5/22 - went offshore, started at Whitewater Reef. It was a bad start to the day, I hit 3 of my bait spots before going out, but my net was empty at each - no signs of bait at all. Granted it was high tide, which is never a great time to cast net for bait, but there should have been something. On the way past the beaches, I saw some birds hitting what was probably pogies, and I spent a few minutes trying to net them but they were really spread apart and I was unsuccessful. With the bait gone, I went out with 2 dozen live mud minnows, a small box of frozen squid, a chum block, and a half dozen rigged ballyhoo.

The first reef we stopped at was Whitewater Reef. It's pretty close to shore - 5 miles - but it is not the best. The weather reports claimed it was less than 5kts winds and flat seas, but that report turned out to be garbage and it was 10-15 kts winds and 1-2 foot swells real tight - I figured we'd drop the chum over a good spot at Whitewater and spend an hour or so and wait for the wind to die down.

Whitewater Reef is pretty cool, it's an artificial reef about 30 feet deep that is comprised of old NYC subway cars and Korea War era tanks and tracked vehicles, it's about 1/2 square mile with about a half-dozen piles of the vehicles. There is one spot that has always produced that I start at. Either way, after 30 minutes with the chum bag out, there was no action at the bottom. From the sonar, it looked like there was action mid-water column, which usually means kings, barracuda, or maybe bonito, and we could see birds hitting some boils. I switched to trolling, put the outriggers out, and trolled - squid on a squid rig on one outrigger, naked squid rig on the other, naked ballyhoo on a downrigger, and a green rapala on a flatline. After about an hour, not even a bite, and I was marking good action on the sonar.

The wind died down, and we pulled lines and made the 20 mile trek to the Betsy Ross. It was rough as shit, I was going 18-22 mph the whole time - if the weather report was correct, I usually go around 50 mph, which gets me there in no time, but it was a hour + journey with the boat slamming the whole time.

At the Betsy, there were about 8 boats already with lines on the bottom. It's cool going out there, as the curve of the Earth only allows you to see 2-3 miles ahead, and there is nothing but ocean the whole time you're underway, but then you get there and it can look like a boat parking lot.

I pull up to a spot just North of the wreck of the Betsy Ross, and there is another boat there, anchored up, and as I'm setting up I see him pull up a nice 4 foot cobia. That's why we came out there, so we drop lines and within 15 minutes hook up to something big. It gets to the boat, and holy shit it's a cobia, nice one, 3-4 feet. Well, net in hand, that fish saw me, and freaked out, his tail hit the line and broke it. I should have had my gaff, but I didn't expect so big of fish. Heartbroken. We stay out for a few hours, catching nothing but small shark.

I returned home, and in the Calibogue sound, dropped some lines for cobia in a hole that I know about. It was kind of in desperation, as you cobia are out of season in SC waters (you can catch them in federal waters i.e. 5 miles off). Again, nothing but shark. We got a bigger shark here, maybe 3 foot or so and it fought pretty hard, but not for keeping.

So, we pulled the boat at 4 pm, and I got home in time to take my daughter to soccer. No fish taken.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5532138&forum_id=2#47688177)