A Marylander heads South

Once again it has been a couple of weeks since my last update and I apologize. It's not because I haven't got anything to write about; it's more like I've been aimlessly going around with not much of a direction. To be completely honest I had another spell like this in a different obsession, geocaching, and it didn't hurt things too much. But this isn't about geocaching - it's about fishing!

My family and I just spent a week on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Each year, for the past about 20 years, my family has rented a house down there and spent a week during the summer. For the past couple of years I have tried to get some fishing in while down there. This year we got a place in the "Villages of Ocean Hills." There we stayed in a house called "Lillie's Lakefront" and man we were just that. About 15 feet from the back fence of the pool deck was Crystal Lake. The lake stretched probably a half mile or so north to south and was about 200 feet across at its widest. A couple of times while I was on my kayak I tried to touch bottom with the paddle, but unless I was within 10 feet of the shoreline my paddle wasn't long enough to touch. The first morning we were there I set out paddling with a Rebel Pop-R tied onto one of my spinning rods. I was making my way around the western shoreline when I made a cast. About four or five "pops" into my retrieve I had a blow up, and the fight was on. I brought him or her into the boat and had a nice 3.5 lb largemouth.

That's how each morning went really; I'd try the Pop-R or maybe a crankbait and I would catch two or three really nice bass.

Of course as a complete "Fish Nerd" I was wondering what these nice bass were eating to get so big, so I was also bringing along a smaller spinning rod outfitted with a small jig and grub style bait. It usually works very well on crappie, bluegill or other smaller fish, but I couldn't get anything to really bite. But one afternoon while I was paddling around I saw a family standing along the shoreline. "Pappi" as he was called was bringing in a minnow trap. He asked if I was having any luck, and I asked the same thing. I also mentioned that I was wondering what the "forage" for these bass was, and he graciously allowed me to look in his trap. I found small bait fish, looking like very small bluegill or even perch. My suspicion was proven correct a day later when I hooked up with a very nice 1.5 lb, 12 inch yellow perch.

This was the first one of the species I had ever caught and I was really excited. Interesting to me at least was the fact that the fish bit on a crankbait that resembled a smaller perch. I guess as long as it was smaller that you you can eat it.

Now my family and I were at the Outer Banks, the beach - so we had to spend some time there as well. While my sons played in the waves, I had to give a little surf fishing a try. Each year I try, it takes a day or so to really figure out the tides and when the fish might be biting (or at least for me it does). But I eventually figured it out and using some bloodworms, and cut shrimp I was able to make shorter casts, just beyond the breakers, and hook up with a few spot, Atlantic croaker and southern kingfish.

Size to me doesn't matter, I was happy catching anything in the surf. Although truth be told a couple of the fish I caught would have been terrific bait for some shark fishing later in the day. But I had no desire to even try, this trip.

As a last story from my trip, one evening my family and I headed down to the beach for a chance to have some fun with a few younger siblings of guests who came down. While there I looked down the beach and saw a gentleman fighting something pretty big in the surf. I started to walk down, as did my sons and two of their friends. This guy fought this fish for probably 20 minutes or more, pulling in, winding down, pulling in and repeating. He drew a pretty nice crowd, about 50 people or so, as he keep fighting. When he eventually got it to shore, he landed a 55 inch cobia! But the most amazing part for me was that after pictures, he and a buddy walked it back into the surf, revived it and let it go to fight again. I thought it was pretty cool.

Until next week when I head north with the family - tight lines!