dropped. I got soaked to the bone. Actually picked up a Hispanic Mackeral about halfway across on one of the handlines but I had to drag his butt the rest of the way because I was by myself.
One more thing. Maybe the wind isn't so bad. Let's say that we lived in an area that had variable winds of 5kts or less all the time. Seas were always 1-2 feet - even offshore. I'd go broke from gas, bait, and ice. Maybe the wait allows us to appreciate the great days that much more.
Shag--Did you use the Slot just off the point, or the Slough between the buoys?
No, I used the slough. I have run the slot many a time but last week it was awfully chopped up. Even the slough seems to be moving. It seems to curve south more than it used to. The bitch was that going over I could tell where it was because the waves were breaking on either side. Coming back I had to really pay attention as it was rough all the way across.
I have always had better luck fishing for Spanish on the shoals and on the east side. Its nice on a holiday weekend like the one coming up cause most of the "dingbatters" won't cross over.
If any of you guys want to catch Spanish and Blues and don't want to go out, they are all over the place inside the hook. Troll the dropoff and right on the point at the #4 bouy.
Morehead/Beaufort/offshore 
