Spent Mon-Weds on the Pirate with my brother and brother in law. We started in Oriental, specifically Dawson's Creek and surrounding open Neuse waters. East winds, about 10-15. Two under size flounder and headed in.
Tues decide to save the tow and head to Shell Rock landing. Started out at Hatteras area creek, first cast my bro gets an under size flounder. Jinx, or a good sign? Winds S-SW, about 10. Quiet for 1 hr., tides perfect, wind iffy and my bro gets hooked up on a freight train headed to dock pilings, 4 second run and fight and dead string back. Never saw it, but had to be a real nice red. Next, three casts later he pulls in an undersize red, went 17.5", back in swimming. Two more undersize flounder, one blue by me, and our day is done. All my bro's catches were on 4" white Gulp shrimp/jig head. I caught blue on fresh cut mullet. We tried all our bait varieties from live fingers to fresh cut and 4 different artificials during the day.
Weds. we had a tip about some reds up the White Oak and were planning to go there until a trusted and good buddy saw me on the road headed toward dock, called, and based on his info we diverted our plan. We were down to fresh cut and artificials, our live bait source was non-existent that morning and the wind was up so we decided to use what we had. Winds W-SW, 10-15, got to strong 15 as day got longer. Turned more S also.
Started out along Ferry Channel for Hammocks, our plan was to fish no spot any longer than 20-30 mins if no action. We didn't think we had time to sit and wait for them to come to us, rather we had 4 spots we wanted to hit on a day we knew we only had 1/2 of it to fish. First two spots zip/nada, moved on. Third spot dead on to the above referral and we put three undersize flounder back in the water swimming. I liked the new spot to me, just didn't do as was happening there three days earlier. So we headed back to Hatteras creek and sat through another 1.5 hrs while putting three more under size flounder back in the drink and was lucky enough to add two keeper founder at 18 and 19"'s respectively. At least Frank and Sherry have a decent single sit down meal from the coast tonight. All three days we chummed with fresh caught and cut up menhaden. School house creek on the north side had so many small ones in it I swear you could walk on the water and not get wet. Too impossible to keep alive so they became our chum source and we never ran out.
Not a huge three days but no skunk on any day. I was using the time as a recuperation effort, I just got out of the hospital from needed maintenance so even though my catch was pathetic, the time in relaxation was invaluable, first time I had the Pirate in the water since last December, and two very good fishing buddies with me. I had fun watching them catch and netted a few for them.
Next time I will have my A-Game and they better be ready for me cause it will be my turn... :)
Tues decide to save the tow and head to Shell Rock landing. Started out at Hatteras area creek, first cast my bro gets an under size flounder. Jinx, or a good sign? Winds S-SW, about 10. Quiet for 1 hr., tides perfect, wind iffy and my bro gets hooked up on a freight train headed to dock pilings, 4 second run and fight and dead string back. Never saw it, but had to be a real nice red. Next, three casts later he pulls in an undersize red, went 17.5", back in swimming. Two more undersize flounder, one blue by me, and our day is done. All my bro's catches were on 4" white Gulp shrimp/jig head. I caught blue on fresh cut mullet. We tried all our bait varieties from live fingers to fresh cut and 4 different artificials during the day.
Weds. we had a tip about some reds up the White Oak and were planning to go there until a trusted and good buddy saw me on the road headed toward dock, called, and based on his info we diverted our plan. We were down to fresh cut and artificials, our live bait source was non-existent that morning and the wind was up so we decided to use what we had. Winds W-SW, 10-15, got to strong 15 as day got longer. Turned more S also.
Started out along Ferry Channel for Hammocks, our plan was to fish no spot any longer than 20-30 mins if no action. We didn't think we had time to sit and wait for them to come to us, rather we had 4 spots we wanted to hit on a day we knew we only had 1/2 of it to fish. First two spots zip/nada, moved on. Third spot dead on to the above referral and we put three undersize flounder back in the water swimming. I liked the new spot to me, just didn't do as was happening there three days earlier. So we headed back to Hatteras creek and sat through another 1.5 hrs while putting three more under size flounder back in the drink and was lucky enough to add two keeper founder at 18 and 19"'s respectively. At least Frank and Sherry have a decent single sit down meal from the coast tonight. All three days we chummed with fresh caught and cut up menhaden. School house creek on the north side had so many small ones in it I swear you could walk on the water and not get wet. Too impossible to keep alive so they became our chum source and we never ran out.
Not a huge three days but no skunk on any day. I was using the time as a recuperation effort, I just got out of the hospital from needed maintenance so even though my catch was pathetic, the time in relaxation was invaluable, first time I had the Pirate in the water since last December, and two very good fishing buddies with me. I had fun watching them catch and netted a few for them.
Next time I will have my A-Game and they better be ready for me cause it will be my turn... :)