Pacemaker Fishing Forum

....compared to my Friday Broad River (Beaufort SC) trip.

Except that Greg and Chris caught fish!!

Maynard and I had about a 5 hour window between meetings and dinner today....so we took advantage of it.

We met Capt. Mark Nutting at the ramp at 1:15p. Originally, we were to go out with Capt. Scott Wagner but his FIL was very ill so we switched up. I had known of Capt. Scott from fishing the Outer Banks with Capt. Donnie Davis, who is his friend. There is always a connection....

The forecast was for sunny skies and windy weather, it was to blow 12-20 out of the north. But as usual, the weatherman was wrong. It blew from the SE and the only time we saw 12 was when we were in a sheltered cove.

Can you spell G A L E?

We got to his honey hole and you had to cast 90 degrees to land in the target zone.



After an hour of trying, we moved in to a creek to see if we could see any tailing reds.



We did not. At 4pm, Mark said we should call it a day and that he would only charge for a 1/4 day. We tried hard but the winds, tide etc was too much. We were defeated. So we thought.

As we made our way back, the winds intensified and we were taking on lots of water. Mark has a great boat, a 15' Kevlar hulled Maverick.



No slap in 2-3' chop (in 3' of water). It was a brutal ride home. Mark and I were soaked. Maynard was smart and he had a GoreTex jacket which kept his upper body dry.

This was an intense ride back and Mark showed some great skill but that little boat was not made for those conditions.

As we neared the ramp, the wind now came out of the NW and was blowing an already low tide out to sea. We literally grounded the boat as there was no water. The waves were making it tough to control so Maynard and I went into the river to walk out. No problem as it was shin deep. This way, Mark could walk the boat in without the excess weight.

As we were walking, Maynard yells and I look back. I thought he tripped but he got sucked in the mud. He was stuck. And then I became stuck. Now we are in trouble. I told him to crawl out and he did that for 25 yards. I was finally able to stand and get to shore where some guys had come down to assist. One of them helped Maynard get up to the ramp and the other 2 helped Mark get his boat in. Team effort.

I was soaking wet from the ride and muddy from the soft bottom. Man that stuff stinks.

Mark came back and was really upset at what happened and told us not to pay him. I told him that I appreciated the offer but if we didn't give him something, the trip didn't happen. This one will go down in the books as the hairiest experience of my fishing career. It even topped Destruction Saturday in the Outer Banks in 2001.

You can never take things for granted and you should never, ever believe the weather people. They suck!

So we just got back from a great seafood dinner and it was hard explaining to folks what happened. We are calling it "another adventure". Everyone is safe, Capt. Mark has a bruised ego and I would do it again tomorrow...without the wind, of course.