Took a ride to Hatteras Saturday with Mike and Art. Met Art and Mike at the park and ride at about 3:00 am for the roll to Hatteras. Got to Teach's Lair about 5:45 and we were on the water by 6:30 (Sidenote: If you go this early bring your own beer, you cannot buy beer in North Carolina till 7:00 am). Ran out of the inlet and out to the Rock. We had a pretty nasty looking storm front between us and the Rock, but no lightning could be seen so we kept on going. We arrive at the Rock, see a few boats trolling but no weed lines. We start heading to the tower with hopes that we will see a line. About half to the tower, jackpot, a nice weedline that ran a couple of miles. We deploy the hookless squid bars and bowling pin and start trolling down the weedline. About 15 minutes into trolling some chicken mahi come out and Art makes a cast with a popper, the fish comes off the squid bars and at the popper, Art hooks up and he comes unbuttoned.  He makes a couple more casts, but no love. I am up next, Mike is driving, Art is on lookout. We continue down the weedline, all of the sudden Art is yelling one, no two, no three, four, five mahi behind the squid bar. I make a couple of casts and hook into a chicken mahi, Mike cuts the engine, Art reels up the squid bars and then Art makes a cast with his popper while I keep my fish at the back of the boat. Art hooks up and I bring mine in and then Mike hooks up on a popper. We continue this for quite some time, catching Mahi after Mahi, we caught atleast 30 and kept 17. We had a few triples to keep things interesting. We left them biting to goto the tower and see if we could find some bigger fish. We get to the tower and pull up to the first leg, Art and I see this barracuda that was atleast 4 foot and wide. We decide to dredge flies along the tower. Factoring in current and wind, we set up our drift and start dredging. As we are coming off the back corner of the tower, my line comes tight. I give him a couple of good sets and start to put the heat on him. The fish feels alright, but not huge. As I get him near the back of the boat, I realize it is a small cuda, I am totally stoked. I look down and there are three or four sharks and a cobia very excited. Mike and Art try to get them to eat, but they wanted that small cuda. I land the cuda and we decide to try and chum up that corner of the tower. We tie off to the front leg and drop the bag. First fish to come in is the big cuda, he just kind of glides in checks things out and then leaves. As I am stripping my fly into the boat a very nice 6+ ft sharks comes in at the fly and then decides to just leave me shaking at the back of the boat. Drop the fly back again and hook up on a little 2 ft shark. We ride the bag until about 2:30 and then decide to go chum AR220. We start our trip back towards the inlet, check out a bouy right off of Diamond Shoals Light that had some AJ's on it last year and then we head to AR220. We found the bouy for the wreck, but could never find the structure.  By this time it was about 3:30, we decided to call it day. We got back to Teach's Lair, cleaned the boat up (bring your own hose) and then rolled back. All I can say is, I can't wait to get back down there, what an awesome trip with a couple of great friends.

Mike's Mahi

My Mahi with the bowling pin

Bloody Decks

Mr. Cuda