Oct 31 Blazing Red Drum Fishing

Fishing was great today and I decided to go against my usual plan of attack by looking for Red Drum before Speckled Trout. The only problem was that the Drum fishing was so good, I didn't leave Jerry enough time to go Trout fishing. As for the Drum, we started where I finished up yesterday and the Drum were swarming. Fishing was so easy I was able to fish along side Jerry (Thanks Jerry) and we each caught Drum after Drum. We probably caught 30 Red Drum, all under the slot from 14" to 17". Undersized Summer Flounder were biting as well. The Flounder were all 14" to 15". Then we considered a run to the Rock Jetty, but we got sidetracked by searching for larger Red Drum and we found plenty! Jerry and I (double hook-ups) caught around 10 more that were much nicer-sized fish and kept 23'' and 24" fish for the table. We finally made it to the Cape and saw good Speckled and Gray Trout fishing taking place, but we were polite (this time) and didn't intrude. We casted to busting Albacore once and didn't succeed and we dealt with pesky Bluefish all day long. Total for the day 40 Red Drum, 12 Summer Flounder, and 10 Bluefish.

Oct 30 Red Drum and Speckled Trout

1. Dean and I thought it was going to be pretty this morning and we were going to waylay the Speckled Trout. As usual, we were wrong. 10-15 mph NW winds forecasted once again became 10+15 NW winds and boats at the Jetty were being blown around like dry leaves. We managed to catch a few Speckled Trout before our anchor broke loose and we had to re-anchor. We never could find a fish catching rhythm after that. We left the Rocks after 3 hours of pounding with 6 Speckled Trout total. That was 3 on ice, up to 19", and 3 tossed back. We searched for Red Drum and searched for Albacore and by lunch we were pretty much beat. Then, thanks to a friend that I stopped to talk to, we found something worthwhile! We got in a slough that was about 4 feet deep and before we ever casted, I saw about 10 Red Drum swim over my anchor line! It was game-on after that. In the next 60 minutes Dean and I caught Drum after Drum and a nice Speckled Trout. Double-headers and singles. We released them all except a 23" keeper. The majority of these Red Drum were from 16" to 17" and nearly all sported weird Spot Patterns. I guess that our total catch for the day was 7 Speckled Trout, 20 Red Drum, 15 Bluefish, 1 Summer Flounder, 2 Sheepsheads, and 6 Hogfish. (I caught Sheepshead #2 at the dock while cleaning the boat!)

Oct 28 Largemouth Bass, Red Drum, and Mummichogs

• Cold temps and high winds today. Pretty miserable. I did go down to Taylor's Creek this morning to look for bait and while I was down there I managed to catch a 21" Red Drum on a live shrimp. Later in the afternoon I fished for 30 minutes in an "urban mung hole" and caught 2 Largemouth Bass. The "fishiest" thing I did today was set 2 fish traps. I guess too much North wind this fall has made Finger Mullet a little hard to come by. In an effort to gather a good supply of live bait, I rode around this morning and looked for a good population of minnows. I definitely found it! When I pull my traps tommorrow I expect a record breaking haul of Mummichogs out of 1 particular trap. This creek is stuffed with huge Mummichogs. Hopefully they will go to the bait and my bait problems will be solved for the next couple of trips!

Blow Baby Blow

Here we go again. GALE WARNINGS are up! Last year I took off a week in October. With a week on-week off schedule, when I take a week off, I get 21 days off. Last October there were 17 days of small craft or gale warnings out of my 21 days off. It really kills the fishing and makes it hard to post good reports. October used to be my favorite month to fish. Nowadays it seems like I can't hardly get a decent day. Hopefully, all that will change around Halloween!

Oct 27 Bluefish, Speckled Trout, and Red Drum

I started out looking for Albacore and headed east. I made it 10 miles before I gave up the chase. On the Shoals I did find a fast moving school of nice 2-3 pound Bluefish. They liked the tricky water. It made things interesting! I caught 10 on metal before nearly getting swamped. I finally said, "Why am I doing this!" After the Shoals I headed for calmer water and caught 10 Speckled Trout, 3 Red Drum, 2 Sheepsheads, 2 giant Hogfish, and app. 25 more Bluefish on live shrimp. All the Trout were 10" to 12" and were released. I also released Red Drum measuring 25" and 26". I kept a 23" Red Drum and the 2 Hogfish. Total catch for the day was 35 Bluefish, 10 Speckled Trout, 3 Red Drum, 2 Sheepsheads, and 2 Hogfish. By the way, I was fishing by myself today and I would have loved to continued farther to the east, but in the name of conservative and self-preservation, I turned around and stayed on the "west side".

Oct 26 Speckled Trout Fishing

Today was my first "real" opportunity to go Speckled Trout Fishing. It was a fairly productive morning. I caught 3 decent Trout from 18" to 19". I also caught app 15 Speckled Trout in the 10" to 13" range. All of these Speckled Trout were caught from the Beach and they were caught on soft plastic baits. The Mirrorlure in the picture is merely for scale. I also caught at least a dozen Inshore Lizardfish, including a monster at 21". I tossed my cast net a couple of dozen times and caught around 5 dozen Shrimp. Later in the afternoon I fished in Taylor's Creek and had ZERO luck. Total for the day was 18 Speckled Trout and 12 Lizardfish.

Oct 24 State Fair and a 3 Pound Crevalle Jack

The State Fair was great this morning, my Dad and I walked all over the Fair Grounds together just like old times. Then we came home and by 5 pm I thought I might get my 1st Speckled Trout of the year before the rain started. Instead I got several Pinfish, Black Sea Bass, and an Oyster Toadfish. The big kicker fish was a suprizing 3 pound Crevalle Jack that jumped on my shrimp in 10 feet of water over heavy structure. After much give and take, I finally got my hands on this great fighting fish for a quick release. Nice battle on 8# test. Too bad my camera was nowhere to be found. Seems like in the last 3 years every single time I catch a Crevalle Jack, my camera is somewhere else! Speckled Trout are here however, I was just a little late in getting to the "spot".

Oct 22 Albacore, Red Drum, and Sheepshead

I'm struggling to post this report. Here's the short version because I've lost the long one, twice. In summary, today I caught 2 Red Drum, 1 Albacore, 2 Sheepsheads, 3 Lizardfish, and an Oyster Toadfish. The Drum measured 30" and 24". The Albacore was a 10 pounder. The wind was blowing at least 20kt out of the NNW and fishing was tough! I also caught 100 pounds of Jumping Mullet in my cast net. Too small to eat and too big for bait. Here Kitty Kitty Kitty.

Oct 21 Double Digit Drum

The Year of the Red Drum continues! Today in 2 hours of fishing I caught 10 Red Drum, I released 9 of them and kept a 24" fish that had been wounded by a gill net. I also caught 2 keeper Flounders and a Lizardfish. All of these fish were caught on live shrimp. I forgot to mention that I caught 10 dozen Shrimp by throwing my cast net in a "secret spot". Four pounds of 20 count Greentails to go with the Drum and Flounder filets.

Hatteras Cast Netting

The weather was nice for a couple of days, but I got lazy and missed my chance at some good fishing. By Friday it was blowing and the water was really high and dirty. I did manage a decent throw with a 10 foot cast net that "bit off" the edge of a school of Jumping Mullets. I ended up with 20 fish that weighed 65 pounds. I had 5 fish over 5 pounds. Mullet Roe was served up at South Dock on Sunday. Thanks Bobby! Other than that, I dropped an Urchin down on Friday and lost a monster Sheepshead after a 5 minute tussle. Those 8, 10, and 12 pounders never pulled more than 10 feet of line, but this one smoked over 100 feet. I got a good luck at this one. Close to 30" and I guess 15 pounds. The hook simply fell out of his mouth and the net was never close. Commercial Fishermen had a great day yesterday. Tens of thousands of pounds of Flounder from the pound nets, at least one crew had 10,000 pounds of Roe Mullet off Davis Shore, and Pamlico Sound was full of Shrimp Boats last night. Let's go get some. I'm home for 21 straight days.

Oct 13 Flounders and Bluefish

Back to Hatteras today for me and after watching it rain and blow all week, I was determined to go fishing. Here is what I found in 3 hours of fishing this afternoon. Bluefish were in a frenzy in Beaufort Inlet and I stopped and joined a small fleet for some fast action. In 40 minutes I probably caught 50 on metal. Then it was to the west to try for a Flounder. I chose Flounder over searching the suds for Red Drum because I had around 10 dozen nice finger mullets in my livewell that I'd held hostage since Thursday. I wouldn't say it was great, but it was okay. I caught 5 and 3 of them were 20". I also lost a "big one". I also managed to pull a big, nasty Conger Eel out of his lair. Final tally for the day: 5 Flounder, 50 Bluefish, 1 Conger Eel, and 2 Oyster Toadfish.

Oct 11 Too Much Rain and No Fishing

Marcus R and I decided to can the CCA Inside/Outside Tournament because of the weather forecast. It's rained all day and I've got NO regrets about sitting this one out. I sure hope to get in a little quality fishing time in my boat before I've got to get back to Hatteras though. I'm running out of days! These pictures are of a nice Lizardfish (is that possible?) that I caught earlier in the week.

While I was Fishing....

While I was catching a few Flounders on Oct 5, my brother was at Fenway Park. Some guys are just lucky like that. Anyway, fishing was horrible today at the Dock. All good things must come to an end. Todays catch was Black Sea Bass, Gag Grouper, Inshore Lizardfish, and Pinfish. Oh yeah, I caught a Mantis Shrimp on a live mullet! Was it Brooks? (Earlier Post:Flounders from Hatteras Inlet) I'd like to think so!

Oct 9 3am Red Drum Bite

With a rainy day ahead, I got my daily "fishing fix" by setting the alarm for 2:30am and catching the last of the incoming tide in Taylor's Creek. With light winds and plenty of finger Mullets in years gone by I'd say a Flounder killing was going to happen. This, however, is the year of the Red Drum. This morning was no different. I did manage to catch 2 Southern Flounders that were 16" each. The Drum fishing was slower than last night but it was still pretty good. By 4:15 light rain had started falling and I called it quits with 5 Red Drum released and a 23" Red Drum on ice. Total catch for the morning was 6 Red Drum, 2 Southern Flounder, and 1 Lizardfish.

Oct 8 Red Drum Bonanza

I don't mean to disrespect this species because they have never been my favorite fish, but I must say that so far Red Drum have to be the species of the year in 2008. Last night was an epic Red Drum bite in the Creek. Fishing around the high tide in the wee hours of the morning produced Drum after Drum. Live bait or gulp, didn't matter. It was a steady parade of Red Drum from 17" to 26". No Flounder bites. They never had a chance. In 2 hours, I caught a total of 15 Red Drum and lost a couple in the pilings. I kept golden 24" Red Drum that was deeply hooked and tossed the rest. This morning (10-08-08) I went down to catch some bait and caught another Red Drum and 2 Southern Flounders. I also had a good time pulling people in off Front Street to watch an Octopus that seems to have taken up residence around the dock. I actually caught him last week and never posted his picture until now. The afternoon produced 1 additional Red Drum and Southern Flounder. Also, Marcus R came by with his bag of tricks and pulled a nice Black Drum out of his hat! My total for the day 17 Red Drum and 3 Flounder.

Oct 7 Red Drum and Croakers Chewing

Interesting. I haven't caught 10 Croakers all together since 1986. This afternoon, after showing my Scorpionfish to his new home I dropped by Taylor's Creek to see if catching some bait was possible. I caught no bait, but since the tide was flooding I made a cast with a gulp. This first cast was consumed by what I thought was a small Drum. However, it wasn't a Red Drum; it was a 16" Croaker that weighed 2 pounds. That was just the beginning. In the next hour I caught 6 Red Drum up to 31". I caught 8 Croaker that were all over 14". Seeing a Croaker event taking place; I put on a 2 hook bottom rig and quickly got a double header of 8 pound Red Drum. These were the first of several Red Drum that took me into structure and broke me off. The action was furious. However, when the tide quit running, the action died. See you again at 2am and it's going to be an epic Taylor's Creek Dock Bite! Total catch for the day was 6 Red Drum and 8 Croaker with a few Pinfish and Black Sea Bass getting in the way.

Scorpionfish and Night Heron

Night Herons are a common sight at night around docks and shorelines. I got pretty close to one at Hatteras and took and interesting picture. The Scorpionfish was caught in my cast net. First he was left out of the water for 45 minutes. Then one of my buddys got stuck by a fin and his finger went numb. Cool! Stay out of my BAIT BUCKET! Then I hauled him on the Ferry all the way home to Beaufort and he know resides in a 75 gallon aquarium on Moore Street. That is one tough and interesting little monster.

Oct 1-6 Hatteras Inlet Flounders

Fishing wasn't great, but in 6 nights of fishing I caught 13 Flounders and a Gray Trout. Unfortunately, I didn't catch any really trophy Flounders. I did catch 6 that weighed over 3 pounds and my largest was a 21" fish that weighed 4 lb. 3 oz. All 13 Flounders were keepers from 17" and up. I also caught plenty of Black Sea Bass, Pinfish, and Bluefish. These 3 species really made my life difficult, devouring my live Mullets as fast as I'd cast them out. It was a good week for viewing aquatic creatures also. I had close encounters with Squid, Mantis Shrimp, Longnose Gar (the freshwater Gar), a Spotted Scorpionfish, Night Herons, and an Otter. The Mantis Shrimp was particularly interesting. I caught it one night and put it in my bait bucket. The following night I let it go. The next night it insisted on being let back in the bucket. We named him "Brooks" after the character in the movie Shawshank Redemption. Brooks couldn't cope with his freedom.