As we slowed the natural fly to a stop Capt. Chaos (aka.Kary Via) rang out, “Drop the lines!” So following the captain’s wishes, I dropped the deep diving yozuri plug to the blob of blues filling up the sonars screen. WHAT! That is a sick dream! The day I drop a yozuri plug or some other kind of artificial plug or bait in the water, please launch a Big half and half square to my temple. I would rather go home empty then resort to the “other” kind of fishing, which brings me to this fish tale from a trip a couple weeks ago. Friday afternoon Kary and I left work early for a little run to Beaufort, North Carolina for a shot at some bonito. We put in and made the long run to AR 285. A local guide, Capt. Tom Roller with WaterDog Guide Service had spoken earlier with Kary on the phone. He was out at the wreck indicating good catches of bonito and a ton of bluefish. The wind was out of the NW and pushing us pretty good across the bottoms structure. We came across some areas where the sonar screen was full, I mean full of bluefish. We were dredging 350 and 450 grain lines respectively. The problem was, the swift breeze had us moving so quickly that the sinking lines were planning out behind the boat without getting down to the fish, some 30 ft deep. We ended up catching a few blues, but nothing like what it could have been if the wind would have cooperated. A few hours later the birds began to show up and work on the bait that the blues were pushing up. We trolled around hitting these little pop ups when back behind us Kary saw a big signature bust indicating bonito. But as soon as they were up they were down. Waiting for the next rise, they picked up just north of us. Easing the Natural Fly into position a bust happened 20 feet from us. I made a cast stripping it hard back to the boat. Right when I was picking up for another cast a nice bonito struck the fly just as I pulled it away from him. Kary didn’t see the fish but did see the huge boil under the surface. My next cast I hooked up with a pissed off bluefish. I brought him in the boat to take a quick pic when he decided to flop around my line laying in the boat turning it into a complete tangled mess. I was so fricking mad. I took my pic, released the fish and then spent the next 10 minutes untangling my line. Let’s pause here for a minute. This is that time in a trip, picture it. Fish breaking everywhere, complete chaos in the water all around and you don’t have the time to even enjoy it. Hook ups or not. Kary screwed up his shots as well, just before they disappeared…again. We talked in disgust amongst ourselves when we saw a mess of birds working far off in the distance. We ran over in time to see a nice school of false albacore absolutely crushing a big bait ball. We are talking 10 to 12 fish at a time slicing thru the bait ball. Sweet! Here is the shot….right? I was soon to discover that this comedy of errors was not over yet. My first cast was right in the brawl. My first cast was also right on top of a bird, whichnow was wrapped up in my leader. Now I’m really pissed. I brought in the bird, saw that the tippet was really tangled around its wing. I cut the fly off, untangled the stinkin’ bird as it tried to poke me. Now I’ve got a fly-less rod and albies everywhere. What luck. Kary grabbed my rod and handed me another. In the game, right? Thinking these fish were going to stay up on the bait, I made cast after cast with it never going tight. And then like that, they were gone. The day could have brought a spring slam. A bluefish, bonito and an albacore. Had shots at all three in an hours time. Coulda, woulda, didn’t. But you can imagine how sweet it could have been. The next morning was really slow. It brought rolling seas and even more wind. We ended up striking out. The fish were deep and our lines could not get to them. Capt. Roller was out there again doing pretty well trolling around the wrecks. Just about every pass brought a hook up. We tucked our tails between our legs and called it a day. This is that time I should talk about how disspite going fishless it was a beautiful day…blah-blah-blah..right? Well, not me. I go to catch fish, and when I don’t, I get pissed. If I wanted to enjoy the scenery, I would have left my rods at home. Good news though. The fish are here and showing up more and more everyday. A few more weeks of warm weather and it will be dynomite! Lets end this with a little prayer from my friend…Ricky Bobby.” Dear baby jesus, let your mother nature bring warm weather to your coast land and with it water temps ranging from 60 to 70 degrees. Dear bundled up jesus laying in your mother marys arms, let the bonito run little helpless bait fish to the surface in a brillant explosion of fish scales. Dear little 5 lb 4 oz jesus, please let those lovely albacore and bonito eat my fly when I try to decieve them into a tight line. Dear little, cute, cuddley baby jesus, please let my boss know and understand why I am missing work during the middle of the week to chase fish on the coast of North Carolina and elsewhere. And that I do like my job and am worth keeping. Thank you baby jesus. Amen”