Fishing Report - January 28, 2006

Jan 28, 2006 6:45am - 2:30pm
Tide: High at 6:18 am; Low at 1:26 pm
Water Temp: 52 degrees
Air Temp: 27-63 degrees
Moon: New Moon
Location: AR362 & AR366
Pressure: 30.54
Wind: Calm
Sky: Sunny
Fish Caught: 30+ Black Sea Bass (kept 20); 5 Grouper (kept 2) 1 Tautog
Biggest: BSB - 14"; Grouper - 24"

Wow - What an awesome day for the end of January. While it started out cold (was 27 degrees at 6:30am when we left) it warmed up with lots of sunshine and almost no wind! Seas were mild at 1-2 feet with no chop in the AM and just a touch on the way back in in the afternoon.

Fishing was great too. We headed out to some of the ledges 4-5 miles off Topsail Inlet, didn't see much activity on the bottom so we headed out to the first set of Box cars (AR362). We caught a limit of Black Bass (20) in about an hour and a half then the sharks started biting. After the fourth one we decided to try AR366. We got there and fished a couple of spots before we hooked up with a grouper! We ended up catching 5 groupers but only 2 of them were legal size and those just barely. But hey, catching grouper on a medium action 7' rod with 10 pound test is FUN.

We caught a few more Black Bass (working on the second limit as there was two of us on the boat). Also the boat next to us caught a very nice size Silver Snapper.

Excellent January Fishing!