New river Last saturday

Took my boys and my ole fishin buddy Merwin out to see what we could do with a little time off. We launched at Miles Hammock Bay, headed toward the bridge and found a nice school of shad, pitched the net and she floated, more than enough. Kept about 50 and let the rest go. We head out the inlet to find it a little sloppy, but manage to make our way out. I wanted to head offshore to try to find the fish in the deeper water but we pulled the throttle off around the 15 mile mark. Had a little bait on the live bottom with one boat bottom fishing. We deploy four lines on top with one down. Went back and forth, round and round with out a strike. I have another small ledge a mile to the west so with a following sea we ease that way. Just as we approach the mark, left long screams, fish on. I pull the rod down and feels like a good fish on a long run. I hand the rod to Merwin and let him have the honors. I turn a little towards the fish and the right short screams, I pick it up only to have the fish run at the boat, reel reel reel, the line comes tight and she screams away, all of a sudden shecomes back to the boat, same thing, reeeeel, well that happen three or four times. At this point I am thinking this fish has experience. Well, she finally decides to make a real run and strips about two hundred yards of line, the I think nice fish. In the mean time my oldest boy who is six is putting on his fighting belt saying I want to catch a fish, so I have him sit on a cooler on the bow and instruct him to keep the line tight, reel down and pull up, so he goes at it. I clear all the other lines and pull up the down rigger. Both fish at this time are out in the same general direction so I turn to them making ground slowly all the while my boy and Merwin regain fishing line. Once we get close, both fish go deep, now I think reef donkey. I go to the front to assist my son and Merwin is working on his and he shouts, what kind of fish is that, and deep down you see a dark back, so I tell him, I think its a cobia, then she rolled on her side and all you see is silver, no sir, nice king. So he works he up and I slide the gaff in her right in the shoulders and over the gunwhale she comes, WOW! Nice fish and high fives, we guess upper twenties, lower thirties. In the box she goes. Now back to my boy, he is still working, inching closer, so I tighten the drag just a touch so he can get a little more for his money. The fish was strong, you would get a few feet and she would take a hundred. Finally the fish gets vertical with us so I take over and start to bring her up, when we seen color, we all gasped, nice fish. Merwin tells me, you better gaff this one so we trade rod for gaff and I finally get the gaff sunk center mass. We pull her up and over and wow what a fish. My sons true first king, we guess 45 lbs. After this we were wrapped up with boats all over us so we ease out and troll for a little more. No luck, called it quits and headed for the hill. Back at the docks we had the fish weighed, my sons was 43 lbs and Merwins was 30 lbs. Great day enjoying fishing, friends and family.

Way to go young man. Two really nice fish there. I sure hope you got some pics of that 43 lber with your son. Memories you and he will carry for a life time. I'm sure he's "hooked",so take him as often as you can.

Niceeeeeee no w the 6 year old is ruint for life

You have no idea. He has already killed two bucks, has two citations for tuna, a 8lb bass on the wall and a turkey at the taxidermist with a 9 1/2 inch beard with 1 1/2 spurs. Little brother is not dar behind. Both of these youngsters have it in their blood.
Buff

U WOULDNT WANNA TELL ME WHERE U WERE WOULD U?HAHA

now thems some nice kings for anybody, ESPECIALLY young future captains.... outstanding.........

very nice report, thanks for sharing. Congrats to all on some great catching!

Great report. Congratulations!!