Added on Tuesday, July 1, 2025  Fish Poster

Tidelines – July 2025

While I could have written this issue’s Tidelines column about successful topwater fishing for red drum with good friend Capt. Daniel Griffee, of On Deck Charters out of the Morehead City area, or with new friend Capt. Drew Tyndall, of Strike Charters who operates in the lower Cape Fear River, the history I have with Capt. Dave Gardner and the crew of the head boat Vonda Kay out of the Carolina Beach municipal docks is just too strong not to focus on a bottom fishing trip on the last Saturday in June.

When I’ve written in the past about Fish Post Day on the Vonda Kay trips, one of my goals has been to convey the sense of community that exists when you get to fish with 20 or so friends. This Saturday in June wasn’t a private Fish Post Day trip, so I didn’t start the morning with a boatload of friends onboard, but I did once again enjoy a sense of community that’s developed over the course of a full day of bringing up fish and filling the coolers.

My fishing buddy for the trip was Scott Wallen, and if any of you have ever weighed in a live red drum in one the Fisherman’s Post Inshore Challenge events, then that fish was likely released by Scott. However, Scott and I weren’t on the Vonda Kay with the mindset to release fish. We wanted a stringer of fish, hopefully one that included a grouper, so that we could go home with fresh fillets to share and enjoy.

Allison, the Galley Chef, gave the day a familiar start by cooking up breakfast sandwiches once we made it out through the inlet. 

Tim, the First Mate, gave the morning speech (lifejackets, rods in rod holders, no bananas, etc.) and moved around the boat making sure everyone had a rod and reel with a two-hook rig, a smaller bucket to hold their squid, and a bigger bucket to keep fish in before those fish made their way to the stringers.

Meanwhile Aaron, the newest mate, wrote down the names of those interested in the Big Fish Pot and helped keep the mood light by mixing up catch phrases for when it was time to drop (“it’s time to get up, go down, and get bent” and “whack ‘em and stack ‘em”).

Dave had already told me prior to that Saturday that cigar minnows had been out-fishing live pinfish on recent trips, so Scott had us armed with a box of cigars and some fresh local squid. For the cigar minnows, Tim suggested a standard one-hook bottom rig instead of a Carolina rig setup.

Our first stop was a fairly standard drop. Anglers from all corners of the boat began building up their stringers with catches of black sea bass, porgies, grunts, and beeliners, and the anglers working bigger baits brought up a handful of heartbreakers. 

Those that have been bottom fishing in recent years I’m sure can relate. The rod bends over hard, and you hope it’s a grouper on the end. You work to pull the hard-fighting fish away from the rocks, make steady progress up through the water column, try to ignore the tell-tale signs that you’re fighting an American red (the pulls are jerkier and the fish fights all the way up the water column), and then near the surface you see a reddish color.

I pulled up one of those heartbreakers, as well as a gag that measured short, but Scott and I also found some sea bass and porgies to start our stringer.

Most of the stops that day played out the same way, with releases of American reds and steady progress on stringers, but the beeliners became more active over the course of the day, as well as the bigger pinkies. 

The group fishing on this Saturday ranged everywhere from the experienced to the first-timers.

On the experienced side, for example, was Cameron. Cameron was on his second day in a row on the Vonda Kay. On the day before, he had fished live pinfish on a Carolina rig, but the current had been a little too strong (the egg weight was rolling around too much) so today he was fishing his live pinfish on a T-rig.

Cameron, like many of the head boat regulars, was happy to share information with those who asked. I learned from talking to him that he will catch live pinfish at the docks before getting onboard, but he’s discovered that pinfish don’t bite unless the sun is up at least a little. I also noticed that at each stop he first dropped a live pinfish, but then he would often transition over to a smaller-hook, two-hook setup. His theory, he was happy to explain when asked, was that if a big fish is in the area, then that big fish is going to bite in the first 15 minutes or so. If he hasn’t hooked a big fish or seen a big fish hooked in the first 15 minutes, then he switches over to the smaller outfit to build up his stringer.

An example on the novice side would be Morgan. This was Morgan’s first ever offshore fishing trip, and she started the day catching keeper black sea bass (often sea bass that were bigger than the ones her boyfriend Corey was bringing up) and also found porgies and grunts and beeliners. By any metric, her first day offshore was already a success, and then at our final stop, she brought up a banded rudderfish that would be the boat’s heaviest fish of the day and win the Big Fish Pot.

And there are plenty of others that added to the camaraderie and the shared experience of fishing together. 

To my right was Chris, a Wilmington-area doctor that fishes several head boats up and down the east coast, and to my left were the Craven AG Services guys that did good work on both the fish and the Modelos and Bud Lights.

Capt. Dave Gardner and the crew of the head boat Vonda Kay typically run full day trips on Thursdays and Saturdays and half day trips on Wednesday and Fridays. If you believe what I believe to be true—that fishing trips are about much more than just catching fish—then I suggest you grab a friend or two, pick a day, and head out on the Vonda Kay with what is sure to be a varied cast of anglers (some like you and some not like you) to share the day with. 

I’m confident you’ll leave the docks with new acquaintances, meat in the cooler, and stories to tell, and if you can beat Kerry in arm-wrestling, then I hear she will fillet your fish for free.