View from the Mountain

The evolution of a fisherman

The society of fishermen (and women who fish) is far more open minded that your average grouping of political idiots.  In politics, the mobility between conservative and liberal groups is almost non-existent.

It would fair to say that without some extraordinary circumstance once you are born a conservative the chances of becoming a liberal are very slim unless you get whacked on the head with a police billy club.  Likewise most liberals would only become conservatives if they could win the lottery.

Fisherman really do not care about your history, they care about what you are catching today and how you are doing it. Everything beyond that is pretty much irrelevant unless you are trapped inside a house in a blizzard and have no entertainment beyond the stories you can spin.

Actually you can be a worm dunker one day, and a dry fly fisherman the next day.  No one will care except the worms.

Fortunately I was born into a Presbyterian family which if you have seen the movie, A River Runs Through It, means I should be a dry fly fisherman.  Actually I fished with a fly rod before I was even a teenager, but I avoid the purity of only one type of angling.

I came from a long line of worm dunkers on my mother's side.  No only did they dunk worms, they also dunked shrimp and fished along the North Carolina coast for whatever was biting.

When it comes to fishing, I will try almost any method which probably explains why I have so many fishing rods.

There is a certain point in your fishing life when catching fish is not nearly as important as catching certain fish by a particular means.

While most sports seek out ways to be more productive, fishermen often seek out ways which are more difficult and which result in fewer fish being caught.

I am blessed to be living on the NC coast in what is close to fishing heaven.  I can catch significant fish just a couple of minutes from the dock behind my home especially if I am using shrimp or live bait.

However, you can get tired of catching croakers and other bottom feeders, and it is natural to seek other challenges.  My latest quest was to catch a bluefish from the surf on a light spinning rod using an artificial lure.  It is not an impossible task, I have actually done it before.

I have caught bluefish far more often from a boat than from the surf.  If you get a shiny lure in front of feeding bluefish, you will usually catch something. So catching one is not a huge challenge.  However, if you give yourself a short time window, then the challenge becomes a little more fun.

Tonight we left our home on the banks of the White Oak for a 15-20 minute drive to one of my favorite beaches.  I like it because there are rarely people there this time of year, and I have caught fish there before.

This evening we got there a little after seven PM and stayed for around thirty minutes.  That was all the time I had allotted myself to catch a bluefish.

It was a great evening to be on the beach.   In fact when we headed home around eight PM, the temperature was still 80F.

Anyway I started my fishing with a Gotcha plug.  I probably fished with it for the first fifteen minutes with no luck.  Then I switched to a gold spoon.  The sun was starting to drop quickly, and I had been watching a number of jumping fish just out of the range of my casts.  I was hoping the light from the dropping sun might make my lure more attractive.

It was the third cast with the gold spoon when I got a solid hit.  My next cast there was nothing, but on the following cast I hooked a bluefish but it quickly threw the hook.  One more throw, and I had another hit and was solidly onto a nice bluefish.  It did not take long to bring him to shore.  He was about sixteen inches long.

I quickly heaved him back into the surf and told my wife that I was done.  She could not believe that I did not want to fish more, but I had accomplished what I wanted to do and the feeling was good.

I was actually using a very light, long spinning rod which was purchased more with the soft mouths of trout in mind than bluefish.  Of course that added a little to the challenge.

Now the question is should I go back tonight with the goal of catch a bigger bluefish?

The old fishing reel

In a society which long ago forgot how to fix most things, it is a great pleasure to use something old and mechanical.  Last week the fishing reel that I have been using for the last ten years or so had a problem. 

In trying to fix it, another part gave up the ghost.  With the knowledge that it might be hard to get a couple of parts, I decided to at least look at the prices of new reels.  I knew they would be expensive down here on the beach, but I also took the time to look at Gander Mountain in Roanoke.  Surprisingly the prices were not very different from coast to mountain or more accurately from small coastal store to large national chain.

One hundred dollars seemed a lot for a fishing reel so I checked out our basement and came across the fishing reel which I had when I was eight or nine years old.  I was quite the fisherman in my youth.  My mother and I went on a fishing trip with our neighbors to the Santee Cooper area.  I think we fished what is now called Lake Moultrie, but I am not sure.  There were six of us on the trip. All but two of us have passed away.

My neighbor, Tom Fix, convinced my mom to buy me an Abu Garcia Ambassedeur 5000.  He said something like if I was going to a serious place to fish, I needed a serious reel.  My suspicion is that it was a big expense for my mom, but as moms do, she got it for my anyway. 

Mr. Fix taught me how to use it and how to take care of it.  I know that I fished with it into my teens.  I would guess that it was sometime before 1958 or 1959 when I got the reel.

I brought it from Roanoke, Va. back to the Southern Outer Banks.  Last night I put new line on it, greased it, and made sure that everything was working properly.

Today we are headed out to fish Bogue Inlet,  I will likely spent most of my time using this reel.  I actually prefer a level wind, free spooling bait casting reel to a spinning reel.  I will have both with me since I usually cast my artificial lures with the spinning rods.

We will see how the old reel does today.  I have high hopes for it.  It makes me very happy to be able to use something old rather than to have to buy something new.

Mountain waters

When I was stuck in Boston during my college years in the sixties and seventies, I used to dream of the waters along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  I had spent some of my youth fly fishing the streams there.

The Charles River was not exactly a trout stream during my college time.  I eventually wandered north, found LL Beans before it was a household word.

Finding Bean's meant that I also found Maine where I ended up on the Bluenose ferry to Nova Scotia.  After college, Nova Scotia became home for a while, but the north mountain of the Annapolis valley where we settled was not much of an area for streams or growing hay crops.  We eventually ended up in New Brunswick about twenty miles north of Fredericton, New Brunswick.

The little village of Tay Creek was set in the foothills and small streams were abundant.  We had two on our farm.  The back one was full of native brook trout.  We had some fun over the years catching the brookies.  We even made a small pond along the other stream and stocked a few brookies in there.

Now anyone who has lived in central New Brunswick can tell you horror stories of black flies.  The black flies were so bad that the cattle grazed at night.  The only way you could work in the woods was with a covering of Old Woodman's which I alway felt was the first step to being tarred and feathered.

After ten years we dispersed our cattle and eventually I went to work for Apple Computer which took us back to Nova Scota. This time we ended up in Halifax instead of along the shores of the Bay of Fundy.  Still we could see Halifax harbor which probably sealed our fate.

While mountain waters are enjoyable, there is something about the ocean that really inspires the soul.

Perhaps it is a difference of scale.  Living by most eastern streams means you are living in the woods.  There are of course exceptions, but usually you have to jump to a river to get more space.

I am going through my ocean phase currently.  I enjoy the big waters, the variety of fish, and the absence of black flies. 

The first picture in the post is the Roanoke River.  There has been much improvement in the Roanoke in the twenty years that we have lived in the Roanoke area.  It runs beautifully clear.  This summer with its cooler temperatures might be a good year for the Roanoke.  Still summer is far from over, and it appears dry conditions have once again returned to the area.  Low water flow does not help trout populations.

Tomorrow I plan to be standing in the Atlantic Ocean near Emerald Isle surf fishing. I think what I like the most about surf fishing is that I get to be in the water.  This time of year, the water is warm and casting into the surf lets you enjoy the water and fishing.  I have fond memories of mountain waters, but I think the ocean has stolen my heart.

Enjoying a feeling of contentment

You certainly do not have to be sitting on bags of money to be happy.  My guess is that a fair number of folks with lots of money do not enjoy their lives as much as some of the rest of us.

I just finished a post for Crystal Coast Life about the great day which I just had.  I did some real estate work this morning and finished some publicity that I was doing for Toys for Tots.  The electronic village website we have for Carteret County has let us run some information about Toys for Tots in one of their ad slots which rotate as you refresh your browser.

After that busy morning, I ran out to get some bait for a fishing trip which a friend and I had planned for today.

We got out on the water about 1:15 pm and were back at home around 5 pm.  We did not do a lot of traveling.  We hardly got the motor warmed up getting to our fishing hole.

We caught fish and chatted a little about stuff that does not matter a whole lot. Mostly we just enjoyed the beautiful weather and the great scenery It was nice way to unwind from election week.

As I maintain, if you can fish wearing only shorts and a tee shirt in November, then you are pretty close to paradise.

 Just as the sun was setting we cruised into Bluewater Cove. 

I managed to have some very fresh fish for dinner. Fish that fresh are exceptionally tasty.

Maybe being outside all afternoon in the great weather helped me slide in a early evening nap.  Fortunately I did not sleep but for a few minutes.

It was a nice sleep on the sofa in my office. With a cool breeze coming in the window, it was easy to dream that I was still out on the White Oak River fishing.  There is nothing wrong with a fishing dream.

I think my contentment has a lot to do with my appreciation of how lucky I am to be able to fish and relax in such beautiful surroundings.

There are a lot of places where people have already pulled their boats out of the water.  Today, here on the Southern Outer Banks, the temperature approached eighty degrees.  Even the water temperature in the river is still 63.

While the real estate business might be as slow as it has been in a while, the fishing is pretty good, and the weather is hard to beat.

And with those small things, I am going to sleep tonight very content.  Lots of money would likely get in the way of my good night's sleep.

Taking a day for myself

Once in a while you just have to clear the decks and give yourself a mental health day.

I have been on the road a lot this summer, and this summer has been a hot one with not a lot of great days on the water in the last month.

Last week was a busy real estate week, and I did a lot of writing for the Crystal Coast Living Blog which actually puts a few dollars in my pocket.  I was pretty worn out by the weekend since the heat and humidity seem to take an extra toll.

Finally on Labor Day some cool weather settled across the Southern Outer Banks.  Our oldest daughter had driven in late Sunday night after visiting her sister and our grand daughter, the newest addition to the family.

She wanted to go for a boat ride on Labor Day.  Usually I would not consider putting the boat in the water on a holiday, but I relented for my daughter who had driven a lot of miles to get here.  We did a quick ride down to Swansboro and sure enough the Intracoastal was plugged with traffic.  Still it was enough time on the water for my daughter, and it convinced me that I needed to take some time and enjoy the water.

That night I called my good friend Dean, and asked him if he wanted to go fishing.  Of course no arm twisting was required, but he could not go until afternoon when his job was finished for the day.

It worked out pretty well with the tides so we made a date.  The boat was pretty well ready so all I had to do was pick up some ice and bait.  I had already made up my mind that nothing was going to stand in the way of going fishing the day after Labor Day.  I think I willed my cellphone to not ring.

About 1PM we dropped the boat in the water and headed off down the White Oak River to Swansboro.  We had decided to fish the marshes on the south side of the Intracoastal.  We carefully eased our way into the channel on the south side of the Intracoastal until we found a good place to anchor.

It wasn't long before I hooked a fish. In fact I caught fish on three straight casts.  Catching fish is a lot of fun, and I had fun.  I caught a nice Black Sea Bass and a keeper size Trout.

Where we were fishing was flat out gorgeous.  There were no other boats around until someone saw us catching fish and anchored not far from us.  After a while we decided to go fishing on the White Oak River between Swansboro and our home dock.

We caught a couple of pinfish at the first place we stopped.  We moved on to a deeper hole, but didn't have any luck.  While we fishing I had been watching a boat slowly make its way down the river from Stella.

Just as we were getting ready to call it a day, the other boat hailed us and asked how to get to Swansboro.  I explained to him the red and green buoys, and off he went.  I immediately noticed he was headed in the wrong direction.

Fortunately we had been drift fishing so we caught up with him easily and told him to follow us to Swansboro.  We made the ten minute run to Swansboro with the other boat not far behind us.

After we took him under the bridge, he slowed to say thanks. He also said he would have never figured it out by himself. That got me to thinking.  A year ago and extra trip on the White Oak would have been anything but relaxing for me.  This year it was just plain fun.

We headed back up river and made it back to our home dock in about ten minutes.  Just as I was tying up the boat up my wife called.  She said it was five pm and well past time for us to be home.  I told her we were stuck on an oyster rock in the White Oak.  In the next breath I told here we were on the lift, and she could come help unload the boat.

After spraying down the boat, I cleaned the fish and put away he rest of the gear. We made plans to perhaps do another run tomorrow.

Glenda and I went inside, watched a little news and then headed off to find dinner.

Our dinner was splitting a fine California Cheese Steak at Trattoria.

Reflecting back on the day, I have to say that being out on the water on such a beautiful day is a great way to regain your balance.  I feel human again.  Maybe the worries only got pushed into the background for a few hours, but it was enough to restore my smile.

There were plenty of things I could have been worrying about, but I chose to go fishing and worry about catching fish.  Sometimes you have to put yourself first so you can be in shape to help others when the time comes.

It was a great day, and I certainly don't regret it.