Tidelines – October 13, 2011
Once again the weather has affected a Fisherman’s Post event, the most recent being our company’s annual “Fish Post Day on the Vonda Kay.” Each year we book Capt. Dave Gardner’s entire head boat, the “Vonda Kay” out of Topsail Beach, for a private party composed of staff, family, and friends, and we head out 15 or so miles for a full day of bottom fishing (last year the boat limited out on gag grouper).
High winds and seas on the original “Vonda Kay” date caused us to postpone from this past weekend to later in October; however, many of us had already scheduled to be off work and in Topsail, so we took advantage by doing some pier fishing (look for an article on our pier experiences to appear in an upcoming issue of Fisherman’s Post) and a late night trip to the south end of Topsail to soak some big baits in hopes of big reds.
The Fish Post staff has surf fishing on the brain this time of year, as mid-October is the time for our annual Pleasure Island Surf Fishing Challenge. Our pier fishing was more productive than our surf fishing—six guys put cut bait in the surf from 9:00 pm to 1:00 am without even a bluefish strike—but the surf fishing expedition helped me exercise some long forgotten muscles that I’ve needed to stretch for some time.
Though most of the fishing I did during my teenage years was spent casting lines from the beaches of Assateague Island just south of Ocean City, Maryland, my North Carolina time fishing the surf has been very limited. I’m not quite sure why, but I do know that last Thursday night on Topsail was a pleasant reminder of what I’ve been missing, even with the evening’s absence of catching fish.
As with any type of fishing, preparation is key. My friends were much better prepared than I, so now I have a long list of items I need to get together before this weekend when we camp out at our surf tournament’s weigh station on the Fort Fisher State Recreation Area beach.
First, I realized that I need to string my Team Daiwa Interline rod before I’m on a dark beach in 10-15 mph winds without any wire to help me thread it. This rod doesn’t have any guides (the line goes up through the blank of the rod itself), and I knew in an instant that night that no wire (and little light and high winds) meant the rod was useless to me. Solution? Steal a buddy’s setup.
Second, I learned that tying rigs in advance, as with just about any type of fishing, makes a big difference, especially if you’re anxiously tying and everyone else is actively casting. This lesson was also easy to overcome, though, as I simply raided Max’s tackle box for a Hatteras-style fish finder rig.
The third lesson I learned vicariously through Joshua Alexander, the newest employee of Fisherman’s Post. He didn’t bring waders to a night fishing trip where a hard northeast made the upper 60s air temperature seem much colder. He braved it well, but after a few hours of wet shorts he had to be faking it at least a little.
There were some other lessons learned that night, from wanting a better head lamp to purchasing light sticks with the best attachment system, but the biggest insight of the night was introspective. I confirmed once again that I continue to be a Blanche DuBois angler. Like her famous line in A Streetcar Named Desire, “I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers.”
This weekend I will once again “borrow” rigs out of a tackle box (thank you, Max Gaspeny). And I will grab a rod and reel from someone when I once again forget to thread my Daiwa Interline (thank you,Eddie Hardgrove). And I will help myself to any boiled peanuts that are presented (thank you, John Carper). And I will fall asleep in the back seat of a nice and new and comfortable Toyota Tundra (thank you, Adam Meyer).
And I promise you that I won’t forget my waders (thank you, Joshua “really, I’m not that cold” Alexander).
