I was called by the boat club yesterday to cancel my reservation today due to the small craft advisory. Looking at the weather I probably would have canceled anyways with rain coming from 9:00am to 1:00pm, the cold temperature, 52 degrees, and the high winds 15-20kts. The weather tomorrow looks much worse with 20-25kt wind forecast and I think in the low 40s to start the day off. With that being said I will tell you about my trip with Darryl and his family back in July, when I put him on a permit. I hope you enjoy the tail.

On July 25, 2022, I had a great day on the water with my friend Darryl and his family. We arrived at the dock and started to head out about 7:00am. The forecast was a bit questionable, but we decided to make a run to the boils.

When we got out the inlet it was like a washing machine, but we were in the 24ft Cobia, so it was handling the ocean well. About 1 mile before we arrived at the boils it decided to rain on us even though we didn’t appear to have any clouds overhead. It stopped raining just as we arrived to where we were fishing.

I set Darryl up with a Runcl 30G jig tipped with shrimp and then I set myself up. While I was baiting my hook Darryl missed a bite. We got him baited up and as he was letting the jig down, he hooked up. He fought the fish for a few minutes and got it to the boat. We were both happy as it was a nice permit.

We continued our north drift about 100 yards past the boils before we moved to the south end of the boils to start drifting again. On the second drift I hooked up with a 3ft spinner shark. As I was trying to get my jig back my line broke. I lost my jig, but I did keep all my fingers.

On our third drift I hooked up with a nice fish. I fought it for over 3 minutes and right before it broke my off it showed itself. It ended up being a nice permit and it broke me off by making a run towards the boat and then turning away quickly. I couldn’t wind fast enough to keep the slack out of the line, so when it turned and pulled the line tight and snapped it.

As we started our fourth drift Darryl’s wife, Amy wasn’t feeling well due to the waves. We said we would finish the drift. Riley ended up catching a Blue Runner. As I was getting the fish off the line, I realized Amy wasn’t doing so well due to the rough conditions.

At this point we made the decision to head back in. Once we got moving again Amy felt much better. We hit the inlet about 10am and since Amy was doing better, we did a drift along the north rocks in the inlet. We had a lot of bites, but the only fish caught was by Riley and was a small Black Margate.

One drift was enough as it was pretty sloppy in the inlet with the winds and the swells. We made it back to the dock about 11:00am with one permit. All in all, it was a great day. I was happy to put my friends on some good fish.

Tania and I pray all who dare to go out this weekend have a safe and blessed trip. May you all have tight lines and good times!