Nickajack Angler
Well-known member
Nickajack Angler, Topsail Island, NC Day 4, Blk bass, mullet, Puffer fish, flounder, 11/5/08, Dad
The weather has still not cleared as we want.... awoke to no rain, but it sure threatened it all day. Gloomy and very windy for the first 3rd of the day. Then in the afternoon, a couple of long lines of VERY dark clouds threatened, but just blew out to see. We got a solid 45 min of full sun and it was awesome. Gusts of 15mph+ and the old faithful dock in the ICW just didn't pay off on the speckled trout, black bass, flounder and blues that we are used to catching there. I did manage to catch one small black bass on a mackeral colored Gulp Pogy on a 1/4 oz redheaded jig. My go to bait this trip. The other four guys got notta. The wind and waves whipped the water and discolored it so that I just don't think we would have done much good. So, by 10am we were on to plan "B" and hit the surf for what we thought would be a solid day of surf fishing. When we drove the one block to the beach from the dock, Dad got out and noticed the new 7ft, one piece rod he bought me on the first day here had been closed in his door!!!!! Being that FA was no where to be found, I felt myself fortunate to have a tip kit in the bag and went over to the house to put on a new tip. Luckily it only snipped about two inches off the sucker. I hate it when that happens.
Yesterday the big reds and black drum we caught and saw caught were in the surf and reports are they are thick all along the coast. We caught a nice 5 gal bucket of mullet minnows out of the creek and canals. Only four casts to fill it. They were a little too large, being that we like the 4 to 6 inch variety, but all we could muster were 8 to 10 inch ones. They had been hammered too. Bitten off tails and some of the larger ones had perfect bites out of their sides, but were still lively. I imagine they had a harrowing journey back to the ICW to get by the mackeral and blues that are out just past the surf. The surf provided just nibbles and stolen bait. Rip tides were too strong and just nothing caught. So Dad and I bailed on the others and took off to one of our favorite past times. Pier fishing. If you've never been to the coast and sat on a pier to see the cast of characters that assemble each day, then you are missing out on one of the most hilarious adventures I can imagine. Since a boy, I can remember seeing some of the most colorful characters on the planet there. People of all nationalities, colors, polictical views, regions of the US and demograpics are represented. Today was no different. My cheeks are still burning from smiling and laughing so hard. My Dad is one of the funniest of all. I guess when you retire, you have the right to be cheap, crabby, and just down right funny. He cracks me up so bad.... We sat on a bench about a 1/3 of the way down and set up shop. We had bought a lb of shrimp for bait and set up double rigs on 4 oz triangle sinkers. Using 12 and 15 lb line on 7 ft spinning rods. People were catching fish of all varieties. But what I pulled up first was a pretty little flounder and immediately people swarmed the little peice of real estate we had staked our claim to. Dad looked around and pronounced "IT WAS ONLY 10 inches!!!! THOSE AREN'T LEGAL!!!!" They felt the vibe and slowly retreated back to their spots. One of the greatest things about peir fishing is that you NEVER know what you are going to catch. That's part of the beauty of fishing the ocean. Anything can bite. The next fish I caught was something I never in a million years expected to see here, much less catch. A dang Puffer fish!!! Not just one, I caught over 60 of these things today. They love shrimp and everyone down the pier was catching them. Immediately, just as you might encounter below Chick Dam, "You gonna keep that!?!?!?!" I know they are poisonous and NO WAY am I going to clean a fish that little, and surely not one that can kill me! But sure as you might imagine, a man appeared at my side and said "Man, if those fish were poisonous, I'd be long dead... hand it to me!" So, that's where it started.... he was in my hip pocket for the next four hours. We apparently picked the right spot, for every cast for the next four hours, we caught a fish. We couldn't even take a sip of our drinks, go to the bathroom, or eat the Baby Ruth candy bars Dad brought for us. I fished two rods for the first hour and then just gave up on even trying to keep up. If you grabbed the one on the left to set the hook, the one on the right started to bounce wildly. Then the humor took off and didn't stop. There were two Asian men next to us, and they didn't want the other guy who got the Puffers from us getting any of the small spots, mullet and black drum. This guy would just APPEAR behind you, you couldn't hear him coming due to the brisk breeze blowing in your ears. Just as you reeled up the fish to the top rail, he would reach over and in a broken accent, "Here, let me get that for you!" And reach over and take the fish off your hook. Dad asked him a number of times if he was going to bait his hook since he was being provided with fish! Then when we ran out of shrimp for bait, Dad told me we were going to start charging him a shrimp for every two fish we gave him. We must have filled up two 60+ qt coolers with fish for these two guys. And all small.... We caught about 10 reds that were smaller than the slot. Many black drum, but much smaller than the ones running yesterday. Dozens of mullet, the largest about 18 inches. And I stopped counting the Puffer fish at 60 each for Dad and I!!!!! They were really, really cool. Later, the fishing guide we went to meet at a local eatery, told us they are one of the best eating fish there is, BUT you must know how to clean them. One drip of their "gall bladder" and they will poison you. I said I didn't know how to clean 'em and wasn't looking to learn. He looked at me and said "You think I clean those things!!?!?!? NO WAY! But they are dang good to eat!" I took a few pics of them blown up and in the light to see the colors. Love the beauty of the fish in the sea. So, enjoy the pics. I love being with my Dad. He is so funny and we had a blast today. After the four hours out, we came back and Ronald had cooked up some October beans (just like Pintos), mashed potato's, and country fried steak with country gravy. MAN! I ate like it was Thanksgiving! After dinner we went back and fished for three more hours and caught the exact same thing. No pics tonight though, I forgot the camera attached to the computer. I would have liked to have gotten a picture of the guy to our left who kept letting his lighted bobber float over us and catch our lines while floating a LARGE live shrimp for Reds. When he finally caught a 5lb'er, he reeled it up only to find his line in the biggest rats nest ever. True justice does come in every now and then. I thought I was going to have to cut his line.... and had to stop Dad from doing so a couple of times!!! emoEnforce We didn't catch any whoppers today. But it was one of the best days fishing I've had with my Dad in years. We had a blast. The guy who wanted to charge us $400 to run out 2 hrs to the gulf stream in his 29 ft, 2 - 150hp outboards for grouper, tuna and mahi, stopped by on his walk out the pier. We talked a while and he asked if we were going to be here on Saturday. I said yes, and he invited us to go out with him and his buddy. I'm PSCYHED!!!!!
I miss Mary and the boys. Wish they all were here. They would have so much enjoyed today. I can see both of the boys faces catching PUFFER fish!!!!!
The weather has still not cleared as we want.... awoke to no rain, but it sure threatened it all day. Gloomy and very windy for the first 3rd of the day. Then in the afternoon, a couple of long lines of VERY dark clouds threatened, but just blew out to see. We got a solid 45 min of full sun and it was awesome. Gusts of 15mph+ and the old faithful dock in the ICW just didn't pay off on the speckled trout, black bass, flounder and blues that we are used to catching there. I did manage to catch one small black bass on a mackeral colored Gulp Pogy on a 1/4 oz redheaded jig. My go to bait this trip. The other four guys got notta. The wind and waves whipped the water and discolored it so that I just don't think we would have done much good. So, by 10am we were on to plan "B" and hit the surf for what we thought would be a solid day of surf fishing. When we drove the one block to the beach from the dock, Dad got out and noticed the new 7ft, one piece rod he bought me on the first day here had been closed in his door!!!!! Being that FA was no where to be found, I felt myself fortunate to have a tip kit in the bag and went over to the house to put on a new tip. Luckily it only snipped about two inches off the sucker. I hate it when that happens.
Yesterday the big reds and black drum we caught and saw caught were in the surf and reports are they are thick all along the coast. We caught a nice 5 gal bucket of mullet minnows out of the creek and canals. Only four casts to fill it. They were a little too large, being that we like the 4 to 6 inch variety, but all we could muster were 8 to 10 inch ones. They had been hammered too. Bitten off tails and some of the larger ones had perfect bites out of their sides, but were still lively. I imagine they had a harrowing journey back to the ICW to get by the mackeral and blues that are out just past the surf. The surf provided just nibbles and stolen bait. Rip tides were too strong and just nothing caught. So Dad and I bailed on the others and took off to one of our favorite past times. Pier fishing. If you've never been to the coast and sat on a pier to see the cast of characters that assemble each day, then you are missing out on one of the most hilarious adventures I can imagine. Since a boy, I can remember seeing some of the most colorful characters on the planet there. People of all nationalities, colors, polictical views, regions of the US and demograpics are represented. Today was no different. My cheeks are still burning from smiling and laughing so hard. My Dad is one of the funniest of all. I guess when you retire, you have the right to be cheap, crabby, and just down right funny. He cracks me up so bad.... We sat on a bench about a 1/3 of the way down and set up shop. We had bought a lb of shrimp for bait and set up double rigs on 4 oz triangle sinkers. Using 12 and 15 lb line on 7 ft spinning rods. People were catching fish of all varieties. But what I pulled up first was a pretty little flounder and immediately people swarmed the little peice of real estate we had staked our claim to. Dad looked around and pronounced "IT WAS ONLY 10 inches!!!! THOSE AREN'T LEGAL!!!!" They felt the vibe and slowly retreated back to their spots. One of the greatest things about peir fishing is that you NEVER know what you are going to catch. That's part of the beauty of fishing the ocean. Anything can bite. The next fish I caught was something I never in a million years expected to see here, much less catch. A dang Puffer fish!!! Not just one, I caught over 60 of these things today. They love shrimp and everyone down the pier was catching them. Immediately, just as you might encounter below Chick Dam, "You gonna keep that!?!?!?!" I know they are poisonous and NO WAY am I going to clean a fish that little, and surely not one that can kill me! But sure as you might imagine, a man appeared at my side and said "Man, if those fish were poisonous, I'd be long dead... hand it to me!" So, that's where it started.... he was in my hip pocket for the next four hours. We apparently picked the right spot, for every cast for the next four hours, we caught a fish. We couldn't even take a sip of our drinks, go to the bathroom, or eat the Baby Ruth candy bars Dad brought for us. I fished two rods for the first hour and then just gave up on even trying to keep up. If you grabbed the one on the left to set the hook, the one on the right started to bounce wildly. Then the humor took off and didn't stop. There were two Asian men next to us, and they didn't want the other guy who got the Puffers from us getting any of the small spots, mullet and black drum. This guy would just APPEAR behind you, you couldn't hear him coming due to the brisk breeze blowing in your ears. Just as you reeled up the fish to the top rail, he would reach over and in a broken accent, "Here, let me get that for you!" And reach over and take the fish off your hook. Dad asked him a number of times if he was going to bait his hook since he was being provided with fish! Then when we ran out of shrimp for bait, Dad told me we were going to start charging him a shrimp for every two fish we gave him. We must have filled up two 60+ qt coolers with fish for these two guys. And all small.... We caught about 10 reds that were smaller than the slot. Many black drum, but much smaller than the ones running yesterday. Dozens of mullet, the largest about 18 inches. And I stopped counting the Puffer fish at 60 each for Dad and I!!!!! They were really, really cool. Later, the fishing guide we went to meet at a local eatery, told us they are one of the best eating fish there is, BUT you must know how to clean them. One drip of their "gall bladder" and they will poison you. I said I didn't know how to clean 'em and wasn't looking to learn. He looked at me and said "You think I clean those things!!?!?!? NO WAY! But they are dang good to eat!" I took a few pics of them blown up and in the light to see the colors. Love the beauty of the fish in the sea. So, enjoy the pics. I love being with my Dad. He is so funny and we had a blast today. After the four hours out, we came back and Ronald had cooked up some October beans (just like Pintos), mashed potato's, and country fried steak with country gravy. MAN! I ate like it was Thanksgiving! After dinner we went back and fished for three more hours and caught the exact same thing. No pics tonight though, I forgot the camera attached to the computer. I would have liked to have gotten a picture of the guy to our left who kept letting his lighted bobber float over us and catch our lines while floating a LARGE live shrimp for Reds. When he finally caught a 5lb'er, he reeled it up only to find his line in the biggest rats nest ever. True justice does come in every now and then. I thought I was going to have to cut his line.... and had to stop Dad from doing so a couple of times!!! emoEnforce We didn't catch any whoppers today. But it was one of the best days fishing I've had with my Dad in years. We had a blast. The guy who wanted to charge us $400 to run out 2 hrs to the gulf stream in his 29 ft, 2 - 150hp outboards for grouper, tuna and mahi, stopped by on his walk out the pier. We talked a while and he asked if we were going to be here on Saturday. I said yes, and he invited us to go out with him and his buddy. I'm PSCYHED!!!!!
I miss Mary and the boys. Wish they all were here. They would have so much enjoyed today. I can see both of the boys faces catching PUFFER fish!!!!!
