Going to see my boat.

R

randlemanboater

God
My buddy who retired in October has purchased a condo in Calabash (NC, you may have heard of their shrimp). He told me the other day that he had a load of furniture to take down.

Calabash is about a 25 minute car ride from Holden Beach where my lonely V-20 is waiting, longing for my return.

I told him that I needed to get down there and run my boat. He said he would enjoy a boat ride.

So this evening after I get off work, we are going to head down. We are comming back Monday night cause I have stuff to do Tuesday so it will be a short trip, but I am excited to go down, check on the boat, and maybe even sneak out and snag a few black bass if the weather is cooperative.

And if the weather is not condusive, I will install my new helm recliner and change the oil in the Johnzuki.

I'll take a camera.
 
Snowing here also! But all I have to do to look at my boat is open the window!

Have a good time!!
 
Driving time was 3.25 hours last time I went, but they have opened up another section of highway bypassing a 20 mile stretch of 2 lane with towns so I'm thinking less than 3 hrs now.

:sand:

They are working on another stretch of bypass that will be finished in the next 1 to 15 years that will make it almost all 65 mph 4 lane from me to my boat.

All that being said, it is a crime to be so far away from the boat, but I use it most at the beach so I leave it there to save on towing gas money.

I checked the forcast. Sunny and 53 with a north wind 10-15 in the afternoon. The beach runs east and west so it will be slick out 3-4 miles. I have some good spots for winter BB fishing in that range.:sun:
 
be carefull thru that stretch after you get off 140, they have been pulling a lot of people thru that area lately(most recently, my boss, last Thursday, pulling a boat down to teh Chas Boat Show). BTW, Randleman, did you ever know that it is required to have a class A in NC to tow if the total weight of the tow vehicle and trailer excede 10,000 lbs? At least thats what the Trooper told my boss as he wrote a $950 ticket. Seems like anyone pulling a decent size boat behind any new full size vehicle would be at fault, never mind the camper guys
 
I know yer already down there, but if ya pick this up...in Calabash, go eat at the Grapevine...it's right there at the red-light in Calabash and it's as good as food gets...excellent service, too:clap:
 
Well, it is amazing how just a few hours on your boat can make you feel so much better.

Billy picked me up at 7:30 pm on Sunday, he had the furniture in is pickup, it turned out to be just one piece of furniture, a huge armoire. I told Billy I had my new boat seat to take so we put it on top of the armoire and had it situated so that it would stay put, or so we thought.

After about a mile on the highway, the guy behind us started flashing his lights like crazy, we looked back and the seat was GONE!!!!!

Luckily it landed out of the highway so it didn't get hit, and I had repacked it like it came to me so it didn't get damaged. The rest on the ride down was uneventful although my neck got sore from constantly looking back to check on the seat.

We arrived in Calabash around 11pm. For the next hour and a half we carried in the armoire, did I mention it was HUGE!!!!! Billy's condo is on the second floor with narrow steps, but that part was not bad, it was getting it through the door that was the worst. But after removing doors and chair mouldings and much struggling, it was inside.

Monday morning we got up, grabbed a biscuit and drove up to HB. Picked up the boat from the storage place, filled it with gas and Stabil, pulled in the place and rinsed off the dust. Hooked up the water and turned the key, it started like I had just run it the day before, man I love that motor.

While I was messing, getting the electronics put on and such, Billy went to switching out my seat.......the holes didn't line up on the slider so I am going to have to make a bracket or get a new slider that fits, oh well.

So we threw in a couple of rods and some tackle and headed out. The water in the ICW was the clearest I have ever seen it, the tide was high but I could actually see the end of the boat ramp and further, it was as clear as glass. Usually you can't even see a foot down, but yesterday it was almost unlimited.

We rode out about 4 miles out of Shalotte inlet to a spot that always has black bass and others on it. On the depthfinder, they looked like carpet on the bottom, tons of them. But they would only bite short to start and then got complete lockjaw. But that didn't matter, I caught one so it wasn't a skunk, and Billy hooked something big and got to fight it for several minutes before it came off.

We packed up and rode down the beach to the other end of the beach and came back in the Lockwood Folly Inlet where the Corps of Engineers was dredgeing the channel. The seas were around 1-2 when we went out and had increased to 2-3 as we came in.

Came back in, took out the boat and washed off the salt, flushed the motor and put it away. We were back home by 8:45pm. The new section of road makes it a 3 hr ride now.

I have ONE pic, I'll post it up later.

It was a great trip and my terrible longing for the sea has been satisfied, at least for today.
 
spareparts said:
be carefull thru that stretch after you get off 140, they have been pulling a lot of people thru that area lately(most recently, my boss, last Thursday, pulling a boat down to teh Chas Boat Show). BTW, Randleman, did you ever know that it is required to have a class A in NC to tow if the total weight of the tow vehicle and trailer excede 10,000 lbs? At least thats what the Trooper told my boss as he wrote a $950 ticket. Seems like anyone pulling a decent size boat behind any new full size vehicle would be at fault, never mind the camper guys
Click to expand...


Your boss was apparently stopped by a Commercial Motorcarrier Enforcement Trooper.

And what the Trooper probably told you boss is that if the trailer you are towing has a GVWR of 10001 pounds and up, then you have to have a class A Commercial DL. It's not the total weight of both units.
 
Wow, that was a long post I wrote, for the short attention span crowd, here is a shorter version.

My boat ran great, the weather was cool but nice, my new boat seat didn't fit, yet. And I had an hour and a half rasslin match with a huge armoire.

And I enjoyed the heck out of my 25 hour trip to the coast.
 
reelapeelin said:
I know yer already down there, but if ya pick this up...in Calabash, go eat at the Grapevine...it's right there at the red-light in Calabash and it's as good as food gets...excellent service, too:clap:
Click to expand...

I will give it a try another time REEL. We only ate a biscuit in Calabash, a huge hamburger at Mankins Causway Cafe @ Holden Beach for lunch, and Taco Bell on the way home. I was going to go to the Seafood Barn for dinner and have an Oyster Roast but they were closed until February.
 
Excellent report RB. Glad you got your fix. Sounds like the weather was good. I bet that was a big red drum pulling on your buddies line.

While up at Va. Beach I saw a big load of BSB's come into the cleaning station. Most were around 3 lbs but there were a couple of 5 + lbers in there. Big red golfballs hanging out of their throats lol. The fishermen was a girl and guy. I think the girl was fishgrl from Tidalfish. Talked with her for a minute. She was pretty snobby acting IMO. Acted like she was the shizzle....I was not impressed. With her personality that is. The catch was pretty impressive!
Big FAT BSB fillets. :hide:

She said they went out 60 miles for em.

Blue
 
You are probably right about it being a Redfish. I thought it may be a shark when it took off at first but when he brought in the jig after it came off, there were no teeth marks in the body. I wish he haddn't lost it, but thats racing, I mean fishing.
 
So you like to jig the bottom fish as well. It beats having to bait that hook and alot more fun if you ask me! Although as you pointed out a shark will hit the jig just as readily as cut bait.
 
I have found that I end up catching more keepers and a lot less throw backs using jigs. I use a 3-4 ounce red head and a white body seems to do best. This is in shallow water, 40 feet or so. The deeper the heavier, up to 16 ounce for 120 feet. But if they won't bite jigs, I use Berkley Gulp cut bait (squid flavor), Uncle Josh pork rinds, or Fish Bites artificial blood worms, shrimp, and clam. I hardly ever use real bait anymore for bottom fish.

I tried all of those sure fire methods the other day to no avail.
 
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