Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Fishing with Capt. Tom

George,

We had a great time.  The albies were hard to find but Tom found enough of them for us all to catch at least one and my oldest, Reid, caught one on the fly.....mission accomplished.  We moved into the inlet and caught trout at the end of Shackleford Banks.  We put a few in the cooler for dinner and released the rest.  After we had had enough of that, we headed back out to look for albies again and went to the hook.  Nothing happening there.  Went across the shoals to the east side and stopped a couple of places and could have caught all the blue fish we wanted.  Rods bent again.  James, my 16 year old, hooked a pretty good sized shark and got him to the surface.  Pretty cool stuff.  We headed back towards the hook and Beaufort inlet looking for birds and busting albies and just did not see anything happening.  The crew had enough wind, fish and, fun and we were done.

Tom was a terrific guide.  He kept us busy with bent rods and never made any of us novices seem stupid about what we were doing.  Always very positive coaching my boys and helping them and me be better fisherman.  He was great to be around.  Reid and he talked a lot about fly fishing and Colorado which is where Reid is in school.  I asked the boys after the trip and they said that they really liked being on the boat with Tom.

Tom cleaned our trout at the end of the day and we departed.  Beautiful day, bent rods, accomplished our mission of catching one on the fly and I got to spend time with my two sons and an appreciative guide who made us feel as welcome as anyone could.  Great trip!!

Tom has my recommendation.

Walter