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.

Capt. Ray has been providing the capt. with party boat fare for 30 somethin years, finally this capt. earns his keep with this pool winning striper. 20lb. class? CLOSENFF. I will certainly be thankful this turkeyday, for the sweet meat filets and most of all for Capt. Dad working out the detail$ over the trio of decades while providing top notch mate service with a grin and plenty of patience.

Well the capt. bags another nice largie, and Mr. Jeff missed the big one. First time I seen a striper jump, he hit it and it spit the hook right back. I guess I won't mention that he caught 2 catfish, I guess I just did, too bad bro, that erases your 10 point total from yesterday back to zippo!

The mojo continues, here Jeff in his last week prior to early graduation, nails the 1st striper on the new boat and then 5 mins. later pulls in a small largie. Bout time bro...

NICE BASS Michelle! Nice hair capt. Well folks the new vessel, dubbed 'THIRTY-SOMETHIN' apparently has the same if not more mojo thant CLOSENFF. These fish were taken on the maiden voyage. That's a real nice shot of the center console, I mean the sky...

Well if the capt. can't catch 'em he sure knows who can. Here's a fuzzy pic (sorry Billy I didnt want to run over the school) of Billy with a nice keeper in 4-5lb. range right at the dock around dusk. Who needs a stinkin boat!! Nice fish Billy...

OK folks, most of you already know the capt. is a little loony, but after much deliberation, calculation and begging it looks as though this is the new vessel, and that is final:

Port view Bow view Console view