5/10/11 New River Inlet

On Monday I got a text from a long time friend of mine Lisa Kelly , She asked me if I would be willing to take her son Tyler offshore fishing this week since he had a break from college and she wanted him to have a fun time doing something different that he is used to doing .
They met me at the dock at New River Marina at around 7:30 , we then go and make a quick look at the regular places for a few pogies and still they have not shown up ,,,, well loaded with cigar minnows , we head bounce off of the beach in hope of some anything ...... the Ab's & albies did not appear to be holding there . no birds in sight . fish the area for a while 0 notta .
so we head toward the beach still no birds & a east wind ..... well yano what they say ( when the wind is in the east fishing is the least) we pick up a few bluefish & spanish , and get this
8ft of water and we are catching 14 inch Black Sea Bass not 1 but we catch 8 on clark spoons ........... Well we fish the beach for a while hoping to find a kingfish on the beach still none to be found.
We turn the Back-Lash toward 355 and when we pull back the throttle we are met with the bouy 355 ........ 2 baits in the water and BAMMMMMM! the Penn 545 is screaming Tyler takes the rod and has a battle lasting about 30 minutes he puts about a 30 lb Reef Donkey to the boat ..... his biggest fish ever ..... after a quick pic or 2 we release the fish unharmed .
we have 1 more strike while at 355 ....... but we do catch 5 bsb again offshore and there has to be a closure of them ..
we decide to head back toward the beach and at the Battle Grounds the birds are working . out goes the clark spoons & zozuri's and nothing we can not keep up with those birds but we do mark fish at 30-40 ft ,
Back to the beach and we catch a few more blues & a spanish ,,,,and a Eris ,,,,, thanks to mr Blurfish with an attitude he slams a #6 vmc treble hook into my finger ... So that ends my day of fishing which was still an awesome day ...... thanks to my trusty rubber band I get the hook out and now I have a sore finger but no Dr's bill

OUCH!

can you describe how the rubber band trick works? That looks painful. OUCH is right!

had a #6 vmc hook buried in my finger so thought I would how to post how i removed it !



ouch

I took a heavy rubber band which is a good thing to have aboard a boat
Loop the rubber band in the bend of the hook , once you loop it a second person will apply tension to the rubber band ........ with the rubber band the tension remains , then the second person starts flicking the eye of the hook upwards , this acts like an old bumper jack the tension & flicking helps the hook back out without ( much) pain





it usually does not take many flicks to make the hook pop out . but be warned the hooks pops out under pressure and don't let it hit you in the eye

thanks Eris, hope I don't need that info.......AGAIN!

I'm sorry I read this just before going to bed because now I'm going to have nightmares. OUCH.

I use to always carry a rubber in my wallet...ooohhh you said rubber band...