Article by Dale Timmons
We had a lot of light east winds a couple of weeks back, and this caused the surf to become very clean, almost “like Florida water” as one angler described it. Unfortunately, when the surf gets like this, I have personally never caught much. If we had the Spanish mackerel like they do in Hatteras, it might be okay, since these conditions are best for Spanish and a few other species. Although they haven’t been too plentiful yet, many surf anglers are now starting to target king whiting, known locally as “kingfish” and on the Outer Banks as “sea mullet.” Kingfish like the water a little stirred, since it makes for better feeding conditions for small worms, crabs and other crustaceans that they target. For kings I like a top and bottom rig with small, usually number one or two hooks with small floats just above the hooks. I bait them with little pieces of Fish Bites® bloodworm, real bloodworm, peeler crab, or small strips of meat such as bluefish, sand perch, squid, spot or mullet. Kings can be found in close, just behind the shorebreak, and the traditional wisdom is that all you need is an 8 or 9 foot rod.
That is often true, but just as often kingfish can be found further out, just inside the sandbar or in a slough or “break” in the bar. For this reason I usually carry a pair of lightweight 11-foot rods in addition to the smaller rods. These rods, one rated for 1-4 ounces and one for 2-5 ounces, have fairly “soft” blanks and allow me to reach the bar with a three or four-ounce sinker. They are conventionals, and I usually use an Ambassadeur 6500 or a Daiwa Grand Wave 20 loaded with 14 or 15 lb. test mono. With a similar spinning rod, you could go down to 12 lb. test for more distance. Kingfish will often pick up a bait and come to the beach, so a suddenly slack line may mean a fish. Kingfish are excellent eating, and the roe is especially good. I even save the heads for red drum baits in the fall…
I used to tag a lot of red drum. I probably tagged 30 or 40 in the late 80’s and early 90’s, and I’ve never had a return. I finally stopped tagging because I felt like I was possibly putting too much stress on the fish. Apparently the lack of returns is pretty common with some species, including reds, and it doesn’t necessarily mean the fish aren’t surviving. It was interesting to see a post on tidalfish.com last week about several drum that had been tagged this spring with satellite popup tags. The post said the first group of red drum tags have popped off on schedule, and the results showed that the fish hadn’t moved very far at all. The drum were tagged between Fisherman’s and Smith Islands, which are the first two barrier islands north of the Bridge-Tunnel. Three of the drum were on Nautilus Shoal just south of Smith Island when the tags popped, one was on the other side of the mouth of the Bay, and just one drum had gone inside the Chesapeake Bay up to a spot off Silver Beach, which is near Nassawaddox Creek. This is not enough information to really show any trends, but it makes me wonder if there really is as much north/south migration of reds as we tend to believe, and maybe more inshore/offshore movement of separate bodies of fish that show in different areas along the coast…
Sometimes our perception and opinions about fish behavior can really be challenged when we actually get to see them interact. I was at Capt. Mac’s Tackle in Fenwick one day last week, and owner Capt. Bruce McGuigan has a large round tank with quite a variety of fish that he has caught and transported to the store. There were a couple of black drum that are over 20 inches, several small bluefish, one nice 35-40 inch striper, and two legal flounder in the 20-plus inch range. Bruce told me that none of the fish would feed for about a week after they were first put in the tank, but then they ate just about anything. Oddly enough, he said the most active and aggressive fish in the tank were the flounder, and as I watched the fluke they swam around in circles well above the bottom and often one above the other. They also took shiners practically right out of the mouths of the other fish. They were lightning fast on the strike, too. I think a lot of us think of flounder as sedentary, lying on the bottom in wait for prey, but I think the reality is they are a lot more active than we realize, and I know they are fierce predators that will eat just about anything. Another surprise was that the black drum readily ate shiners thrown in the tank, when conventional wisdom is that blacks only eat crustaceans like clams, crabs or shrimp. Bruce said the blacks often inhaled a piece of bait, and almost always spit it out before inhaling it again. Another reason why sometimes you have to just “let ‘em eat.” Surprisingly, when the bluefish took a bait, the bite was almost tentative, more of a snapping than an engulfing action. But then again, that’s why they have sharp teeth. Finally, I learned that I may have to try a new secret bait for black drum. I’m not sure if I should tell you this or not, but the blacks just loved purple grapes…that’s right, the kind you get in the grocery store. They swallowed the grapes as fast as they hit the water, and they didn’t spit them back out, either…I wonder how well grapes will stay on a hook?
There was an influx of Norfolk spot in the bay last week. Most were a little on the large side for good flounder baits, but several anglers I know took advantage of the bounty and caught plenty for their live wells. Should be excellent striper baits and good for the offshore boys if the yellowfin tuna stick around in any numbers. Most are being caught on small Sabiki rigs baited with a little piece of Fish Bites® bloodworm. Croakers are also starting to show in the bay, though it’s still more of a trickle than a run. I kind of knew that was coming when a friend of mine spotted quite a few dolphins inside the bay. Flipper likes to eat croakers. I make a rig with two #1 gold wide gap hooks and small floats that works well for croakers, but just about any top and bottom rig will work. Bait with small strips of squid, peeler crab or cut bait such as spot or mullet. Some anglers like to use Gulp! artificial baits as well. It’s actually a little early, and croaker numbers should increase through July…have a happy and safe Fourth…
Contact Dale Timmons at [email protected] or call 410-629-1191.
