Well the Mrs. always brings good luck, tho she generally gets too cold before she realizes what a mistake she made in booking a charter. This time we landed this nice stripe prior to the frozen look on her face.

Slow week as the captain recovers from 'bowl-icide'. Thanks to Jerome for giving the one handed capt. a 2nd hand to launch the boat. Here he is with a crappie that he was eager to eat, how'd it taste?? We picked up a small largie and had a run-off that was worth posting about, we'll get 'em next time...

A to the J and choprabx booked an early am charter in hopes to start the weekend off right. Each landed a nice largie, tho choprabx do lose his photo evidence, it was much larger than the big fella's, the capt. must attest, as he was responsible for not landing the photo.

Well even though your capt. has fallen overboard, he has not drowned, just hasn't caught much worth posting. Until Capt. Dad booked a few am charters. Now he may claim that he caught these fish, however there's 521 miles of shoreline on Lake Norman, and he indeed did catch em, but the capt. found them. This is the time of the year folks, when Mr. Osprey comes back, apparently so do the stripers. 3 keepers here and 1 pretty close to it. We thanked our photographer, Capt. Pedro with some fresh fillets.

The annual boat show is always a way to warm up the season on the lake. Lots of new fiberglass, however the capt. generally trolls around the great classics. Check this early model Chris Craft, just wondering where the pole holders are...

Nope, haven't been washed overboard, just haven't gone out much OR washed for that matter. Biz has been been slow on THIRTY SOMETHIN, the web traffic seems to be up, good to hear from the old salty mates from back in the day. Check out me little nephew Evan ready to brave the mess on Lake Garage.

Sorry folks no pics of fish from the lake or Topsail Beach. Been off the lake and in the shop the past week, weather has not been so inviting. Here's a couple of mods to 30 SOMETHIN. The pole holder was a must, keeps em outta the way and folds down to fit in the garage. The rear deck provides additional seats, storage and a platform to stand on to more easily fall out of the boat. Just need to rework the electrical and situate and lock down the batteries to complete the job.

SOLD! Sorry to see her go but CLOSENFF has a new home in Tennessee. Good luck to her new Capt., he was smiling ear to ear.

OK crew. CLOSENFF has been put up for auction, but unfortunately eBay has deemed my auction illegal. Well going to have to find a buyer the old fashion way. Anyone interested? It is listed here.
PLEASE feel free to direct someone to it, or call the Capt. directly. Commissions will be paid in '30 SOMETHIN' charter gift certificates.

Hey fishingstories has a new "Guestbook". Leave a message to book a charter, complain that the Capt. hasn't updated the blog or just say hello! Check it out -> Sign the Capt.'s guestbook. Drop a message anytime, the guestbook link is permanently located on the left side links. And remember keep it clean or you may be used as bait on your next charter!

Well a warm front moved in and really turned the bite off. Haven't seen or heard anything being caught, although Mr. Gus claims fishing is good, but his charter$ are for sale.

Since the capt. has caught nothing in '04 he is graciously displaying Mr. Chris's lunker, caught here sometime when it was warm, on half a bunker. Nice catch Chris and the fish thanks you for releasing him.

This snap was captured on new year's eve. The capt. hoped to end the season with a keeper but the only thing out there to keep was his sanity. A look at the sky and the water is really calming, especially on a empty charter and no bite.

Now that fish is really big, however Mr. Aaron is much much bigger. He nabbed this largie 5 mins. into the drift outta the hot water discharge of the nuke plant, if you look close you can see that the fish has 3 eyes, and they say it's safe.

Some folks say it's too cold to go fishing, it's not so bad once you break the icicles off your face. You also warm up considerably when you see a huge school of stripers and birds working together to gorge themselves on bait. In the beginning of the week Mr. Kev booked another charter and we successfully landed 4 fish in a striper feeding frenzy. The excitement was a bit overwhelming, in our haste to get more lines in the water, we lost a couple close to the boat. The birds were going nutz over the bait that the stripers had schooled up to the surface. Each cast yeilded a fish, all in the 20+ inch range. Unfortunately the trusty anti liar camera was not available this trip, only the story made it back to the dock.

This young pup caught late in the week was bitter sweet or sweet bitter, not long after the snap of the photo the capt. tried to start '30 SOMETHIN' and click, click. Yep the capt. found himself with a dead battery in the middle of the lake. He then smiled knowing that the wind was behind his back en route to a nearby dock, close to home port. Thanks to landlubber Bob who bailed the capt. out of trouble.

Well apparently some peeps actually read this rambling. The capt.'s family has digested the sweet meat from the monster caught in Sandy Hook however, the capt. himself still has the taste of the fight. He was reminded of the flavor upon landing this fiesty stripe. Not the size of his big cousin but the fight is certainly relative when using lighter tackle. There's Mr. Kev proudly displaying his catch. The catch also made it feel like 20 degrees warmer. Amazing even a snag on the bottom disguised as a bite sends warmth waves to the toes during these winter charters. Locals claim the bite is on, so far the claim holds true.