Left the dock at 0530 headed out with the few boats in the fleet. Got about 20 miles out and noticed 2 charter boats had turned around and headed for home. Thought mabey they new something we didn't so we scanned the weather and everything seemed ok. 4 to 5 at 5 seconds with 10-15 knot winds. So we continue out, get the spread out and 15 minutes into the troll 3 lines go off. 2 go slack and we hook one up. Keith ( short comings) is on the rod and we put a #40 yellowfin in the box. Reset the lines and work that area for mabey 15 to 20 minutes before we move on. About 45 minutes later we see a huge group of birds working about 2 miles off the bow. We get near the birds and find a scattered weedline. Shot gun goes off and I get the rod nice 30lb bull jumps 4 ft in the air, while fighting the mahi we notice winds starting to pick up and the only charter boat out there contacts us and asks where we were headed. After a short conversation He strongly suggested we head in and he would wait for us. We get the mahi in the box and immediately clear the deck and start to motor in. We were 36 mile out, started back to the inlet at 1030, got the boat out of the water at 1530. And got our a$$es kicked they entire way in. Wind gusting to 25 knots and battling 10ft breakers the entire way in, oh and we were in a 24ft. walk around. It was a very slow process getting in and a hard one at that. Will post pictures soon.

Nice job on the YFT and Mahi... Glad you made it back. Huge kudo's on the Charter Captain who radioed you! That's awesome!

Glad to hear you are safe Astrobud. Yesterday the same thing happened out at the Big Rock off of Morehead City. The winds shifted suddenly and the seas went from 5 feet to 12 feet in less than a hour. I heard that two boats went down, a 33' and a 28' and several small boat crews abandoned their craft for the safety of bigger rigs. Needless to say the Coast Guard had a busy day, but thank God no lives were lost. The Charter boys saved some skins there too. I don't mind saying that it was a Charter captain that talked a young, cocky fisherman over the bar at Hatteras Inlet on the cusp of a hurricane years ago. My personal thanks to Captain Walt Spruill on the Hunter, formerly of Oden's Dock, now of Pirates Cove who refused to leave me to the whims of Mother Nature.

Wow....Bob

Glad to hear the charter boat was looking out after you and that you got home safe.

glad you made it back safe. The charter captain was a real stand up guy. What boat did he run?

just having someone in sight in those instances sure makes you feel better!!!!!!!!!the more we work togeather the farther we get!!!!!!!!!!!!!good job

that gives me the willies....I have been in some bad sh&t but never had to comprmise the boat...hopefully I will never see that day...

did the charter allow you to follow the whole way in?

Yeah the charter boat out there was great. He did'nt follow us in and actually hung out at the weed line for a while we saw him pass us about 3 miles to the north when we were about 9 miles from the Inlet but those were the roughest part of the ride I think those nine miles took us about 2 hours. It was rough and real scary but I have to say jimmey did a great job getting that boat in and all of us in safe. And I have to say I was impressed with the durability of that sea fox.