On Thursday my mechanic, Chris, calls and says he’s going striper fishing with his girlfriend. Since he’s borrowing my boat I decide to invite myself. I thought to myself, “This makes perfect sense. The family’s still on Christmas vacation, I haven’t done anything exciting, it’s cold out (the striper’s like it chilly), and just a few days prior I heard a report that the in-shore fishermen were maxing out”. How could this not be a raving success?
We launched around 11:00 which isn’t prime fishing time but it was very foggy by the Virginia Dare Bridge on the Croatan Sound. We felt our way to the bridge and started trolling. After about an hour we saw one other boat that was fishing who said they hadn’t had any luck. Another hour later we decided the Fish Gods were not smiling upon us but mocking us and we headed home.
I have two rules for successful fishing besides luck. The fish won’t bite when it’s super rough or when it’s super calm. Thursday was super calm. The sound was like glass and if you’ve spent any time around the Outer Banks you know that’s pretty rare. But if you haven’t been fishing in a long time and a window of opportunity opens, you’ve got to head out and try to make the best of it. That we did and we’re no worse off than before.
Happy New Year!
-John